Importance of the Great Lakes. (Correspondence).The article by Knap et al., "Indicators of Ocean Health and Human Health: Developing a Research and Monitoring Framework" (Knap et al. 2002), was a welcome overview of issues that link the environmental condition of marine/ocean ecosystems and human disease. The complement to the growing concern about the connection between health and the marine environment is a corresponding emphasis on large freshwater lake ecosystems and human health. In the United States United States, officially United States of America, republic (2005 est. pop. 295,734,000), 3,539,227 sq mi (9,166,598 sq km), North America. The United States is the world's third largest country in population and the fourth largest country in area. and Canada, for example, the Great Lakes basin The Great Lakes Basin consists of the Great Lakes and the surrounding lands of the states of Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin in the United States, and the provinces of Ontario and Quebec in Canada, whose direct runoff and contains a set of inland seas Inland Sea, Jap. Seto-naikai, arm of the Pacific Ocean, c.3,670 sq mi (9,510 sq km), S Japan, between Honshu, Shikoku, and Kyushu islands. It is linked to the Sea of Japan by a narrow channel. that are oceanographic in scale. They serve as a highway for international maritime commerce and support a $1 billion/year recreational and commercial fishing industry. In addition, they must also supply drinking water drinking water supply of water available to animals for drinking supplied via nipples, in troughs, dams, ponds and larger natural water sources; an insufficient supply leads to dehydration; it can be the source of infection, e.g. leptospirosis, salmonellosis, or of poisoning, e.g. for over 15 million people. The Great Lakes Great Lakes, group of five freshwater lakes, central North America, creating a natural border between the United States and Canada and forming the largest body of freshwater in the world, with a combined surface area of c.95,000 sq mi (246,050 sq km). hold about 20% of the world's surface freshwater. In this context, the degradation of the Great Lakes ecosystem through chemical and biological contamination presents an enormous challenge for the future. Questions about the impact of methyl methyl (mĕth`əl), CH3, organic free radical or alkyl group derived from methane by the removal of one hydrogen atom. mercury, polychlorinated biphenyls polychlorinated biphenyls, (pol´ēklôr´  nā´tid bīfē´n , and other chemicals on the health of
those who eat fish from the Great Lakes; about the role of bacterial
loading of coastline beaches on disease; and about the quality of
drinking water taken from the lakes are among those in need of intense
study.Surprisingly, in comparison with the number of research organizations and funding opportunities that concentrate on the marine environment, there are very few governmental or academic programs that target the Great Lakes environment. In this context, it should be a priority to develop research programs that can enlarge the knowledge base so that the Great Lakes can be sustained as the centerpiece of our freshwater resources. David H. Petering Department of Chemistry NIEHS Marine and Freshwater Biomedical Sciences Center University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Milwaukee, Wisconsin E-mail: petering@uwm.edu Val Klump Great Lakes WATER Institute University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Milwaukee, Wisconsin REFERENCE Knap A, Dewailly E, Furgal C, Galvin J, Baden D, Bowen RE, et al. 2002. Indicators of ocean health and human health: developing a research and monitoring framework. Environ Health Perspect 110:839-845. |
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