Contamination fears over two-headed Australian fish

Photo of a bass larvae spawned with two heads taken by fish farm owner Gwen Gilson. Matt Landos, an aquatic animal specialist and member of the Australian College of Veterinarian Scientists, said the mutant larvae at a Noosa River fish farm survived just 48 hours and were dying en masse, with toxic chemical contamination the likely cause of the mutations.

Toxic chemical contamination was the likely cause of fatal fish mutations in northern Australia in which thousands of bass larvae spawned with two heads, an expert said Wednesday.

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• superhuman - Jan 14, 2009
  • Rank: 5 / 5 (2)
  Sarin is a simple organophosphate.
  
  Those compounds are very toxic and they are toxic not only to insects but to humans and other animals as well. They are used because they degrade rapidly by hydrolysis on exposure to sunlight, air, and soil or so it is hoped, however it seems not everything works as expected, as trace amounts can be found in food and the fish also weren't spared. Unfortunately there is always a chance that some stabilizing agent will be present or other unforeseen things go wrong.
  
  I hate it that I eat food laced with such stuff.
  
  More info from wiki:
  http://en.wikiped...osphates
  Many organophosphates are potent nerve agents, functioning by inhibiting the action of acetylcholinesterase (AChE) in nerve cells. They are one of the most common causes of poisoning worldwide, and are frequently intentionally used in suicides in agricultural areas. Their toxicity is not limited to the acute phase, however, and chronic effects have long been noted. Neurotransmitters such as acetylcholine (which is affected by organophosphate pesticides) are profoundly important in the brain's development, and many OPs have neurotoxic effects on developing organisms even from low levels of exposure. Other organophosphates are not toxic, yet their main metabolites, such as their oxons are.
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• physpuppy - Jan 14, 2009
  • Rank: 5 / 5 (1)
  Good reason NOT to eat macadamia nuts - if this is what they do industry wide. They use pretty freaky stuff on those nuts. Often, while I wouldn't want to ingest it, pesticides and fungicides are toxic to insects but not to animals/humans.
  
  The materials mentioned here are a bad exception.
  
  From the fact that Sarin is an organophosphate you cannot conclude that these materials are like Sarin* (many != all), but in this case - yes :-)
  Check out some stuff I pulled from the Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDS) of these compounds. While MSDS are sometimes hazy on hazards, the following was interesting in that it was quite descriptive of results of studies.
  
  Excerpts from MSDS:
  
  carbendazim:
  [in rats] CHRONIC EXPOSURE - TERATOGEN
  Result: May cause congenital malformation in the fetus.
  
  [in humans (!!)] CHRONIC EXPOSURE - MUTAGEN
  Result: May alter genetic material.
  
  endosulfan: Not much info on this except warnings on effects to liver and nervous system. "Based on toxicity of compounds of similar structure this material is probably highly hazardous"
  
  Use of this material as fungicide/pesticide is, IMO, quite shameful (to put it lightly)
  
  *an example - cyanide is bad for you. Guess which Vitamin contains cyanide?
  cyanocobalamin
  
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