Editorial: Growing research points to a health danger that not many realize: the toxins in blue-green algae can disperse into the air, travel for miles and
Roosevelt Bridge, 9/5/2018
Photo: Christine Craveiro via Facebook
lodge in people’s lungs. How dangerous is this? We need to find out fast.
Everyone knows that blue-green algae and red tide, such as bloomed to excess in the St. Lucie River estuary and the Gulf waters off Florida’s west coast last summer, are stinky and unpleasant and bad for swimming, fishing and tourism.
But they’re also bad for health. As the advocacy group Clean Okeechobee Waters Foundation warns, blue-green algae produce toxins known as microcystins; these have been linked to non-alcoholic liver diseases, cirrhosis and liver cancer.
Red tide creates brevetoxin, which causes human respiratory problems. Both types of algal blooms produce saxitoxins that cause acute paralysis.
One especially toxic compound from blue-green algae, known as BMAA, has been linked in some studies to ALS, Alzheimer’s and possibly Parkinson’s diseases.
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