August 13, 2009

Not the Dolphins!!!

I know they're bad. You know they're bad. But try explaining to your friends who make more emotion-based decisions why they shouldn't use antibacterial products for normal, daily applications.

Actually, now you can.

Dolphins are swimming in waters tainted with germ-killing soaps, but they aren't winding up squeaky clean.

Triclosan, an antibacterial chemical found in everyday bathroom and kitchen products, is accumulating in dolphins at concentrations known to disrupt the hormones and growth and development of other animals.

Scientists have found that one-third of the bottlenose dolphins tested off South Carolina and almost one-quarter of those tested off Florida carried traces of triclosan in their blood. It is the first time the chemical has been reported in a wild marine mammal – a worrisome finding, researchers say, because it shows it is building up in the ocean’s food web.

Thanks to Ana for the link.

3 comments:

Thomas Joseph said...

I covered this myself a couple of days back. An additional problem with Triclosan is that low levels of this antibiotic may be driving antibiotic resistance to other, clinical relevant drugs. So, while I believe we have an obligation to be proper stewards of our environment (which extends to not killing off other species), we can also easily look at this from a human health standpoint: By using Triclosan, we're possibly unintentionally creating new superbugs which could cause severe health-related issues in the future (potentially near future).

Stephanie Zvan said...

Yeah, that's what I meant about you and I knowing it's bad, but creating superbugs just isn't real and immediate enough for a lot of people compared to a kid with the sniffles. Or to something cute like dolphins.

Thomas Joseph said...

I dunno ... I've found fear (i.e., conjuring up thoughts of flesh eating bacteria) is a pretty useful and effective tool, and it tends to generate much quicker policy changes that all can agree on.