At 12:47 PM 2/29/2008 -0500, Joel wrote, inpart: >...part deleted.... The occasional exception is a round of antibiotics, >which I >was in fact concerned about putting into the septic tank, lest it upset the >bugs we depend on there. Such contaminated urine is much better spread on >the ground where light and oxygen can get at it and a far greater array of >microbes can attack it. I used it on grass, rather than in the garden. Keep >in mind that one of the problems with sewers and so-called wastewater >treatment plants is that some of this stuff survives and ends up in the >discharge water. Tales of sexually weird and malformed fish due to hormones >in birth control pills surviving treatment validate such a concern. Best to >keep that stuff out of the water.
Dear Friends--Yes, and endocrine (hormone system) mimickers have been blamed for the tailless or otherwise deformed salamanders in seemingly pristine lakes in Wisconsin and other states that are primarily rural in nature. I don't know if anyone has researched such changes in species in the Cayuga Basin, but the widespread use of birth control pills, hormone replacement therapies, methyl paraben in cosmetics and skin products, several components of commonly used sun screen products, and a variety of other industrial scale chemicals--all of which are known or suspect endocrine mimickers/disrupters--has the potential to adversely affect a variety of aquatic species and other life forms, including humans. As much as we would like to keep these things out of the water cycle, several multibillion dollar industries are totally dependent upon this suite of chemicals for their product lines. Thus, keeping them out of the water supplies, rivers, lakes, aquifers is very difficult as we all know it is more important to make extensive profits than it is to respect and preserve the health of the biosphere. Many of these chemicals or their metabolites are persistent in the environment, meaning that they are not easily degraded to harmless end-products by natural means--oxidation, biodegradation, binding to clay particles, etc. See, for example, Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals by R E Hester, Roy M. Harrison, published 1999 by the <http://books.google.com/books?q=inpublisher:%22Royal+Society+of+Chemistry%22&source=gbs_summary_r>Royal Society of <http://books.google.com/books?q=inpublisher:%22Royal+Society+of+Chemistry%22&source=gbs_summary_r>Chemistry, 164 pages, ISBN 0854042555. Enjoy your endocrine disrupters in good health. Tom Tom Shelley 118 E. Court St. Ithaca, NY 14850 607 342-0864 [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.myspace.com/99319958 P I thank you for printing this e-mail only if it is necessary "Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs." The World Commission on Environment and Development, Gro Harlem Brundtland Our Common Future, Oxford University Press, 1987 MY NOTE: Sustainable development does not mean "sustainable growth" as growth per se is not sustainable. And the term "sustainable" has to mean "for a very long time" (A. Bartlett). "The frog does not drink up the pond in which he lives." Sioux proverb _______________________________________________ RSS, archives, subscription & listserv information for: [email protected] http://lists.mutualaid.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainabletompkins free hosting by http://www.mutualaid.org
