Songbirds Dying from DDT in Michigan Yards > 자유게시판

LOUIS, Mich. - Jim Hall was mowing the city's baseball diamond when he felt a little bump beneath him. Just last week, he discovered another one. Hall, who has lived in this mid-Michigan city of 7,000 for 50 years. After residents complained for years about lifeless birds in their yards, 22 American robins, six European starlings and one bluebird have been collected for testing. The results, revealed final week: The neighborhood's songbirds are being poisoned by DDT, a pesticide that was banned in the United States greater than 40 years ago. Lethal concentrations were found within the birds' brains, as well as in the worms they eat. Matt Zwiernik, a Michigan State University assistant professor of environmental toxicology who led the testing. The birds' brains contained concentrations of DDE, a breakdown Neuro Surge Product Page of DDT, from 155 to 1,043 elements per million, with a median of 552. "Thirty within the mind is the threshold for acute loss of life," Zwiernik stated.

Twelve of the 29 birds had mind lesions or liver abnormalities. The culprit is a toxic mess left behind by Velsicol Chemical Corp., previously Michigan Chemical, which manufactured pesticides till 1963, a year after Rachel Carson's ebook Silent Spring exposed the hazards of DDT, particularly for birds. Populations of bald eagles and different birds crashed when DDT thinned their eggs, killing their embryos. The nine-block neighborhood has develop into an actual-life instance of Carson's "Fable for Tomorrow" in Silent Spring. Velsicol is notorious for one of many worst chemical disasters in U.S. In 1973 a flame retardant compound they manufactured - polybrominated biphenyls, or PBBs - was mixed up with a cattle feed complement, which led to widespread contamination in Michigan. Thousands of cattle and different livestock had been poisoned, about 500 farms had been quarantined and people across Michigan had been uncovered to a chemical linked to cancer, reproduction problems and endocrine disruption. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency took control of the site in 1982 and the plant was demolished in the mid-nineties, forsaking three Superfund sites within the 3.5-square mile city.

EPA officials didn't respond to repeated requests for comment on the poisoned birds and the Superfund cleanup. Of most concern is the 54-acre site that when contained Velsicol's fundamental plant, which backs up to the neighborhood where residents have found useless birds on their lawns. Ed Lorenz, a professor at close by Alma College and vice chair of the Pine River Superfund Citizen Task Force, which represents the community. Hall is the chair of the task drive. While there may be an extended-term health research for residents who had been exposed to PBBs, nobody is monitoring their publicity to DDT or searching for Neuro Surge Product Page possible human well being effects. Elsewhere, traces of the pesticide have been linked in some human research to reproductive issues, together with decreased fertility and altered sperm counts. St. Louis City Manager Robert McConkie. The city's median family earnings is forty three p.c decrease than the state's. About 22 percent of its families live under the poverty line. The birds apparently have been poisoned by consuming worms dwelling in contaminated soil near the previous chemical plant.

No studies have been conducted to see whether the DDT has contaminated any vegetables or fruits grown in yards. Jane Keon, secretary of the duty force, mentioned the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality ignored their complaints about dead birds for years. But Dan Rockafellow, the state company's undertaking manager for the location, stated it took time to gather sufficient chicken samples to test. State officials did not begin testing individuals's yards till 2006, after they found several yards highly contaminated with DDT and PBBs. EPA contractors now are cleaning up 59 yards. Next 12 months the agency plans on adding one other 37 yards outdoors of the 9-block space. Many of the contamination is in the highest six inches of the soil, in all probability from the chemicals drifting over from the plant, Rockafellow said. However, some yards have DDT and PBBs deeper within the soil, which might be as a result of Velsicol's offer of free fill dirt to their neighbors a long time ago.