Just as the potential for blue-green algae blooms in local waters ramps up, scientists are warning there's a newly discovered and potentially deadly toxin in the slimy stuff.

Blue-green algae produces a toxin called BMAA that is suspected of triggering neurological diseases such as Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also known as ALS or Lou Gehrig's Disease.

The link between BMAA (Beta-N-Methylamino-L-alanine) in blue-green algae blooms and neurological diseases is "still a hypothesis," said Larry Brand, marine and atmospheric science professor at the University of Miami, "but the evidence is growing."

Not everyone who lives along water with blue-green algae is going to develop a neurological disease, Brand said.

"The possibility is somewhat low," he said. "But if you live along the Indian River Lagoon, years from now, you have a greater chance of coming down with one of these diseases than you would have if you had not been exposed to (blue-green algae) blooms."

Brand admits scientists don't know how much living along water with blue-green algae blooms increases the risk of developing a neurological disease.

"BMAA is a slow-acting toxin," Brand said. "It takes 10 to 20 or more years to develop once it gets in your body, and this is new research. We don't know enough to say how great the risk is."


Environmental trigger

Some people have genes that make them more susceptible to neurological diseases, Brand said, "but there has to be an environmental trigger for people to actually get these diseases. BMAA could be that trigger."

Touching blue-green algae isn't a problem, Brand said, because "your skin does a pretty good job of keeping toxins out of your body, unless you've got cuts or scratches. There's a greater risk of breathing in (fumes from) the toxin because your lungs are designed to get gases into your bloodstream."

The Florida Department of Health says there's not enough evidence to link BMAA in blue-green algae blooms and neurological diseases.

"BMAA is one of the many possible environmental triggers to neurological disease that (are) being investigated by researchers in Florida and elsewhere," according to a health department fact sheet. "There are millions of potential environmental exposures. BMAA is just one of those potential triggers."

The health department admits high levels of BMAA have been found in shrimp, crabs, bottom fish and shark fins from South Florida marine ecosystems; "however, there are no known cases of human neurological diseases related to ingesting animals from these waters."

Risky fish

Brand advises against eating "a lot of seafood from the Indian River Lagoon. It could put you at a greater risk of developing these neurological diseases later in life."

The Florida Department of Environmental Protection confirmed blue-green algae blooms in the St. Lucie River during the "Lost Summer" of 2013 contained the toxin microcystin, which can cause nausea and vomiting if ingested and rash or hay fever symptoms if touched or inhaled. Drinking water with microcystin can cause long-term liver disease.

That year, state health department offices in Martin and St. Lucie counties put signs along the lagoon warning people to avoid contact with algae blooms.

If blooms return this summer, the signs will go back up — with or without the potential for BMAA.

"If blue-green algae is present, we know there's the potential for toxins, so we don't need to verify what kind of toxin could be there before we tell people to avoid contact with (the bloom)," said Todd Reinhold, environmental health director at the Florida Department of Health in Martin County.


Conditions right

Conditions are definitely setting up for blue-green algae blooms in the St. Lucie River and southern Indian River Lagoon this summer.

The summer rainy season typically starts in late May, early June, and discharges from Lake Okeechobee that started Jan. 30 are likely to continue this summer. All that extra freshwater means the river and lagoon, both of which should have a mix of freshwater and salty water, will have less salinity and more nutrients: two criteria for algae blooms.

"Then you add warmer water and long, hot days, and you've got everything you need for blue-green algae blooms," said Mark Perry, executive director of the Florida Oceanographic Society in Stuart.

A algae toxin called Cryptoperidiniopsis was blamed for thousands of dead fish and fish with lesions during Lake O discharges in 1998, and an algae bloom known as "brown tide" is linked to a massive fish kill in the Banana River section of the northern Indian River Lagoon in mid-March.

"Now it appears that algal blooms don't just cause fish kills," Perry said. "We already knew that blue-green algal blooms can cause health problems in humans, and now it appears it might kill you."

Brand said he wouldn't live along the Indian River Lagoon "or any body of water in Florida for that matter. And it's not just the BMAA. There are other toxins in blue-green algae we know about and probably lots more don't know about yet. Those are the ones that worry me the most."

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