After 20 years of research, the Marine Mammal Center in Sausalito has discovered what is causing a pervasive and aggressive form of cancer in sea lions.
The MMC has published research which connects the fatal cancer with leaking barrels filled with chemicals that were dumped off the coast of Los Angeles in the 60’s; chemicals that include DDT. They discovered that those chemicals combined with the herpes virus in the sea lions can create this cancer.
"Roughly 24 to 25 percent of all adult California sea lions that we admit as patients will have cancer," said Dr. Padraig Duignan, chief pathologist at the MMC and a co-author of the study. "Now it’s been found that there’s been leaking over the years and those chemicals are getting into the food chain."
That food chain includes people as well.
"So now that we know they’re having this effect on a mammal, sea lions, which physiologically is very similar to us, then it’s highly likely that it can be having similar detrimental effects on us," said Dr. Duignan.
He said more study needs to be done on the reaction between the herpes virus in humans and these chemicals, which humans are also exposed to through our food chain, as the chemicals do not break down.
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