Is this research part of the usual, frequently repeated propaganda and demagoguery regarding pesticides?
The featured research is about a single fish species and it is a predator fish!
Apparently, the researchers did not rule out any other factors that could have caused the shorter lifespans of this fish species in some of the lakes. How amateurish!
This research was done in China. How much does the Communist Party of China care for the environment and health? In general communist countries have a very bad historical record when it comes to protecting the environment.
"In fish, low doses of common pesticide speed aging and death
Chronic exposure to pesticides and other pollutants can devastate wildlife populations—sometimes in dramatically obvious ways. But more often, the exact cause of harm remains a mystery. Now, a study published this week in Science finds that the widely used insecticide chlorpyrifos speeds up aging in a common lake fish by shortening the protective caps on its chromosomes, leading to premature death. ..."
"... The research began with field studies in China where collaborators examined thousands of fish collected over several years from lakes with differing levels of pesticide contamination. Rohr and colleagues observed that fish living in contaminated lakes lacked older individuals, while populations in relatively uncontaminated lakes included many older fish. This pattern suggested that fish were not failing to add to their populations, but rather were dying earlier in life. ..."
From the editor's summary and abstract:
"Editor’s summary
Most studies of the negative effects of pesticides focus on acute lethality, but we are increasingly recognizing that chronic, low-dose exposure has pernicious effects. Huang et al. studied the effects of low but chronic exposure to the pesticide chlorpyrifos on the lake skygazer, a predatory fish common in lake ecosystems in China. They found that in lakes with persistent low-dose exposure, these fish had shorter telomeres, and the population was made up of mostly younger fish. Experiments in the lab confirmed that exposing fish to low doses of the pesticide shortened telomeres. ...
Abstract
Low concentrations of chemicals are widespread in the environment, but exploration of the effects of their chronic exposures on animal life span in the wild is limited.
Field investigations showed that fish populations of lake skygazer (Culter dabryi) with chronic low-dose chlorpyrifos loads had shortened telomeres and truncated age structures.
Laboratory experiments confirmed that chronic low-dose chlorpyrifos exposure induced telomere degradation and reduced survival in a dose- and physiological age–dependent manner, whereas acute high-dose exposure did not.
Together, these studies provide evidence that chronic low-level chlorpyrifos exposure reduces life span and population viability in a wild fish by accelerating physiological aging.
Given the pervasive presence of low pesticide concentrations in the environment and the conserved mechanisms of aging across vertebrates, these findings raise concerns that even low doses of pesticides may pose long-term risks to longevity."
Long-term pesticide exposure accelerates aging and shortens lifespan in fish (original news release)
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