An Epidemiological Evaluation of the Biochemical Basis for Steroid Hormonal Depressions in Fish Exposed to Industrial Wastes

Our earlier work showed that exposure to bleached kraft pulp mill effluent resulted in a number of reproductive alterations in white sucker including depression of circulating sex steroid hormone levels. Further studies demonstrated that reductions in the steroid biosynthetic capacity of the ovarian follicle were responsible for these changes. In this study an epidemiological approach was used to evaluate whether fish (white sucker and brown …