CONTRIBUTORS

Blue-green algae: the public health crisis facing Florida

Howard Simon, Ph.D.
Guest Contributor

Hats off to Congressman Francis Rooney for pressing the Centers for Disease Control to report what it knows about the threat of toxic blue-green algae.

The dead fish that piled up on beaches last year demonstrated the environmental impact of red tide and blue-green algae and the consequences for tourism, businesses and real estate values.  

But, finally, the focus is on our public health crisis.  

More:Rooney to CDC: Tell us what you know about how toxic algae blooms affect health

While more research is needed, the evidence is pointing in the same direction: 

  • Blue-green algae are laden with microcystins that are a cause of non-alcoholic liver cancer and with BMAA (the neurotoxin β-methylamino-ʟ-alanine) are linked to neurodegenerative diseases including Alzheimer’s, ALS and Parkinson’s.  Drs. Paul Cox and James Metcalf of Brain Chemistry Labs reported that microcystin levels in samples from Lake Okeechobee and the St. Lucie canal were 300 times what the United Nations recommends as safe.
  • The University of Miami Brain Endowment Bank reported that the BMAA toxin is found in the brains of people with neurodegenerative diseases. Dr. David Davis, a University of Miami Miller School of Medicine neuropathologist, reported that monkeys fed BMAA developed symptoms of ALS.  Another study documented that monkeys given BMAA developed the amyloid plaque and tau tangles that are the symptoms of Alzheimer’s. Dr. Davis’ team reported that detectable levels of BMAA were in the brains of dead dolphins that displayed degenerative damage like Alzheimer’s, ALS and Parkinson’s in humans.  
  • High concentrations of BMAA have been found in seafood where blue-green algae blooms occur.  Ingestion of BMAA contaminated food is known to lead to Alzheimers and ALS.
  • Toxins in blue-green algae are airborne:   Dartmouth’s Dr. Elijah Stommel reported that people living near water with heavy blue-green algae blooms had a 15 times greater chance of getting ALS. Florida Gulf Coast University marine biologist Prof. Mike Parsons found airborne cyanobacteria toxins a mile from ponds and three miles from the Caloosahatchee River. A study of air filters near water infected with blue-green algae along the Caloosahatchee taken during recent heavy blooms by Dr. Larry Brand of the University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Atmospheric and Marine Science is expected soon. 

It is not alarmist to say that the people of Florida -- especially people who contact the infested waters, consume fish and shrimp or breathe the air nearby are being slowly poisoned.  Liver cancer, Alzheimer’s and ALS are terminal diseases; the toxins in blue-green algae kill people.

Howard L. Simon is retired executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida and a resident of Sanibel Island.

Rep. Rooney shouldn’t rely on government scientists.  Non-government scientists have been studying the causes and health impact of blue-green algae, while government, especially in Florida, has been slow to address the gravity of the situation.  

Scientists engaged in this urgent research should be invited to the roundtable that the Congressman is planning to share what they know.

The roundtable should also focus on steps to alleviate the crisis.  This problem has many moving parts.  

Quick fixes (“the Army Corps should stop the discharges;” “send water south”) are not possible or have disastrous unintended consequences.

More:Toxins, possible blue-green algae indicator showing up in local water quality samples

We need strategies that “prevent pollution at its source,” as the Florida Conservation Coalition urges.  Because most of the water in Lake Okeechobee comes from the north and west, we need to focus not only on the waters that contaminate salt-water estuaries, but on the pollution dumped into Lake Okeechobee that feed the blue-green algae – especially run-offs of phosphate and nitrogen fertilizers from dairy and cattle farms and human waste from failed septic tanks. 

That requires political will to impose regulations on powerful interests.  But, as the mounting scientific evidence tells us, failure to do so is slowly poisoning the people of Florida.  

Howard Simon, Ph.D., recently retired as the Executive Director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida is a now a resident of Sanibel Island.  He is coordinating with a team of scientists on a Project to Clean Up Okeechobee Waters.