Annotated Bibliography #2 and #3

Annotated Bibliography #2

Arnold, Robert G. "Pharmaceuticals without a Prescription." Journal of Environmental Engineering Oct. 2002: 907. Military & Government Collection. EBSCO. Web. 12 Nov. 2009.

First it is important to mention that this article is an editorial published in a professional journal. The question posed in this article is what affect are pharmaceutical pollutants and pharmaceutically active compounds having on the environment? Specifically, what are the health risks to humans.

The evidence presented is that of results of studies done by the USGS. The author compares levels of pharmaceutical contamination to that of therapeutic doses of the corresponding drugs. The audience of this article would be professionals in water and environmental sciences. The conclusion reached by this article is that the effects of such pharmaceutical contaminants at levels found is unknown but that levels found in the USGS study do not reach that of therapeutic doses. The author further concludes that these levels are sufficient to effect fish and other wildlife and have be demonstrated that such effects are taking place. The author further states the potentially disastrous effects if the level of these type of pollutants is allowed to increase.

I feel that the assertions made by the author are accurate and that the evidence presented is convincing.
I am not part of the intended audience. However I found the article useful. Specifically the author has constructed a table of the USGS findings compared with therapeutic doses of the same drugs. The dosing information was taken from the Physicians Desk Reference or PDR. This is the primary piece of information I will use in my final paper.

Annotated Bibliography #3

Baker, Michael E., et al. "Analysis of Endocrine Disruption in Southern California Coastal Fish Using an Aquatic Multispecies Microarray." Environmental Health Perspectives 117.2 (2009): 223-230. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Web. 14 Nov. 2009.

The question posed by this article was; How are hormones and hormone like chemicals(endocrine disruptors)affecting fish and other marine life off the coast of Southern California? And is the a quantitative metod for detecting such effects. The evidence used in this article is a large amount of raw data put together in such a way as to show trends in change to exposure to such chemicals and to investigate if there are any physiological changes produced by exposure to these types of chemicals and can these changes be detected using specific methods cited in the article. The audience for this article would be scientists involved in the environmental and biological sciences. This article concludes in general that there are physiological changes marine life due to exposure of the above listed chemicals but the question of how widespread contamination is and the totality of changes in biology of marine life is yet to be determined.

The assertions made by this article I believe to be accurate and convincing due to the large amount of data gathered from many sources. I am not part of the intended audience. this article demonstrated that new methods of detecting effects of these types of pollutants was effective and this is helpful to me in that it demonstrates effects already taking place and the very real possibility that these types of chemicals may be having an effect on human populations, but these effects have yet to be determined with any type of completeness.