Copyright 1998 Stuart News Company
The Stuart News/Port St. Lucie News (Stuart,FL)
April 27, 1998, Monday
SECTION: Local; Pg. B1
LENGTH: 1324 words
HEADLINE: AREA'S SICK WATERS INTEREST DOCTOR
BYLINE: Debi Pelletier of the News staff
BODY:
Troubled Waters
A Maryland doctor would like to link up with a local physician
who will examine people who think they've been exposed to microorganisms
thought to be sickening area fish.
A family physician in Pocomoke, Md., wants to link up with
a Treasure Coast doctor who will examine patients for signs of
exposure to Pfiesteria-like toxins.
"We're trying to find a physician willing to examine these
folks and a neurologist to do neurocognitive tests," Dr.
Ritchie Shoemaker said Friday from his Maryland office.
"We'd put them in touch with the research team at the
University of Maryland so they'd know what to look for and what
information to collect."
Maryland is one of six coastal states, including Florida, that
received funds from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
to study the effects of Pfiesteria piscicida and other Pfiesteria-like
microalgae on human health.
The single-cell organism is blamed for killing millions of
fish in Maryland, Virginia and North Carolina but has not been
found in Florida. A close cousin, however, has been found in Florida.
Cryptoperidiniopsis has been detected in five places in the St.
Lucie River estuary and is thought to be a cause of the recent
spate of fish lesions.
Shoemaker said he treated 60 patients who were exposed to Pfiesteria
and has written a book on the subject, Pfiesteria: Crossing Dark
Waters. Now he wants to see whether there's any relation to complaints
of health effects on the Treasure Coast.
And he has a provocative theory about what's causing the outbreaks
of toxic microalgae: The agricultural use of copper sulphate and
the fungicide Mancozeb.
"The copper and fungicide together kill blue-green algae
and cryptomonad, which is Crypto's food source," he said
Friday. That in turn causes the microalgae to change into a reproductive
stage of its life, when it produces the toxins that attack fish.
"It's a pheromone almost, a chemical attractant,"
he said.
The other thing the copper and fungicide accomplish, Shoemaker
said, is to kill plankton that "eat Pfiesteria-type organisms
in their toxic phase."
The theory "is very plausible," said Mark Perry,
an oceanographer and executive director of the Florida Oceanographic
Society. "Somebody needs to do extensive plankton work"
to see whether there is a correlation between copper levels, plankton
and toxic algal blooms.
Shoemaker said the plankton normally can take high levels of
copper in the water but can't survive the combination of copper
and Mancozeb.
"It's a mechanism for the disruption of the normal food
chain that shifts Pfiesteria from a benign phase to a toxic stage,"
he said. "It removes the creatures that eat the toxic phase."
The answer, he said, is to switch from Mancozeb to Ridomil,
a more expensive and less extensively utilized fungicide.
Pete Timmer, a researcher at the plant pathology department
at the University of Florida's Lake Elkford campus, said Mancozeb
is extensively used for a wide variety of crops in the state but
is not approved for use on citrus.
Ridomil is, but is not as extensively used, Timmer said. He
estimates it might be used on 10 percent of the crop to deal with
soil-borne fungi.
"It's fairly expensive, so it's used mostly on young trees,"
he said.
John Trefry, a marine researcher at the Florida Institute of
Technology, surveyed the Indian River Lagoon for metal concentrations
in water, sediment and clams in 1992. In a paper published in
1996, he showed copper concentrations ranging to 206 parts per
million in areas where there were boats, which commonly use a
copper-based paint that prevents marine growth. He found higher
than normal levels of dissolved copper in the surface water. Clean
water has a concentration of 10 to 50 parts per million, he said.
Cryptoperidiniopsis, like Pfiesteria, is a single-celled organism
that is both plant and animal. They're complex organisms with
many life cycles - 24 have been found in Pfiesteria so far. It's
not known how many Crypto might have. They are thought to attack
the protective slime coat on fish, rendering fish vulnerable to
opportunistic bacteria.
Shoemaker's theory goes against the grain. Researchers in Maryland
have evidence that nitrogen and phosphorus from agricultural runoff
encourage the microalgae to bloom. The University of North Carolina
researcher who co-discovered Pfiesteria is a proponent of the
nutrient theory.
JoAnn Burkholder said she has seen three things trigger a Pfiesteria
bloom: slow flushing water; the appropriate salinity and temperature;
and "lots of nutrient degradation, or nutrient over-enrichment."
"Pfiesteria and its close counterpart seem to thrive in
highly nutrient over-enriched areas," she said in a recent
interview. "If there are a lot more algae to eat and a lot
more other things around in the microbial community to eat, then
they can thrive and they can grow a lot better. And then, when
a big school of fish comes back into the area, there is a population
waiting, essentially, to try to respond to those fish."
Although Pfiesteria has not been found in Florida waters, officials
and researchers acknowledge there are enough similarities with
Crypto to warrant further investigation. The state Department
of Health received funding to hire someone to track effects on
human health, although Martin County health officials said they've
only received five complaints, the last one April 8.
"There have been people who contacted us, but there were
no symptoms with any similarities between them," said Bob
Washam, the county's environmental health manager.
One of those people was John Lund, a fisherman who developed
a large sore on his lip after putting a cast-net in his mouth
while fishing for mullet. That was at the end of February, when
thousands of lesion-covered mullet were found in the estuary.
Subsequent tests ruled out herpes, and the sore took almost two
months to heal, but Lund said his physician couldn't tell him
what caused it.
Shoemaker said he wants to talk to people such as Lund. Although
the illness pattern in Maryland was more obvious, he said, it
took months before anyone connected people's symptoms to the fish
kill.
"Not everyone got sick," he said. "Then there
were TV reporters who were out for just a short time, and they
developed lesions and memory loss."
He said some people developed "funny, flat, round spots
that looked like bug bites but had no center and very little itch.
Sometimes a blister would form."
Others developed breathing problems, itchy eyes and runny noses,
or flu-like symptoms that are similar to red tide exposure,
he said.
Shoemaker said human Pfiesteria infection works like this:
Within three hours of exposure, the toxin dissolves into muscle
tissue, creating an ache typical of flu. As the toxin continues
to dissolve into fatty tissue, the symptoms worsen. About six
hours later, it goes into the respiratory system and causes coughing
and wheezing. Then it progresses to the brain, where it causes
headaches and memory loss.
"Within 12 to 24 hours, skin lesions pop up. They can
last up to three months," Shoemaker said.
In about 24 hours, the toxin goes into the bile, which can
cause cramps and severe diarrhea.
Nothing like that has been reported on the Treasure Coast,
but Shoemaker wants to collect information from anyone who thinks
they've suffered any sort of ill effects from exposure to the
water. He said that of all the reported exposure cases, none of
them came from eating the fish.
However, officials from the health department and the Department
of Environmental Protection have said it's not wise to eat unhealthy-looking
fish. So far, tests on dead pelicans found along the waterway
have been inconclusive.
Dr. Shoemaker can be reached at P.O. Box 25, 1604 Market St.,
Pocomoke, MD 21851. His book is available for $ 15. Add $ 4.25
for priority mail. Phone: (410) 957-1550.
LOAD-DATE: April 28, 1998