The Birds and The PCBs talks about....Birds and PCBs

When I started this blog, I didn't think I was going to literally be blogging about birds and PCBs. But apparently I wrong.

I now present you with a heartbreaking story of songbirds, toxic chemicals, and tainted love. Sigh.

Researchers have found that chickadees that are exposed to very small, allowable levels of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) can’t keep a tune as well as other birds. Like many bird species, in chickadees, the females go for males with the best songs. So, PCB-exposed birds might lose out on mates, says Sara DeLeon, an ecologist at Cornell University.

The Cornell scientists examined chickadees living along New York’s Hudson River, not far from a General Electric power plant that used PCB insulators from 1907 until the 1970s, dumping some 500,000 kilograms of the toxic chemical into the river. The US government ordered GE to clean the PCB-contaminated waters, one of the country’s largest waste cleanups. Even though current levels are below EPA's regulatory limits and thus deemed "safe," traces remain in many sites on the river, and are impacting wildlife in subtle ways

PCBs, or polychlorinated biphenyls, are a class of yucky chemicals that were banned in the 1970s for being persistent organic pollutants (POPs). They are found to bioaccumulate in people and animals. They also have subtle effects in human, such as influencing sex ratios.

While the lackluster love songs of the PCB-contaminated birds could be a warning to the female chickadees that their mates aren't healthy, this could pose some serious problems for bird populations. "[E]ven female choice against chemically tainted birds, as is the case with the Hudson River chickadees, can threaten local birds if males don’t seem a good mating prospect and females move elsewhere in search of untainted love, DeLeon says. 'Populations could end up declining and birds might not end up living there.'"

And there you have it. Heartbreak, heartache, and chickadees.

Source: New Scientist

Toxic Chemicals Do the Darndest Things

In honor of recent news headlines, my undying love of lists, and the successful completion of the first week of my new environmental health graduate program, The Birds and The PCBs is happy to present:

The top 6 weirdest health effects that toxic chemicals can cause:

6. Obesity: Apparently, pollution can make you fat, according to a groundbreaking new Spanish study. The results indicate that exposure to chemicals before birth makes children more likely to grow up and become obese. This is just the latest in a series of studies showing that fetal exposure to chemicals can interfere with hormone processes and affect weight later in life. (Thanks to Brian from Arsenic and Old Face for sending this to me!)

5. Baby Girls: As I reported back in August, PCBS and other chemicals can interfere sex ratios and cause an abundance of baby girls. In fact, one village in the Arctic only has baby girls being born. And, a study from earlier in the summer found that women in San Francisco with high levels of PCBs in their bodies who became pregnant were a third less likely to give birth to a baby boy

4. Violent Crime: Studies show that even low levels of lead can cause brain damage and, surprisingly, make those exposed to lead more likely to commit violent crimes. In fact, studies have linked lead exposure with higher numbers of juvenile deliquency acts. One of my environmental justice professors wants to study lead levels of prisoners, and I wouldn't be surprised if they have higher levels of lead in their bodies. For more info on lead exposure, see Sustaino's excellent post "Lead (Pb) Belly."

3. Hermaphrodism: As I reported back in August, researchers in Florida have found that in heavily farmed areas, 40% of male toads have abnormalities that make them more like female toads, likely due to agricultural pollution. This study is strengthened by studies coming out of UC Berkeley showing that the most commonly used herbicide in the US, atrazine, feminizes frogs and turns them into hermaphrodites- even at low levels allowable by EPA in waterways. Scary stuff!

2. Impaired Art Skills: Pesticides are known to affect learning and behavior in small children. A chilling example of this comes from a study of children in the Yaqui Valley, Mexico. Dr. Elizabeth Guillette studied two villages- one where pesticides were heavily used in agriculture, and one where pesticides were not used. Although the children exposed to pesticides did not have any overt symptoms, they children demonstrated decreases in stamina, eye-hand coordination, memory and in the ability to draw a person. While the unexposed children drew pictures of people normal for their age and developmental stage, the pesticide-exposed children's drawing were so different, it was shocking. See for yourself:


1. Teen pregnancies: And finally, one of the weirdest effects of toxic chemical exposure. Lead exposure in young mothers has been found to be associated with repeat teen pregnancies, as well as tobacco use. The study, "Environmental Injustice: Childhood Lead Poisoning, Teen Pregnancy, and Tobacco," was just recently published. The authors explain that lead poisoning can delay cognitive development in young women. "Because lead poisoning potentially impacts both cognitive ability and executive functioning, these two factors may operate synergistically in reducing the teen’s ability to avoid pregnancy."