The fishing industry loses around 18 million dollars annually due to brevetoxin exposure and the resulting fish kills. Also, around one million dollars has been spent annually on public health due to shellfish poisoning from 1987 to 1992. A major obstacle for these industries and public health is inability to contain a bloom, and it is undetectable in taste and smell, only chemically. One major concern for exposure is not just illness, but that brevetoxin can alter human DNA in lymphocytes, impacting immune function.