posted on February 11, 2004 07:11:18 PM new
This is long, but important to read.
Again this is some thing that is nation wide, but important if you come to Florida.
As we all know, the state of Florida will not issue a public warning, so I will do it.
Thanks for taking the time to read this and to once again pass it on to family and friends.
Orlando Sentinel Staff Writers
Posted February 6 2004
Florida lax on algae risk, experts say
A Wisconsin teen's death is a wake-up call on local lakes, officials warned.
Just a few hours after coming home from a pool party complaining of stomach cramps, Dane Rogers clenched his body in pain, gritted his teeth and died suddenly in his mother's arms.
What killed the active 17-year-old Wisconsin high-school soccer captain and honor student baffled medical experts for more than a year.
Now medical officials say Rogers is the first-known victim of freshwater toxic algae in the country.
The death is of concern to Florida, where warmer weather makes toxic algae more common in ponds, lakes and rivers than up North. In November, the state received nearly $3 million from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to help educate doctors on how to spot the illnesses.
Though Florida has studied toxic algae for years, some experts think the state has not done enough to track problems and alert the public.
"The likelihood of exposure here would seem to be greater," said John Burns, Florida's top freshwater-algae expert.
Burns, a former scientist with the St. Johns River Water Management District who first identified dangerous levels of toxic algae in Florida waterways, said the public needs to be warned of the danger.
And there may be other victims whose deaths have been blamed on something different because toxic algae is rarely considered as a possibility.
"It certainly opened our eyes," said Dane County, Wis., Coroner John Stanley, who had not heard of toxic algae before Rogers' death in the summer of 2002. "It may be happening elsewhere, but officials just aren't aware of it."
The blue-green algae -- or cyanobacteria -- that commonly turn ponds and lakes scummy in warm weather also can trigger a wide variety of health problems, ranging from abdominal distress to breathing problems to skin irritations.
Lake specialists, called limnologists, and toxic-algae researchers are worried that medical officials haven't taken the threat seriously -- especially in warm-weather states where algae levels in the freshwater bodies often run wild.
And some in Florida have even advocated a law requiring physicians to report any suspected toxic-algae-related illnesses. But public-health officials have shown little interest.
"There's a big disconnect between limnologists who study algal toxins and the public-health department," Burns said.
Stanley, the coroner who determined that an evening dip in an algae-filled golf-course pond led to Rogers' death, said there may be other victims whose deaths have not been explained.
Teen's death stumped all
Toxic algae were the last thing anyone considered when the investigation into Rogers' death began.
Mike Rogers said his son had come from an evening pool party with severe stomach cramps, vomiting and uncontrollable diarrhea. Dane soon went into a series of seizures and then collapsed as his mother, Kim, tried to comfort him.
The distraught parents called paramedics, who tried to revive the teen but without success. Dane Rogers died just before 3 a.m.
"There did not appear to be any logical explanation for Dane's death," Stanley said.
The stunned couple struggled to understand.
"It is such a bizarre thing -- they couldn't pinpoint anything," said Mike Rogers, who runs a popular restaurant and pub in downtown Madison, home of the University of Wisconsin. "We thought it was something he had eaten."
Investigators ruled out drugs, alcohol or congenital heart problems.
"This young person crashed and died after onset of nausea and vomiting," wrote Dr. Robert Huntington, who conducted the autopsy for the Coroner's Office. "We see acute heart damage, which I think is secondary to shock. That said, the shock is not explained.
"This is a sad, vexing case."
Stanley began retracing Rogers' steps the day of his death.
It had been a busy one. Rogers went to soccer practice, then to a pool party that evening. In between, he ate Mexican food and pizza.
The food was analyzed; the soccer players were interviewed, and the pool water studied. But nothing seemed to explain why Rogers died.
Then investigators later found two other boys at the party who complained of abdominal pain, although much milder than Rogers'.
The investigation focused on what they had in common.
Stanley discovered Rogers and four friends -- including the two other boys who had fallen ill -- had all gone wading in a shallow golf-course pond the day before the soccer practice. Kim Rogers said it was 97 degrees that day.
"We just jumped in to cool off," said one of the boys who became only mildly ill. "We weren't in more than five, maybe 10, minutes. We were just in and out."
No significant pesticides or other known poisons were found in the water that could explain Rogers' death.
The case appeared to be going nowhere. Then a lake specialist at the University of Wisconsin sent an e-mail to Stanley with what he thought was a somewhat unlikely idea: toxic algae.
"When I read about the fatality in the newspaper, the circumstances sounded like poisoning by an algal toxin for several reasons," said Steven Carpenter, whose area of expertise is the study of freshwater lakes.
Expert suspected toxins
Stanley, the coroner, had never heard of toxic algae, so he called in an expert.
Wayne Carmichael -- a professor of aquatic biology and toxicology for Wright State University in Ohio -- has an international reputation as a specialist in toxins produced by freshwater algae. He helped the World Health Organization in developing safety guidelines for toxic algae and identified the first known toxic-algae-related deaths in Brazil almost a decade ago.
Carmichael has worked with federal, state and private industries in studying toxic algae. His specialty is identifying the little-understood but elusive toxins that can be produced by innocent-looking pond scum. Carmichael's lab studied blood and tissue samples from Rogers and his friends. Tests showed high levels of anatoxin-a, a powerful neurotoxin produced by several species of toxic algae capable of sending the heart into arrest and causing severe abdominal distress.
The results surprised Carmichael, because indications from animal deaths were that lethal levels of anatoxin-a would be almost immediately fatal.
A second round of tests had the same results. Carmichael said the anatoxin-a found in Rogers could only have come from blue-green algae.
He said scientists are still trying to figure out how it kills. The toxins primarily attack the respiratory system, paralyzing the lungs, he explained. Rogers' sudden inability to take in oxygen then triggered the shock that stopped his heart, Carmichael added.
The final autopsy report concluded that the likely cause of death was ingestion of toxic algae, which led to "acute diarrheal illness and subsequent death."
Toxins concern in Lake
In Florida, although public health officials say they are on the lookout for toxic-algae problems, there is no requirement that they be reported.
Skip Goerner, chairman of the Harris Chain of Lakes Restoration Council, is one of those pushing for a law requiring suspected toxic-algae illnesses be reported. The Harris Chain, in Lake County, has had some of the highest toxic-algae levels in the country.
"Toxic-algae levels here are beyond the pale," he said.
But state legislators and the Florida Department of Health have shown little interest in the proposal.
"More information about this potential death danger needs to be made aware to the public," Kim Rogers said. "We can't bear the thought of this tragedy happening to anyone else's child or family member."
If you would or care to send an email to Skip Goerner, you may do so at [email protected]
I spoke with him on the phone today, and told him that it is so sad that the State of Florida cares more about tourism and politics then the lives of people living here and the ones that come to visit.
[ edited by wrightsracing on Feb 11, 2004 07:13 PM ]
