Originally published February 15 2005
Chemical used to clean ships may cause hearing loss in whales
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
A chemical that keeps ships barnacle free may also cause deafness in whales, a new Yale University study says. The substance called TBT is legal in the United States but outlawed in some nations because of other studies showing that it can be harmful to many other types of sea life. Whales depend largely on their hearing for their sense of direction, so the chemical could explain why some whales end up slamming into ships or even beaching themselves.
A toxic chemical used to prevent barnacles from clinging to ship hulls may cause deafness in marine mammals and could lead whales to beach themselves, Yale researchers say.
The hearing loss would be the latest environmental hazard linked to TBT, a chemical already known to be harmful to some aquatic life.
TBT is banned in many countries but is still widely used.
Yale researchers based their theory on a study of guinea pigs, because mammals have similar ear structure.
Since many marine mammals use sonar to get around, "it's possible this could be contributing to whales and dolphins beaching and hitting ships," said Joseph Santos-Sacchi, professor of surgery and neurobiology at Yale School of Medicine.
"I think it's a reasonable hypothesis that this could possibly be happening," said Theo Colborn, a senior fellow at the World Wildlife Fund who has studied TBT but was not involved in the Yale research.
Many scientists also believe the beaching of whales occurs for non-chemical reasons primarily the Navy's use of sonar.
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