- Full (HTML) - Related EHP Articles - PubMed:Related Articles - PubMed:Citation - Cited in PMC - Purchase This Issue

Wayne L. Fairchild,¹ Erin O. Swansburg,¹ Jacqueline T. Arsenault,¹ and Scott B. Brown²

¹Gulf Fisheries Centre, Fisheries and Oceans Canada, Moncton, New Brunswick, E1C 9B6, Canada
²National Water Research Institute, Environment Canada, Burlington, Ontario, L7R 4A6, Canada

Abstract

Historical aerial applications of the insecticide Matacil 1.8D provide an opportunity to look for potential effects of the endocrine disrupting compound 4-nonylphenol (4-NP) on Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) populations. Matacil 1.8D contained the carbamate insecticide aminocarb, with 4-NP as primary solvent. Between 1975 and 1985 Matacil 1.8D was applied to forests in Atlantic Canada to control damage from the spruce budworm (Choristoneura fumiferana) . After spraying, estimated concentrations of 4-NP in water fell within a range in which estrogenic effects might be anticipated. The spraying coincided with final stages of smolt development in salmon. Salmon catch data were evaluated considering effects on survival of the smolt stage. There was a significant negative relationship between the returns of salmon and the proportion of tributaries sprayed within the Restigouche River drainage basin in 1977. There was also a broader event of unusually heavy salmon smolt mortality in 1977, which contains a significant relationship indicating that where Matacil 1.8D spraying occurred, the smolt mortality increased. For 16 rivers exposed to spraying between 1973 and 1990, a significant proportion (p<0.005) of the lowest salmon catches coincided with Matacil 1.8D spraying. A decline coinciding with the use of Matacil 1.8D was also apparent in blueback herring (Alosa aestivalis) catches in New Brunswick. Because similar relationships were not evident for Matacil 1.8F or fenitrothion, neither of which were formulated with 4-NP, we hypothesize that the 4-NP in Matacil 1.8D was the causal agent. Concentrations of 4-NP described here are within current ranges encountered in industrial effluents and municipal sewage outfalls. Key words: aminocarb, endocrine disruptor compounds, 4-nonylphenol, populations, salmon, smoltification. Environ Health Perspect 107:349-358 (1999) . [Online 24 March 1999]

http://ehpnet1.niehs.nih.gov/docs/1999/107p349-358fairchild/ abstract.html

Address correspondence to W.L. Fairchild, Gulf Fisheries Centre, Fisheries and Oceans Canada, 343 Université Avenue, P.O. Box 5030, Moncton, New Brunswick, E1C 9B6, Canada.

Ross Alexander, Neil Burgess, Nelson Carter, Ghislain Chouinard, Ross Claytor, Jim Conlon, Hubert Crummey, Rick Cunjak, Sylvia Fairchild, Neville Garrity, Andrea Locke, Ian MacQuinn, John Ritter, and Charles Weaver provided assistance and advice. Ross Alexander, Neil Burgess, Geoff Eales, Doug Eidt, Bill Ernst, Glen Fox, Doug Haffner, Jim Maguire, John Ritter, Mark Servos, Carl Haux, and three anonymous reviewers provided review comments on the manuscript.

Received 10 July 1998 ; accepted 22 January 1999.