- A cocktail of hormones, steroids and antibiotics is passing
through peoples' bowels and through the NSW sewage system untreated, a
peak environment group has warned.
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- The "gender-bending" compounds and chemicals
from substances such as birth control pills were not being detected or
treated by the state's sewage treatment plants (STPs), according to a report
by the Nature Conservation Council of NSW (NCC).
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- "These chemicals and compounds are passed through
the human body in varying concentrations and follow the usual path through
the sewage treatment process," the NCC said.
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- The report found that NSW STPs were failing to detect
or treat endocrine disrupting compounds (EDCs) - also known as "gender-
benders" - contained in contraceptive pills, some pesticides, steroids
and hormone treatments.
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- The chemicals have been shown to alter the gender characteristics
of wildlife, posing a danger to humans if passed into the food chain.
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- They were also passed on by fish stocks contaminated
near STP outfalls, food crops sprayed with reused effluent or fertilised
with recycled biosolids, and animal stocks consuming soil or feed contaminated
with reused effluent or biosolids.
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- NCC executive officer Kathryn Ridge warned if STPs failed
to identify and treat EDCs they would pass directly into the environment.
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- "The main characteristic of these compounds and
chemicals is that they do not break down or dissolve once they enter a
waterway," she said in a statement.
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- "Rather, they accumulate and if fish or birds consume
them they will enter a food chain that includes humans.
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- "Our report has confirmed that no STPs in NSW are
even looking for, let alone treating, these chemicals and compounds, and
this will simply have to change if we are to avert an ongoing ecological
catastrophe.
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- "Even though there is no evidence that humans have
ever been affected by EDCs in sewage, we do know that these compounds can
alter human gender characteristics and fertility when consumed medically.
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- "These compounds have been proven to alter the gender
characteristics of wildlife when they pass through sewage treatment plants."
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- The authors of the report, Peter Randall and Greg Abood,
said in a statement that key pollutants of concern can be found in a myriad
of drugs approved for subsidy by the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme, worth
more than $3 billion per year and rising.
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- The report, called Black Water - Grey Areas, was compiled
after a comprehensive audit of the state's STPs.
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- Comment was being sought from Sydney Water.
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- http://au.dailynews.yahoo.com/
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