PARENT SESSION
PT2 - Endocrine Disruption
Tuesday, 19 November 2002
8:00 AM to 6:30 PM
Exhibit Hall
(P571) Nonylphenol in livers of herring gull chicks from the Great Lakes and Bay of Fundy .
Grasman, Keith*,1, Fox, Glen2, Bennie, Donald3, 1 Wright State University, Dayton, OH, USA2 Canadian Wildlife Service, Hull, PQ, Canada3 Environment Canada, Burlington, ON, Canada
ABSTRACT- This study reports concentrations of nonylphenol (NP) and organochlorines in pooled liver samples from four week old herring gulls (Larus argentatus) collected from five colonies in the Great Lakes and one colony in the Bay of Fundy in 1999-2000. The mean concentration for all colonies was 0.30 (sd 0.10) mg/kg(wet wt.), ranging from 0.19 mg/kg in Atlantic coast birds to 0.46 mg/kg in birds from Saginaw Bay. Considering Great Lakes means, NP concentrations were 1.8 fold higher than DDE and 0.54 lower than PCBs. These concentrations suggest that NP is a major contaminant in herring gull tissues, comparable to major organochlorines. NP concentrations were strongly correlated with PCB concentrations (r=0.99, P<0.001). While little is known about toxic effect concentrations in birds, NP has potent estrogenic effects in fish, mammals, and in vitro systems. Immunosuppression and altered gonadal development in both males and females have been reported previously in young herring gulls from these Great Lakes sites. Nonylphenol, in addition to organochlorines, may be contributing to these effects. The ubiquitous presence of relatively high concentrations of NP in young gulls from industrialized and nonindustrialized areas of the Great Lakes, as well as the Atlantic reference colony, raises significant concerns about the accumulation and toxicity of NP in fish-eating wildlife.
Key words: herring gulls, nonylphenol, endocrine disruptor, organochlorines