Birth Control Pill In Sewage Blamed For Sex-Change Fish

London Telegraph | July 10 2004

Water companies have been asked to examine ways of removing traces of the female contraceptive pill from sewage effluent after the publication of widespread evidence of sex changes in river fish.

An Environment Agency survey of 1,500 fish in 42 rivers in England found more than a third of males exhibiting female characteristics.

Male fish with advanced changes in their sexual organs are unable to reproduce, with potentially serious implications for fish populations, said the agency.

The latest stage of a 20-year investigation showed that the feminising effects in fish were directly related to their exposure to effluent - in which the Pill was 1,000 times more powerful than natural oestrogens.

Women excrete hormones naturally and these find their way into the system.

Andrew Skinner, of the Environment Agency, said: "Customers pay water companies to dispose of their sewage and waste water safely, in a way that does not damage the environment."