Steven Haller remembers the look of fear on people’s faces when toxic algae from Lake Erie reached his community’s water supply 10 years ago, disrupting it for two days.
Since then, Haller, a clinical researcher in the department of medicine at the University of Toledo, has set out to help provide answers about how harmful algal blooms can affect the health of people who live and play nearby.
“I see all the concern on people’s faces here,” Haller said. “They want answers. “They want to know”.
For residents of the western basin of Lake Erie, blooms are a common sight. As spring rains flush excess nutrients from agricultural fields and into the watershed’s streams and rivers, bacteria that live in the lake They feed on that phosphorus and nitrogen, turning the water green, producing thick sludge when the situation is serious and potentially toxic to humans and animals.
Research has shown that toxins from these bacteria called microcystins can make animals and people sick when they come into contact with infected water. In Haller’s lab, researchers hope to better understand how these toxins affect people, especially those with health problems such as asthma.
In the lab, which Haller runs with David Kennedy, associate professor of medicine, researchers are examining how microcystin affects people with health problems such as liver, intestinal or lung diseases, by growing cell samples and exposing the cells to the toxin. .
“We have shown that in all of these cases, exposure to microcystin worsens the disease process,” Haller said.
A new field of study here is the effects of toxins when they become aerosols, that is, when they are dispersed in the air. In the lab, scientists use a machine that uses high pressure to spray the toxin onto human lung cells. In the lake, toxins could become aerosols when waves hit the rocks on the shore or when boats and jet skis move through the water.
Monitoring the air near Lake Erie is key to understanding how toxins can be aerosolized.
On a warm afternoon near Toledo, at the height of a bloom, Kennedy climbed a ladder about 15 feet to the top of a small concrete building near the shore, where an air monitor collected and filtered the lake air. Kennedy installed a clean air filter after collecting the previous week’s one, stained a light gray by airborne particles.
Sampling will be done through the end of the flowering season, Kennedy said. Thereafter, all filters will be analyzed. It’s the first year they’ve conducted this research in Erie, but their work follows peer-reviewed research published in 2023 that found evidence of microcystin in the air in Grand Lake St. Mary’s, Ohio.
While Kennedy and Haller wait to test whether there is microcystin in the air near Lake Erie, they already have initial results from their controlled experiments showing that inflammation in lung cells increases when exposed to these aerosolized toxins. In the case of asthma, it increases “significantly,” Haller said.
Some Toledo residents say they have become accustomed to taking precautions against algae.
When things get like this, bottled water is used for everything,” said Malissa Vallestero, who was fishing with her family in a Lake Erie park during the bloom. “I no longer drink the water that comes from here.”
Dan Desmond, who was walking on the beach at Maumee Bay State Park with his great-nephew, said he checks the bloom before approaching the lake.
“If I went down to get in the water, it would definitely ruin my day.”said.
In addition to lab studies, Haller and Kennedy are enrolling community members in a study in collaboration with the University of Michigan. Over the next five years, they hope to study 200 people to see if algal blooms affect their health. Researchers will ask participants questions over the course of the season. algae bloomsthey will perform lung tests, take blood samples, and try to quantify the toxins in their bodies if they have them.
“I want to be able to offer those answers both ways, whether there is an effect or not,” Haller said.
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