Environmental toxicology study coauthored by postdoc Andrew Yeh receives press

A publication (Meador et al., 2018) coauthored by postdoc Andrew Yeh has been receiving press. The study is a continuation of Yeh’s doctoral research which investigated the effects of drugs in wastewater on Puget Sound Chinook salmon. Current wastewater treatment processes do not specifically target removal of pharmaceuticals and personal care products, and thus these and a broad range of other diverse chemicals termed “contaminants of emerging concern” (CECs) are released via effluent into Seattle’s urban estuaries. This recent study reports adverse modulation of a number of metabolic parameters in the juvenile Chinook, which could potentially reduce their chances of survival into adulthood and decrease population fitness. These findings are in concordance with Yeh’s previous publication (Yeh et al., 2017) which determined liver mitochondrial dysfunction in the drug-exposed salmon. Collectively, these reports warrant further research into the impacts of CECs in other estuaries and species in Puget Sound.

See also
Seattle Times article
UW Today story