March 4th, 2009
By Barbara Kessler
Green Right Now
What happens when salmon are given a pesticide cocktail? The effects are more pronounced than the damage done from exposure a single pesticide, according to a study just released in the Environmental Health Perspectives journal.
In an attempt to replicate real world pesticide exposures, researchers from NOAA Fisheries Service and Washington State University studied how coho salmon reacted to five common pesticides, individually and in various combinations.
They found that almost every pesticide pairing resulted in a chemical reaction in the brain – a reduction of an enzyme – that could lead to the accumulation of acetylcholine, which would affect the salmon’s behavior, jeopardizing its ability to survive.
Barbara Kessler
Andrew Winston
Danielle Nierenberg
Anthony Swift
