>From Doris Cellarius
PESTICIDE USE AND INERT ADDITIVES LINKED TO SALMON DECLINE
Changes we are being asked to make to make Northwest waters healthier for
salmon will also bring better health for our families and communities.  We
all need to find safer ways to control pests, wash the car, and even shampoo
our hair.  Chemicals in products we use are directly associated with salmon
survival.
A new report, "Diminishing Returns: Salmon Decline and Pesticides", describes
the many effects that pesticides can have on fish biology and behavior.  It
was written by Dr. Richard Ewing and is available on the Web at
.  Laboratory experiments have
demonstrated that sublethal concentrations of pesticides can affect swimming
performance, predator avoidance, temperature selection, schooling behavior,
seaward migration, immunity to disease, reproduction, and the available food
supply.
In 1996 the herbicide acrolein killed approximately 92,000 steelhead, 114
juvenile coho salmon, 19 resident rainbow trout and thousands of nongame fish
in Bear Creek, a tributary of Oregon's Rogue River.  Real world damage ranges
from such devastating fish kills to subtle, sublethal effects in salmon, for
example, loss of the ability to effectively transition from freshwater
to seawater.
It has been known for several years that some of the toxicity of the herbicide
Roundup (glyphosate) to salmonids is due to surfactants, additives in its
formulation.  Earlier this year Canadian newspapers reported on studies
linking the extensive budworm spraying in the New Brunswick between 1975 and
1985 to nonylphenol (NP), an additive in Matacil, the pesticide sprayed.
Nonylphenols are known to be toxic to invertebrates and fish; their estrogenic
(affecting reproduction) effects were first seen in British Rivers.  Male
rainbow trout exposed to nonylphenols in sewage effluent became feminized -
their testes shrank, their livers grew, and they began to produce egg yolk
proteins, clear indications of estrogenic activity.
Suspecting pesticide additives, Dr. Wayne Fairchild of the Department of
Fisheries and Oceans Gulf Fisheries Centre, working with a study team,
collected spray maps of the Canadian  Wildlife Service, annual reports of the
Forest Pest Control Forum and other provincial monitoring documents.  "When we
did the study, to our surprise, all the data that we had between forest spray
exposures and salmon populations started lining up. On one river, we saw a
linear relationship, a straight line between how much was sprayed and how many
fish came back."
In one river, it was found the more Matacil (the one containing nonylphenols
or 4 NP) sprayed in 1977, the fewer the salmon that returned two years later,
There was also an unusually heavy salmon smolt mortality that year and it was
at its highest where that spray was used.  The research indicated that the
spraying damaged the stocks by disrupting the developmental process as the
salmon try to advance from the smolt to the juvenile stage.  Blue backed
herring in the spray area also suffered a drop in numbers two years later. He
said they have a similar life pattern as the salmon which involves migrating
from freshwater to saltwater.
Fairchild tested these findings later last year with freshwater salmon and
found the chemical had no noticeable effect on the fish over the short period.
But a few weeks later, some of the fish started losing weight and a short
while after that, they started dying.  After spraying, he said it is estimated
that the concentrations of 4 NP in the water was in a range which was not
sufficient to immediately kill the salmon but more than enough to have caused
estrogenic effects on them.
In addition to being some of the not-so-inert "inerts" found in pesticides,
NPs are breakdown products of alkylphenol polyethoxylate surfactants found in
everything from plastics and detergents to spermicides and cosmetics.  Like
PCBs and DDT, surfactants can bioaccumulate in fat tissues. But unlike the
chlorinated compounds, surfactants are water soluble and biodegrade into
nonylphenols, which are highly estrogenic.  According to Dr. Kim Hooper of
California EPA's Hazardous Materials Lab, "The ambient concentration of
nonylphenols in water can be quite low, but fish can easily take them up just
by swimming around, making them available to the fish's own estrogen receptors
and to anything that eats the fish.  Conventional wastewater treatment doesn't
remove nonylphenols from effluent - and routine monitoring doesn't test for
them.  The Washington State Department of Ecology's 1990 "Problem Waste Study"
reports "4-nonylphenol is a moderately toxic chemical created during sewage
processing.  The concentrations found in sludge are well above levels shown to
be toxic to aquatic organisms.
CITIZENS CAN BE PART OF THE SOLUTION BY SWITCHING TO THE SAFEST POSSIBLE
ALTERNATIVE AND BY ADVOCATING SIMILAR INSTITUTIONAL CHANGE.
Encourage your family, schools, cities, and local businesses to switch to
native, natural landscaping and to use alternatives to pesticides.
Contact the Washington Toxics Coalition for information about alternatives to
pesticides and personal and household cleaning products.
Become informed.  Shop carefully and read labels.
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  Bob Kummer 
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