Algae crisis: Airborne particles of toxic cyanobacteria can travel more than a mile inland, new FGCU study shows
Amy Bennett WilliamsFGCU research released Friday shows airborne cyanobacteria toxins can travel more than a mile inland, raising questions about health consequences for those exposed to the region’s recent massive blue-green algae blooms last year.
Air sampling devices found two blue-green algae toxins — microcystin and BAMA — at the university’s Buckingham complex, said lead scientist Mike Parsons, a professor of marine biology. Both have been linked by some scientists to grave health problems, including liver cancer and neurodegenerative diseases like Parkinson’s.
The devices previously found them at a Cape Coral canal-front home and at the university’s Vester Field Station in Bonita Springs, in particle sizes able to deeply penetrate human lungs. The initial studies were done in September and October, as last year’s virulent bloom was waning. Ideally, they’ve have started earlier, Parsons said, but it took time to find partners and funding.
But better late than not at all, said Jason Pim, of the nonprofit Calusa Waterkeeper.
"Thank goodness Dr. Parsons did his study when he did, but it was still very at the tail end of things." Still, he said, "Our county department of health didn’t get anything into place, and we had three full months of sustained issue with no real action taken besides the independent studies."
More research is needed to understand the FGCU research's implications.
“We have to be cautious, because we're talking about liver toxins, neurodegenerative toxins, so we have to treat this in a serious manner,” Parsons said. “It merits further study. Right now, it doesn’t appear to be at a high enough level to be a concern, but we’re not 100 percent sure.”
More:Algae toxins are airborne and can reach deep into human lungs, FGCU research shows
The pilot study, a cooperative effort between FGCU and Yale, with help from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, initially sampled air in Cape Coral, where there was a thick bloom, and in Bonita Springs, where there wasn’t. Yet the toxins appeared in both places.
“So that had us scratching our heads a little,” Parsons said. “Our next step was to see if we could get away from any water source of toxins … to go as far inland as we could — away from any significant waterbody.”
Parsons said in Buckingham, “We were at least a mile away from any retention ponds, and three miles from the Caloosahatchee,” but over 28 days, the devices still picked up the toxins.
“That probably indicates there’s naturally occurring background levels of toxin in the air,” Parsons said, “from whatever naturally occurring sources there are.”
The next step? Study the air in multiple places, multiple times when blooms happen again.
“We’re going to be pursuing funding to intensify our sampling and analysis,” Parsons said. “And we have to couple this with epidemiological studies in the future to see what this exposure represents in terms of a human health risk.”
One who's glad such research is happening is Mary Tracy Sigman of Fort Myers, though she'd like to see more attention paid to the issue. "(I'm) still not sure the word is being heard enough or that much is being done for those already ill," she said. Sigman first became aware of the potential health concerns about airborne algae toxins when she attended a screening of "Toxic Puzzle" at the Sanibel-Captiva Conservation Foundation. "It was then that I realized we are all potentially in a lot of danger."
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Parsons plans to meet with researchers from Florida Atlantic University, which has been testing people for algae toxins, as well as the Florida Department of Environmental Protection and Cape Coral within the next few weeks to talk about collaboration.
Meantime, he urges continued caution. “Just like with red tide, microcystis is still out there. There are still blooms in the river. It’s still in the lake, so it didn’t go away. It’s there. Please don’t have an out-of-sight, out-of-mind attitude.”
