This book describes the present state of knowledge regarding the impact of cyanobacteria on health through the use of water. It considers aspects of risk management and details the information needed for protecting drinking water sources and recreational water bodies from the health hazards caused by cyanobacteria and their toxins. It also outlines the state of knowledge regarding the principal considerations in the design of programmes and studies for monitoring water resources and supplies and describes the approaches and procedures used.
The development of this publication was guided by the recommendations of several expert meetings concerning drinking water (Geneva, December 1995; Bad Elster, June
1996) and recreational water (Bad Elster, June 1996; St Helier, May 1997). An expert meeting in Bad Elster, April 1997, critically reviewed the literature concerning the toxicity of cyanotoxins and developed the scope and content of this book. A draft manuscript was reviewed at an editorial meeting in November 1997, and a further draft was
reviewed by the working group responsible for updating the Guidelines for Drinkingwater Quality in March 1998.

/pdf/toxic-cyanobacteria-in-water-a-guide-to-their-public-health-2y64v55hv1.pdf

Toxic cyanobacteria in water: a guide to their public health consequences, monitoring and management.

Emerging recognition of two fundamental errors under-pinning past polices for natural resource issues heralds awareness of the need for a worldwide fundamental change in thinking and in practice of environmental management. The first error has been an implicit assumption that ecosystem responses to human use are linear, predictable and controllable. The second has been an assumption that human and natural systems can be treated independently. However, evidence that has been accumulating in diverse regions all over the world suggests that natural and social systems behave in nonlinear ways, exhibit marked thresholds in their dynamics, and that social-ecological systems act as strongly coupled, complex and evolving integrated systems. This article is a summary of a report prepared on behalf of the Environmental Advisory Council to the Swedish Government, as input to the process of the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) in Johannesburg, South Africa in 26 August 4 September 2002. We use the concept of resilience—the capacity to buffer change, learn and develop—as a framework for understanding how to sustain and enhance adaptive capacity in a complex world of rapid transformations. Two useful tools for resilience-building in social-ecological systems are structured scenarios and active adaptive management. These tools require and facilitate a social context with flexible and open institutions and multi-level governance systems that allow for learning and increase adaptive capacity without foreclosing future development options.

https://bioone.org/journals/AMBIO-A-Journal-of-the-Human-Environment/volume-31/issue-5/0044-7447-31.5.437/Resilience-and-Sustainable-Development--Building-Adaptive-Capacity-in-a/10.1579/0044-7447-31.5.437.pdf

Resilience and sustainable development: building adaptive capacity in a world of transformations

Prolactin is a protein hormone of the anterior pituitary gland that was originally named for its ability to promote lactation in response to the suckling stimulus of hungry young mammals. We now know that prolactin is not as simple as originally described. Indeed, chemically, prolactin appears in a multiplicity of posttranslational forms ranging from size variants to chemical modifications such as phosphorylation or glycosylation. It is not only synthesized in the pituitary gland, as originally described, but also within the central nervous system, the immune system, the uterus and its associated tissues of conception, and even the mammary gland itself. Moreover, its biological actions are not limited solely to reproduction because it has been shown to control a variety of behaviors and even play a role in homeostasis. Prolactin-releasing stimuli not only include the nursing stimulus, but light, audition, olfaction, and stress can serve a stimulatory role. Finally, although it is well known that dopamine of hypothalamic origin provides inhibitory control over the secretion of prolactin, other factors within the brain, pituitary gland, and peripheral organs have been shown to inhibit or stimulate prolactin secretion as well. It is the purpose of this review to provide a comprehensive survey of our current understanding of prolactin's function and its regulation and to expose some of the controversies still existing.

/pdf/prolactin-structure-function-and-regulation-of-secretion-3w4x6fqbg3.pdf

Prolactin: Structure, Function, and Regulation of Secretion

The rise of harmful cyanobacteria blooms: The potential roles of eutrophication and climate change

https://febs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1016/0014-5793%2890%2980245-E

Cyanobacterial microcystin-LR is a potent and specific inhibitor of protein phosphatases 1 and 2A from both mammals and higher plants.

Cylindrospermopsis raciborskii, a tropical blooming species of cyanobacterium (blue-green alga), was isolated from the domestic water supply reservoir on Palm Island, a continental island off the tropical northeast coast of Australia. This species, not previously known to be toxic, was shown to be severely hepatotoxic for mice. The 50% lethal dose at 24 h after injection was found to be 64 +/- 5 mg of freeze-dried culture per kg of mouse. The principal lesion produced was centrilobular to massive hepatocyte necrosis, but various degrees of injury were also seen in the kidneys, adrenal glands, lungs, and intestine. The possible implication of this finding in relation to an incident of hepatoenteritis in humans living on the island is discussed.

Severe hepatotoxicity caused by the tropical cyanobacterium (blue-green alga) Cylindrospermopsis raciborskii (Woloszynska) Seenaya and Subba Raju isolated from a domestic water supply reservoir.

Some Taxonomic and Biologic Aspects of Toxic Dinoflagellates. Methods of Analysis for Algal Toxins: Dinoflagellate and Diatom Toxins. Mode of Action of Toxins of Shellfish Poisoning. Paralytic Shellfish Poisoning. Diarrhetic Shellfish Poisoning. Ciguatera Fish Poisoning. Control Measures in Shellfish and Finfish Industries: U.S.A. Seafood Toxins of Algal Origin and Their Control in Canada. Taxonomy of Toxic Cyanophycea (Cyanobacteria). Measurement of Toxins from Blue-Green Algae in Water and Foodstuffs. Mechanism of Toxicity of Cyclic Peptide Toxins from Blue-Green Algae. Disease Related to Freshwater Algal Blooms.

Algal toxins in seafood and drinking water

Toxic cyanobacteria are increasingly being perceived as a potential health hazard, particularly in waters used for recreation. A few countries are developing regulations to protect human health from these toxins, and the World Health Organization (WHO) has published both a guideline value for one cyanotoxin in drinking water and a procedural guideline for recreational waters. This article presents an overview of the currently known cyanotoxins and of documented cases of human illnesses attributed to them. It further discusses exposure pathways and approaches to risk management. In this context, the WHO guideline for recreational waters is presented, and monitoring approaches are outlined.

Health risks caused by freshwater cyanobacteria in recreational waters.

Toxic blue–green algae present a hazard to human populations that are exposed through drinking water or recreational activities. The toxins include hepatotoxic peptides, a cytotoxic alkaloid, neurotoxic alkaloids, and saxitoxin derivatives, with allergens and lipopolysaccharides also present. The recorded outbreaks of hepatoenteritis through drinking water have occurred in chlorinated supplies at the time of either natural or copper-induced lysis of blue–green algal water blooms. Recent deaths of dialysis patients were from liver injury caused by blue–green algal toxins contaminating a water supply carried by tanker from an algal infested reservoir source. Recreational exposures to water containing toxic blue–green algae have caused illnesses ranging from acute pneumonia and hepatoenteritis to mild skin irritation and gastroenteritis. Water safety guidelines for cyanobacterial toxins are under development by WHO, and a provisional guideline for microcystin-LR of 1 μg/L has been approved. ©1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Environ Toxicol 14: 5–12, 1999

Ian R. Falconer

Papers

Severe hepatotoxicity caused by the tropical cyanobacterium (blue-green alga) Cylindrospermopsis raciborskii (Woloszynska) Seenaya and Subba Raju isolated from a domestic water supply reservoir.

Algal toxins in seafood and drinking water

Health risks caused by freshwater cyanobacteria in recreational waters.

An Overview of problems caused by toxic blue–green algae (cyanobacteria) in drinking and recreational water

Naming of cyclic heptapeptide toxins of cyanobacteria (blue-green-algae)