Research conducted by Dr. Martin Shafer and Wisconsin State Laboratory of Hygiene (WSLH) scientists “… have discovered key factors in predicting how and at what levels (copper and cadmium) harm the shoreline environment of the Great Lakes and what protective measures coastal organisms adopt in response. That’s allowed regulatory agencies … to refine tools to protect Great Lakes coastal regions from the metals.”

Most of the analyses for this research project were performed at the WSLH. The metals were analyzed in the Trace Elements Clean Laboratory and the Reactive Oxygen Species (ROS) assays were performed in the Environmental Toxicology Laboratory.

Read all about the project in the University of Wisconsin Aquatic Sciences Center’s Chronicle.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) also posted the story (4/4/14).

 

Wisconsin State Laboratory of Hygiene (WSLH) Inorganic Chemistry and Trace Elements Clean Laboratory Director Dr. Patrick Gorski is leading a multi-agency team looking at the factors that determine the natural concentration of hexavalent chromium – aka Chromium VI – in Wisconsin groundwater.

The research project – using funding administered through the University of Wisconsin Water Resources Institute – was spurred when Chromium VI was found in drinking water wells in Madison, WI. The levels were low so it probably wasn’t due to industrial contamination, which started Gorski thinking about how and why it got there.

Researchers are in the second year of the two-year project and are investigating how geology and environment may play a role.

Read more about the project.