Toxic chemicals found in dead Tasmanian devils: study

Yahoo News 22 Jan 08;

Potentially cancer-causing chemicals used as flame retardants have been found in the bodies of Tasmanian devils, suggesting a possible role in a disease that threatens to wipe them out, a report said Tuesday.

Scientists have for years been unable to explain why the animals -- the world's largest marsupial carnivore -- have been afflicted with the disease, which causes facial tumours.

A study in which fat was taken from 16 of the animals, including some with the disease, found high levels of retardant chemicals commonly used in computers and foam in bedding and furniture, The Australian newspaper said.

Activists seeking a ban on the toxins said the finding was significant as it showed "reasonably high" levels of a chemical that industry had argued was safe.

"We were quite shocked," said Mariann Lloyd-Smith, co-chair of the International Persistent Organic Pollutants Elimination Network. "Certainly this study will have ramifications."

The National Measurement Institute found high levels of hexabromobiphenyl ether, known as BB153, and "reasonably high" levels of decabromobiphenyl ether, known as BDE209, the newspaper said.

For years, manufacturers had argued that BDE209 was safe, Lloyd-Smith told AFP, but activists believed it broke down into more dangerous chemicals.

The health risks of both chemicals include cancer, developmental problems and neurological effects.

Although the sample of the recent study was too small for firm conclusions, Lloyd-Smith said the toxins weakened the immune system and might theoretically be a factor in the disease that threatens to wipe out the Tasmanian devil.

"They are basically used in a host of domestic and industrial settings to stop the product catching on fire. The problem is once they are used they don't stay in the treated material," she told AFP.

Lloyd-Smith said high levels of the chemicals can be found in dust in offices and at home, which can move thousands of kilometres on the wind and fall to the earth when they hit a colder climate.

Warwick Brennan, spokesman for the Save the Tasmanian Devil Project which commissioned the study, said it needed more assessment.

"We have got some raw data there. It requires an expert toxicologist to interpret it."

The Tasmanian devil now only lives in Australia's island state from where it gets its name, having been competed to extinction on the mainland by the dingo, which was introduced by Aborigines thousands of years ago.

A top biologist said predators are good indicators where chemicals are going, as they are nearer the top of the food chain.

"I'm sure there's a huge interest from the medical point of view in pursuing this," biologist Nick Mooney told national radio.