Environment & Energy
Related: About this forumBlue Green "Algae" In Florida - Even More Toxic Than You Thought
Ed. - I have algae in quotes because that's its common name, though it's cyanobacteria.
EDIT
Blue-green algae are laden with microcystins that are a cause of non-alcoholic liver cancer. The algae blooms also produce BMAA (?-Methylamino-L-alanine), a toxin that is linked to neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimers, ALS and Parkinsons. Last year, Drs. Paul Cox and James Metcalf of Brain Chemistry Labs reported that microcystin levels in samples from Lake Okeechobee and the St. Lucie canal were 300 times the level recommended as safe by the United Nations. BMAA is a documented cause of Alzheimers and ALS. The University of Miami Brain Endowment Bank reported that the BMAA toxin is found in the brains of people with neuro-degenerative diseases.
Dr. David Davis, a neuropathologist at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, reported that monkeys fed BMAA developed early symptoms of ALS. Another study, from 2017, documented that monkeys given BMAA developed the amyloid plaque and tau tangles that are the symptoms of Alzheimers. Last month, Dr. Davis team reported that detectable levels of the BMAA toxin were found in the brains of dead dolphins that displayed degenerative damage similar to Alzheimers, ALS and Parkinsons in humans.
High concentrations of BMAA have been found in the seafood in South Florida waters where blue-green algae blooms occur. Ingestion of BMAA contaminated food is known to lead to Alzheimers and ALS.
Toxins in blue-green algae are airborne: Dr. Elijah Stommel of Dartmouth reported that people living near bodies of water with heavy blue-green algae blooms had a 15 times greater chance of getting ALS. Research by Prof. Mike Parsons, a Florida Gulf Coast University marine biologist, found airborne cyanobacteria toxins a mile from retention ponds and three miles from the Caloosahatchee River. A study of air filters near bodies of water infected with blue-green algae along the Caloosahatchee River taken during the heavy blooms in 2018 by Dr. Larry Brand of the University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Atmospheric and Marine Science is expected soon.
It is not alarmist to say that the people of Florida especially people who come in contact with the infested waters or breathe the air nearby, and perhaps all of us who consume the fish and shrimp from Florida waters are being slowly poisoned. Liver cancer, Alzheimers and ALS are terminal diseases; the toxins in blue-green algae kill people.
EDIT
https://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/op-ed/article229490279.html?sfns=mo
Bluepinky
(2,276 posts)The Blue Flower
(5,444 posts)Terrible consequences for long-term inaction.
mountain grammy
(26,648 posts)bronxiteforever
(9,287 posts)Florida is an environmental disaster zone and an example of what GOP policies will do to all of us.
Wounded Bear
(58,704 posts)paleotn
(17,947 posts)We need our industrially produced, winter fresh vegetables so pour on the commercial fertilizer!! Would you like a side of CO2 with your broccoli?
modrepub
(3,502 posts)Probably some truth to your point but I think a lot of the over-loading is from the Mississippi River. Lots of over fertilization and sewage treatment plant loading from those sources (and hardly a mention of the problem). Those red tides in the Gulf are noxious!
dlk
(11,575 posts)How twisted is that?
kimbutgar
(21,187 posts)I was telling someone I would never go there because of stand your ground laws. No Disneyland or take a cruise from there because Florida is a toxic dangerous place and now I read this!
ChazInAz
(2,572 posts)This may explain the rise of "Florida Man".
Submariner
(12,509 posts)for causing much of the marine ecological damage.
Thats right, Florida did thank him by voting him in as their eco-terrorist senator. God job morons.
Fritz Walter
(4,292 posts)Swimming pool.
Fountains.
Indoor plumbing.
safeinOhio
(32,714 posts)affects the Western Basin of Lake Erie?
femmedem
(8,207 posts)and my mother has Alzheimer's. (To be fair, though, my father's disease was cirrhosis, not cancer.)
Anecdotal, but I wonder.