Scientists are beginning to monitor the extent of pharmaceutical and personal care products (PPCPs) in the aquatic environment and their consequences.
Samples from 40 German rivers and streams turned up residues of 31 different PPCPs, according to a report presented at the March 2000 American Chemical Society meeting in San Francisco, California, by Thomas Ternes, a chemist at the Institute for Water Research and Water Technology in Wiesbaden.
All three drug types can potentially interfere with normal reproduction and development in fish living downstream from sewage treatment plants.
His laboratory studies show that estrogen compounds at parts-per-trillion exposures feminize male fish and disrupt the development of the circulatory system, eyes, and bladder.
According to Nagler and a University of Idaho news release, tests conducted on Hanford Reach fall chinook showed most of the females tested had genetic markers found only in males.
If super males carrying two Y chromosomes survive and return to spawn in 2003, their sperm would all have Y chromosomes and all of their offspring would be male.
Scientists and environmentalists fear that the powerful chemicals are getting into drinking water and affecting human fertility.
One third of Britain's drinking water comes from rivers; most of it is taken from below sewage works.
Water UK, which represents the water companies, says that no hormone-disrupting chemical has ever been detected in British drinking water, and that fish placed in the water to test it did not become feminised.
Study finds that men who eat Great Lakes fish contaminated with toxic, hormone-disrupting chemicals such as PCBs father a disproportionately high number of boys.
A landmark study of more than 17,000 girls published three years ago reported that black girls, on average, experience the first signs of puberty between ages 8 and 9.