Review of Florida red tide and human health effects

Abstract

This paper reviews the literature describing research performed over the past decade on the known and possible exposures and human health effects associated with Florida red tides. These harmful algal blooms are caused by the dinoflagellate, Karenia brevis, and similar organisms, all of which produce a suite of natural toxins known as brevetoxins. Florida red tide research has benefited from a consistently funded, long term research program, that has allowed an interdisciplinary team of researchers to focus their attention on this specific environmental issue—one that is critically important to Gulf of Mexico and other coastal communities. This long-term interdisciplinary approach has allowed the team to engage the local community, identify measures to protect public health, take emerging technologies into the field, forge advances in natural products chemistry, and develop a valuable pharmaceutical product. The Review includes a brief discussion of the Florida red tide organisms and their toxins, and then focuses on the effects of these toxins on animals and humans, including how these effects predict what we might expect to see in exposed people.

The human health effects of Florida Red Tide (FRT) blooms: An expanded analysis

“…Our research comprised significant spatial and temporal extensions of earlier work that demonstrated the relationships between FRT bloom events and human respiratory and digestive illnesses in Sarasota County, Florida (Kirkpatrick et al 2004;Backer 2009;Fleming et al 2011). …”

“…Although some authors have pointed to FRT blooms as a source of digestive illnesses (Kirkpatrick et al 2006(Kirkpatrick et al , 2010Backer 2009;Fleming et al 2011), this effect has been discounted largely because of an effective program to monitor and manage SHAs to mitigate the harvesting of shellfish potentially contaminated with brevetoxins. Because the pathway that brevetoxins take from K. brevis to humans is uncertain, our result that digestive illnesses are related to FRT bloom events was surprising.…”

“…Fleming et al (2011) found that brevetoxin aerosols during active FRT blooms could exacerbate asthma and other respiratory conditions with subchronic sequelae. Kirkpatrick et al (2006Kirkpatrick et al ( , 2008 found that visits to a hospital Emergency Department (ED) in Sarasota, Florida for respiratory and digestive illnesses were associated with FRT blooms.…”

“…Human respiratory and digestive illnesses are known to have been caused by exposures to brevetoxins associated with FRT blooms (Kirkpatrick et al 2004(Kirkpatrick et al , 2006(Kirkpatrick et al , 2008(Kirkpatrick et al , 2010Fleming et al 2005Fleming et al , 2007Fleming et al , 2009Fleming et al , 2011Backer 2009;Hoagland et al 2009). These illnesses may exhibit varying severities, leading to increases in costs associated with purchases of over-the-counter medications; self-treatment by asthmatics utilizing prescription pharmaceuticals; visits to outpatient clinics, doctors, and emergency departments; or hospital inpatient admissions.…”

“…These illnesses may exhibit varying severities, leading to increases in costs associated with purchases of over-the-counter medications; self-treatment by asthmatics utilizing prescription pharmaceuticals; visits to outpatient clinics, doctors, and emergency departments; or hospital inpatient admissions. In theory, even human mortalities could result from neurotoxic shellfish poisoning (NSP), although no mortalities have yet been linked conclusively to this source (Fleming et al 2011). FRTassociated mortalities have been observed in marine mammals, however, including manatees and oceanic dolphins, and also in sea turtles, seabirds, and finfish (Flewelling et al 2005, Landsberg et al 2009, Fire and Van Dolah 2012, Capper et al 2013.…”