Two-headed Fishes in Australia Point to Chemical Contamination of Water

In the popular cartoon The Simpsons, the waste from the nuclear power plant where Homer works has created three-eyed fish (in intro video). That's fiction, but somehow, science fact can be just as odd and alarming. In Australia, for instance, fishes with two heads have been discovered. These fishes - bass - are in the larval stages and they survive only about 48 hours as what was observed in a Noosa River fish farm.

Matt Landos of the Australian College of Veterinarian Scientists says the two-headedness mutation and convulsions happen when they use water from the site in question and from collected bass from the same source. He says he has never seen anything like it in his career as a veterinarian. He's excluded biological infection as the cause and fear that the contamination comes from a nearby macadamia nut plantation where pesticides may have been used. He claims incidence of the mutation has increased in the past two years in spawning areas near the plantation.

The incidence of zoological mutations only shows how dangerous chemicals can be to the environment. Even if chemicals like pesticides are administered in low doses, they accumulate in time like what has happened in many parts of the world where the pesticide DDT was used. The chemical moved its way into the food chain and one of the results was overly thin shells of eagle eggs. Farmers should switch to organic farming where non-chemical pest deterrents are used instead.

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What Happened to the Old-Fashioned Paper Bag?

Has anyone noticed how grocery stores, supermarkets, and fast-foods are now using non-biodegradable containers and bags these days? There was a time when everybody used paper bags. Then, there was less trash to throw out and paper bags also had the appeal of being useful as wrappers, compared to plastic bags and Styrofoam containers that are usually ended up in the waste bin after having served their purpose as containers of commodities.

While useful, non-biodegradable plastic bags and Styrofoam containers only add to the tons of waste sent to landfills everyday, and we all know that landfills have limited capacities. In many countries, particularly those that do not have the advanced technology collection and recycling facilities, some plastics and Styrofoam tend to stay in the environment for quite a long time - give or take a thousand years - creating environmental eyesores, chemical byproducts, and plenty of rubbish that do harm to both plant and animal life.

Paper bags, although arguably also damaging to the environment due to the source of the material, can be brought back to being popular for the simple reason that they produce less impact on the environment and are in fact environment-friendly for the most part. Bringing them back into the public consciousness will solve a big part of the problem of having to deal with waste material that's not recycled. The fibers for the paper can also be sourced from tree farms or farm plant fibers (like from corn and other grains) that are both easy harvested and are sustainable. This way, old-growth forests aren't affected. It's just a suggestion that has widespread effects on businesses, but it's really high time to get the old-fashioned paper bag back.



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