Watch out for this one. It could be a whopper!
Dutch scientists exposed young (sexually undifferentiated) but genetically all-male (with XY chromosomes) carp to various concentrations of the chemical 4-tert-pentylphenol (TPP). Some of the carp were then observed to have poorly developed testis, oviducts (a female characteristic) and severely inhibited spermatogenesis. In the parlance of these researchers, the carp were feminized.
The researchers concluded that they "demonstrated, for the first time, that the period of sex differentiation in fish is sensitive to [environmental estrogen compounds]."
I don't really have a criticism of this study at this point...but it certainly has the potential for abuse!
Undoubtedly, this study will be used at some point in the future by Theo Colburn et al. to validate the conclusion of Our Stolen Future that manmade chemicals are harming our fertility, development, survival etc.
Unfortunately, all this study shows is that if you expose a developing organism to the right chemicals, in high enough concentrations, and at the right time, you'll disrupt its normal development. What a surprise! We needed a new study on this?
This study does not support the general proposition that manmade chemicals are destroying man and the environment.
Even if there is a causal effect between the TPP exposure and the disrupted development, the fish in this study were exposed to TPP at levels found INSIDE sewage treatment works.
I don't know about you, but I certainly don't consider the inside of sewage treatment works to be part of the "environment." Sewage treatment works treat dirty water and (as an obvious result) have very high levels of a multitude of chemicals and generally yucky things. And I don't know of any fish (or anything else) that are raised or bred in sewage treatment works.
Let's hope this study doesn't give us anything more to carp about!
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