[NatureNS] re loss of birds and insects

Date: Thu, 15 Aug 2013 15:54:07 -0300
From: "Stephen R. Shaw" <srshaw@Dal.Ca>
To: naturens@chebucto.ns.ca
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Heather:
I didn't know what it was either, but it had to be an anti-knock agent  
added to gasoline to increase the octane rating, and replace the  
infamous tetraethyl lead used for that purpose.  Check Wikipedia under  
'anti-knock agent', which reveals that MMT is just that, and is short  
for methylcyclopentadienyl manganese tricarbonyl.

The site indicates that it is a powerful neurotoxin and respiratory  
toxin, and is highly lipid soluble, meaning that it can accumulate in  
the body's fat reserves and easily enter cell membranes, and possibly  
bio-concentrate going up the food chain.

I haven't tracked it further so don't know if the levels of it (at the  
roadside etc) are high enough to be a real current concern to humans  
or other animals.

Steve (Halifax)
  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Quoting Heather Drope <heather.drope@ns.sympatico.ca>:

> I was mentioning to a friend of mine the thread going thru Naturens about the
> loss of birds and insects.
> He suggested that when they took the lead out of gasoline they added MMT?
> and that could be contributing to the loss of the flying creatures.He is
> sending me the meaning of MMT but I am sure someone else on this site
> knows what that is. Heather
> Heather Drope
> Nova Scotia Wild Flora Society
> www.nswildflora.ca
> 902-440-5032
>
> "When one tugs at a single thing in nature, he finds it attached to  
> the rest of the world."
> John Muir
>



-- 
Stephen R. Shaw Ph.D
Dept of Psychology & Neuroscience
Dalhousie University
1459 Oxford Street
Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada B3H 4R2
e-mail: srshaw@dal.ca
fax: 1-902-494-6585
phone: 1-902-494-2886

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