Chances are you've never heard of Tributyltin (TBT) unless your a chemist, biologist, or work in the commercial shipping industry. But as I was reporting my story earlier this week on how the economic crisis is increasing the potential for ships to spread invasive species, I was amazed to learn how pervasive, and deadly, the poison is to life in the oceans.
Even more shocking: TBT could be contributing to the obesity epidemic.
Wait, what? Throughout the late 1980's and 1990's TBT was a popular way to keep barnacles and other critters from accumulating on cargo ships. TBT was incorporated into a paint that shipping operators used on their fleet. It worked like a charm, because it released slowly over time and was a potent destroyer of mussels, clams, lobsters, and other crustaceans.
In typical human fashion, no one thought about what happened to TBT after it did its job on boat bottoms. Turns out, it got into coastal waters and wreaked havoc with local sea life, causing female animals to grow male sex organs, or in higher doses just killing stuff en masse. Yuck.
In 2001, people got smart and put together an international ban on TBT that is slowly taking effect, but the chemical is still out there.
Fast forward to last year, when researchers found that lab rats became massively obese when they ingested TBT. So let's see, we have a poison that makes animals who eat it really fat. And it's all over the world's oceans, and in marine life that people like to eat. Uh oh.
**Nerdy caveats: of course there is a lot of dispute over whether there is even an 'obesity epidemic,' and of course people get fat from eating too much McDonald's, etc. And the data on TBT and obesity are admittedly preliminary. I'm not blaming obesity on people who painted ship hulls with TBT. Yet. I'm just saying, this is interesting, and that the story on TBT ain't over.
Image: Washington Post
Tags: Conservation, Everyday Science, Food Chain, Oceanography
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