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USEPA Research on Health Effects and Toxicity of Harmful Algal Blooms under Safe and Sustainable Water Resources Research Program
Citation:
Lu, J., D. Jenkins-Hill, AND A. Rea. USEPA Research on Health Effects and Toxicity of Harmful Algal Blooms under Safe and Sustainable Water Resources Research Program. 20th International Conference on Harmful Algae (ICHA), Hiroshima, JAPAN, November 05 - 10, 2023.
Impact/Purpose:
1) Public concern over cyanobacterial blooms has increased due to their higher frequency of occurrences and their potential ecological and health impacts. 2) Toxicological effects of cyanotoxins (anatoxin, derivatives and nodularin) and cyanobacteria will be revealed on model systems that consist of in vivo laboratory animals and in vitro tissue culture mammalian cells. Epidemiological approaches will be conducted using standard approaches to analyze the effects of exposure to cyanobacteria and cyanotoxins (anatoxin, derivatives and nodularin). 4) OW, regional offices, scientists and water quality managers could be interested in the results.
Description:
The purpose of the study on health effects and toxicity is to develop data, methods, and tools to advance the understanding of adverse health impacts among people, other animals and plants that are associated with exposure to harmful algal blooms (HABs) from both planktonic and benthic cyanobacteria. HABs are increasingly reported as having negative health impacts especially among animals exposed to untreated, contaminated water. While there is more information on adverse outcomes among people and domestic animals, the impacts on aquatic organisms, wildlife, and plants are less well characterized. The study will examine the effects of cyanobacteria and cyanotoxins on non-human animals. This effort utilized a complementary set of approaches to define adverse outcomes associated with individual cyanotoxins, with emerging toxins/metabolites, with HABs themselves and with mixtures of toxins at environmentally relevant doses. This includes multiple methods for characterization of HAB-associated risks, such as in vivo animal models, classic rodent toxicology, ecotoxicology, in vitro mammalian toxicology and whole vertebral tissue responses. Evaluation of aquatic animal test species at environmentally relevant doses of cyanotoxins and exposure to mixtures will also be undertaken. Incorporation of environmentally relevant concentrations and routes of exposure will aid in the characterization of HAB impacts on wildlife and resulting cyanotoxin tissue concentrations.
