Both pharmaceutical drugs and endocrine disrupting compounds, or EDCs, have been around a long time, but they are still considered ‘novel pollutants’ as little attention has been paid to try to assess the extent of their potential impacts on the environment.
Dr Brian Quinn, GMIT, has received funding to discover the extent of the presence of these compounds in Irish waters, both freshwater and marine, and to develop biomarkers that can indicate the presence of specific harmful compounds.
Brian believes that while both groups of novel pollutants are not present in high enough concentrations to kill wildlife, or to kill humans for that matter, they could be having a subtle, sub-lethal impact on our wildlife, which could be crucial over time.
For his PhD at DIT and TCD, Brian investigated the impact of EDCs on the zebra mussel (Dreissena polymorpha) and found there was a definite impact, with male mussels becoming feminised and even producing the egg yolk precursor protein Vitellin when exposed to oestrogen-containing compounds. He followed this up by receiving a fellowship to work at Environment Canada – the Canadian equivalent of the EPA and a recognised world leader in environmental research.
In Canada, he worked at the St Laurence Centre of Environment Canada on the banks of the St Laurence river in Montreal. There he became interested in all novel pollutants, and their impact on the environment, in particular pharmaceutical drugs.
Brian believes that his EPA funding award represents a fantastic opportunity for him to work in his very specialised field in Ireland, and to set up his own research team. “It’s absolutely fantastic. I was absolutely delighted. It will involve myself and two PhD students. I will be looking for the students in the next few months,” he said.
Working with Dr. Martin Robinson (SHELLTEC, GMIT), his project will be split in two, with a chemical and a biological aspect. Brian will work with a chemistry student to determine what novel pollutants are present in the water in a range of carefully selected locations. He will work with the biology student to try and develop ‘biomarkers’ that can determine the presence of specific pollutants.
In terms of drugs, Brian expects that Ibuprofen and Diclofenac, both analgesics used for pain relief will be present, as well as Carbamazepine, an anti-epileptic drug, and Gemfibrozil, a lipid lowering agent used to prevent heart attacks. His belief that these drugs will be present is based a review of research from around the world, and from talking to a group at DCU, led by John Tobin, that has looked at drugs in our waters.
“The eventual idea is to take mussels from the environment and detect if they are being exposed to certain pharmaceuticals” said Brian.
Regarding EDCs, Brian said that a lot has been done on the impact of EDCs on fish, but little on invertebrates, which are more numerous, further down the food chain, and, therefore, probably more important in terms of the wider impact on wildlife. The most important EDCs are the nonyl-phenols, which are used in washing up liquids, and estradiol, which is a component of the female contraception pill.
With EDCs too, he wants to establish new biomarkers for invertebrate exposure to these compounds, similar to vitellogen, which is an established biomarker for fish exposure to EDCs. “The lab will set up exposures to the mussels of the compounds at different concentrations and use that to try and identify the new biomarkers,” he said.
