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Team:Carnegie Mellon/Ethics
From 2014.igem.org
When conducting biological experiments, it is imperative that scientists and researchers conduct themselves in an ethical and responsible manner. According to Michigan State University, bioethics is the discussion surrounding how scientists, researchers, and the general public must conduct themselves in regards to biological issues. In recent decades, bioethics has brought about significant changes in regards to the treatment of the sick and the manner in which biological research is conducted. For example, it is imperative that any participant in a research trial or any patient in a clinical setting be informed of what is being done to their body by the scientist or doctor in charge in terms that the participant can understand. This is because in order to consent to a particular course of action, a person must be informed of the risks, less he/she be taken advantage of.
In regards to the sensing of estrogenic molecules, there are a variety of ethical issues which must be considered. For one, announcing that a particular body of water has detectable levels of estrogenic molecules opens up a lot of potential privacy issues. For example, our sensor might potentially be used in a college dorm bathroom. The sensor could report the presence of birth control and thus compromise the privacy of the individuals using the restroom. Another potential issue is the fact that the results from the sensor could put farms at risk, as many times runoff from farms is a source for estrogenic activators. Thus, without ethical standards to guide the usage of the sensor it can be used in ways which are detrimental to the general public.
“Any change in the gender ratio or abnormality in reproductive tissue can adversely affect a population of fish, potentially reducing it with each generation”. During the summers of 2001 and 2003, a group led by University of New Brunswick ecotoxicologist Karen Kidd performed a study in which they spiked the water of a Canadian lake with the type of estrogen that is found in birth control pills. The purpose of the study was to determine how the hormone would impact the number of aquatic animals. The hormone was added at a level of six parts per trillion, which is similar to levels that have been found in treated sewage water. The male fish that were tested had some female sex tissue, regardless of size or type of fish. The lake’s population of the common Fathead minnow decreased from thousands to almost zero. The estrogen disrupted the minnow’s reproductive abilities so much that the population quickly plummeted.
Between 1999 and 2000, the U.S. Geological Survey sampled 139 surface waters throughout the U.S. Through this study, it was determined that 80% of those waters contained endocrine disrupting chemicals, most of them being estrogens.
In 2004, researchers collected and studied a sample of white sucker fish in Boulder, Colorado. The results of this study showed that there were five times more female fish than males, and about half of the male fish had female tissue. The entire population was sterile.
A similar trend has been witnessed in human beings; factors such as lower sperm counts in men, lower testosterone levels than in past generations, rising rates of infertility, and more females being born than males, demonstrate that the estrogenic compounds present in our water supply may be harming the environment as well as human beings.
Research has not yet shown a direct link between our water supply and feminization in humans, but studies exposing trends of feminization may point to a need to look further into the issue. There is plenty of indirect evidence showing that estrogen in drinking water is impacting human health. Therefore, there may be a current need for more research on what estrogenic compounds, which are not currently filtered out of drinking water, is really doing to human beings and whether changes on how our water is handled need to be made.
While drinking bottled water or unfiltered tap water is deemed safe by policy controlling what water is safe for us to drink, US government and state policies do not currently require any testing or provide any safety limits for drugs such as estrogen in water. Although water providers believe the levels of these compounds to be safe, extensive research on the effects of decades of exposure has not yet been conducted.
There is increasing evidence that endocrine disruptors in the environment may be interfering with our bodies’ hormonal messenger system. The hormonal messenger system is incredibly complex and carefully regulated. There are a number of ways in which chemicals such as estrogens can disrupt the endocrine system. They can mimic or block the chemicals that are naturally found in the body, alter hormonal levels, and therefore affect the functions that these hormones control. The less direct interferences these compounds have include altering the body’s ability to produce hormones, interfering with the ways the hormones travel through the body, and changing the numbers of receptors.
