PRESS-NEWS.org - Press Release Distribution
PRESS RELEASES DISTRIBUTION

Mine metals at Maine Superfund site causing widespread contamination

Dartmouth study is among first to analyze open pit mining's impact on US estuaries, coastal food web

2013-09-20
(Press-News.org) Toxic metals from the only open pit mine in an estuary system in the United States are widespread in nearby sediment, water and fish and may be affecting marine and coastal animals that feed on them beyond the mine site, a new Dartmouth study finds.

Mining contamination's effects on human health and aquatic and terrestrial wildlife is well documented in the United States, but the Dartmouth study is one of the first to look at the impacts of an open pit mine on an estuarine environment and the coastal marine food web.

The results, which appear in the journal Archives of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology, are further evidence that humans who eat seafood from areas close to contaminated sites may be at risk. A PDF of the study also is available on request.

As part of Dartmouth's Toxic Metals Superfund Research Program, researchers studied metal concentrations in the sediment, water and Atlantic killifish in the Goose Pond estuary at the closed Callahan Mine Site in Brooksville, Maine. The former open-pit, hard-rock mine is now a Superfund site being cleaned up by the Environmental Protection Agency. The Atlantic killifish, also known as mummichogs and mud minnows, live in brackish and shallow coastal waters in the eastern United States and Canada and are important food for larger fish that humans consume.

As anticipated, researchers found elevated levels of copper, zinc, cadmium and lead in the sediment, water and killifish. But they found the metal concentrations were surprisingly high in distinct areas of the marsh, indicating the metals are continually seeping from the mine's waste rock piles and debris. Results showed the metals from the sediment and water are being taken up by killifish in the Goose Pond estuary and have the potential to affect fish, birds and other animals that feed on them in nearby Penobscot Bay in central Maine. The results also showed the site represents a regional hot spot of copper, zinc and lead for the Gulf of Maine that is surpassed only by levels in some areas of Boston Harbor. Researchers hope their findings will inform the EPA's remediation decisions and provide a baseline for evaluating future actions at the site.



INFORMATION:



Available to comment are co-authors Dartmouth Professor Celia Chen (celia.y.chen@dartmouth.edu), who focuses on metal contaminants in aquatic food webs in freshwater and estuarine ecosystems, and Hannah Broadley, a former toxic metals research assistant at Dartmouth and now a graduate student at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

The study was supported by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences.

Broadcast studios: Dartmouth has TV and radio studios available for interviews. For more information, visit: http://www.dartmouth.edu/~opa/radio-tv-studios/



ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Higher calorie diets increase weight gain, shorten hospital stays for teens with anorexia

2013-09-20
Higher calorie diets produce twice the rate of weight gain compared to the lower calorie diets that currently are recommended for adolescents hospitalized with anorexia nervosa, according to a study by researchers at UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital. The findings will be published in the November issue of the Journal of Adolescent Health along with an accompanying editorial and two supporting studies, challenging the current conservative approach to feeding adolescents with anorexia nervosa during hospitalization for malnutrition. “These findings are crucial ...

Tiger, lion and leopard genomes revealed assisting big cats' conservation

2013-09-20
September 20, 2013, Shenzhen, China – An international team led by South Korea's Personal Genomics Institute and BGI unraveled the first whole genome of a 9-year-old male Amur tiger (Panthera tigris altaica), and compared it with the genomes of other big cats including the white Bengal tiger, lions, and snow leopards. The genomic data from this study provides an invaluable resource for the future studies of big cats and their whole family's conservation. The latest study was published online in Nature Communications. Despite big cats' reputation for ferocity, these majestic ...

Imaging technique detects pediatric liver disease without need for needle biopsy

2013-09-20
A new, non-invasive imaging technique, magnetic resonance elastography (MRE), can now help physicians accurately detect fibrosis (scarring) in children with chronic liver disease – a growing problem due in part to increasing obesity rates. A new study shows that MRE detects such chronic diseases as non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), which is increasingly common in children and teens, affecting an estimated 13 percent of adolescents. NAFLD can lead to progressive liver disease and liver failure. Obesity is a major risk factor. "Because many pediatrics patients ...

Virginia Tech scientists show why traumatized trees don't 'bleed' to death

2013-09-20
Why don't trees "bleed" to death when they are injured? Researchers from Virginia Tech, the Georg-August University of Gottingen, Germany, and the Jackson Laboratory of Bar Harbor, Maine, have discovered how "check valves" in wood cells control sap flow and protect trees when they are injured. The study, featured on the cover of the September issue of the American Journal of Botany, used a special microscope to reveal how nanostructures help contain damage within microscopic cavities called bordered pits in wood-fiber cells. The pits allow sap to circulate through adjacent ...

Climate change: Polar bears change to diet with higher contaminant loads

2013-09-20
Researchers expect the climate to become warmer in the future and predict that climate change will have a significant impact on the Arctic. How will a warming Arctic affect the polar bears? The East Greenlandic population of polar bears resides in an area, where the Arctic sea ice is expected to disappear very late. However, the decline in the ice sheet here occurs at a rate of almost 1% per year, one of the highest rates measured in the entire Arctic region. How does this affect the prey of the polar bears - and, in turn, the polar bears' intake of contaminants? An international ...

Transmitting future asthma by smoking today

2013-09-20
Bethesda, Md. (Sept. 20, 2013)—Asthma is a serious public health problem. An estimated 300 million people worldwide suffer from this sometimes deadly lung disease, a number expected to increase to 400 million by 2025. One well-established risk factor for asthma is having a mother who smoked during her pregnancy. However, researchers recently discovered that smoking can have a lasting legacy. When animal mothers are exposed to nicotine during pregnancy—a proxy for smoking—their grandchildren were also at an increased risk of asthma, even though they were never exposed to ...

Final piece found in puzzle of brain circuitry controlling fertility

2013-09-20
In a landmark discovery, the final piece in the puzzle of understanding how the brain circuitry vital to normal fertility in humans and other mammals operates has been put together by researchers at New Zealand's University of Otago. Their new findings, which appear in the leading international journal Nature Communications, will be critical to enabling the design of novel therapies for infertile couples as well as new forms of contraception. The research team, led by Otago neuroscientist Professor Allan Herbison, have discovered the key cellular location of signalling ...

Digoxin use associated with higher risk of death for patients diagnosed with heart failure

2013-09-20
OAKLAND, Calif., Sept. 20, 2013 — Digoxin, a drug commonly used to treat heart conditions, was associated with a 72 percent higher rate of death among adults with newly diagnosed systolic heart failure, according to a Kaiser Permanente study that appears in the current online issue of Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes. Digoxin is a drug derived from digitalis, a plant that has been used for more than 200 years to treat heart failure. "These findings suggest that the use of digoxin should be reevaluated for the treatment of systolic heart failure in contemporary ...

Scripps Research Institute study explores barriers to HIV vaccine response

2013-09-20
LA JOLLA, CA -- Researchers at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) discovered that an antibody that binds and neutralizes HIV likely also targets the body's own "self" proteins. This finding could complicate the development of HIV vaccines designed to elicit this protective antibody, called 4E10, and others like it, as doing so might be dangerous or inefficient. "We developed two new mouse models that allow us to visualize the fate of the rare B cells that can see HIV and we thought could be stimulated by vaccines to produce neutralizing antibodies -- the type of antibodies ...

The higher the better?

2013-09-20
High-intensity exercise is shown to be protective against coronary heart disease (CHD) and is well known as a popular and time-saving approach to getting fit. But what about people who already have heart disease? Previously, these patients were told to exercise, but only at a moderate intensity to protect their hearts. More recently, however, researchers have found that high-intensity exercise is very beneficial for these patients. But how intense should these sessions actually be? A new study from the K. G. Jebsen -- Center of Exercise in Medicine at the Norwegian University ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

Are lifetimes of big appliances really shrinking?

Pink skies

Monkeys are world’s best yodellers - new research

Key differences between visual- and memory-led Alzheimer’s discovered

% weight loss targets in obesity management – is this the wrong objective?

An app can change how you see yourself at work

NYC speed cameras take six months to change driver behavior, effects vary by neighborhood, new study reveals

New research shows that propaganda is on the rise in China

Even the richest Americans face shorter lifespans than their European counterparts, study finds

Novel genes linked to rare childhood diarrhea

New computer model reveals how Bronze Age Scandinavians could have crossed the sea

Novel point-of-care technology delivers accurate HIV results in minutes

Researchers reveal key brain differences to explain why Ritalin helps improve focus in some more than others

Study finds nearly five-fold increase in hospitalizations for common cause of stroke

Study reveals how alcohol abuse damages cognition

Medicinal cannabis is linked to long-term benefits in health-related quality of life

Microplastics detected in cat placentas and fetuses during early pregnancy

Ancient amphibians as big as alligators died in mass mortality event in Triassic Wyoming

Scientists uncover the first clear evidence of air sacs in the fossilized bones of alvarezsaurian dinosaurs: the "hollow bones" which help modern day birds to fly

Alcohol makes male flies sexy

TB patients globally often incur "catastrophic costs" of up to $11,329 USD, despite many countries offering free treatment, with predominant drivers of cost being hospitalization and loss of income

Study links teen girls’ screen time to sleep disruptions and depression

Scientists unveil starfish-inspired wearable tech for heart monitoring

Footprints reveal prehistoric Scottish lagoons were stomping grounds for giant Jurassic dinosaurs

AI effectively predicts dementia risk in American Indian/Alaska Native elders

First guideline on newborn screening for cystic fibrosis calls for changes in practice to improve outcomes

Existing international law can help secure peace and security in outer space, study shows

Pinning down the process of West Nile virus transmission

UTA-backed research tackles health challenges across ages

In pancreatic cancer, a race against time

[Press-News.org] Mine metals at Maine Superfund site causing widespread contamination
Dartmouth study is among first to analyze open pit mining's impact on US estuaries, coastal food web