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By
WorldCatch News Network
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Mar. 18 - WorldCatch News Network -
Half of all the male fish in lowland rivers of Britain are
developing female characteristics as a result of pollution, alarming
new official research suggests.
The findings raise serious
questions as to whether the pollution is getting into drinking water
and affecting human fertility, the Independent newspaper and BBC
reported here on Sunday.
A five-year study to be published
by the Environment Agency this month shows that male fish are
changing sex in rivers all over the country. In some stretches all
the male fish have been feminized The fish did not change back after
being put into clean water, suggesting that the changes were
permanent. About one tenth of male fish were sterile, and about
another quarter had damaged sperm.
The research, financed by
the Department of Environment Food and Rural Affairs and the
official Natural Environment Research Council, has examined roach
from 10 rivers over the past five years. They found feminized
"intersex" males in all of them.
Scientists conducting the
research blame a particularly powerful form of oestrogen in urine
from the contraceptive pill, which is flushed through sewage works
into the rivers.
Some fear that the "exquisitely potent"
chemical may be contaminating part of the one third of all of the
country's drinking water that is taken from rivers.
The
water industry and the agency strongly deny that this situation
could damage health. But environmentalists fear that the fertility
of some men could be affected by years of drinking the water.
Copyright 2002 XINHUA NEWS AGENCY.
| (C) 2000
WorldCatch. All rights reserved. WorldCatch holds exclusive
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