“Yum, supper’s ready.” “Wow, she’s interesting!” “Uh oh, better put out that cigarette! ”

This is how our brain responds—countless times every day—to the steady stream of signals from our nose.

The signals are generated when traces of chemicals in the air—from a steak, say, or perfume, or gasoline—bind with special tissues in our noses and spark a tiny electrical burst. The bursts are transmitted to the brain, where they’re interpreted and translated into vital nutritional, sexual and survival information about what’s going on around us.

Aquatic animals—both fishes and crustaceans—rely on a similar interaction between sensory tissues and water-borne chemicals to gather information from their environment. Yes—fish have a sense of smell. In fact, because so many substances dissolve easily in water, it’s an even more effective medium than air for carrying olfactory information. But trace amounts of metals from mine tailings and other industrial sources damage the sensory tissues of these creatures. And the result can be a dangerous inability to sense food, potential mates or predators.

Even more significantly, Dr. Pyle’s research may soon provide scientists worldwide with a new and better way to measure the potential environmental impact of the many industries that contaminate water with trace metals. The current yardstick is based on extensive studies of the amount of damage various levels and types of trace metals can cause when they bind to the gill of aquatic animals. Exposures beyond certain thresholds have been shown to be toxic, and those thresholds can be used to set regulatory limits on industry.

Gills, however, comprise different kinds of tissue used to perform several different tasks, and trace metals bind to and affect those tissues in various ways. The result is that the gill-based standard can be very complex to apply. “But olfactory tissue,” explains Dr. Pyle, “only has one purpose. And we think that helps circumvent all of the confounding factors that make it difficult to make predictions with the gill-based model.”

Dr. Pyle and his team have spent several years gathering data on a new, simpler “chemosensory-based” model for assessing and regulating metal contamination. They’re the only lab in the world that’s been working on it, but their efforts are now gaining widespread attention. “Our model is starting to attract interest from environmental regulators in Australia, New Zealand and the United States,” reports Dr. Pyle.

It may take a few years more, but a made-in-Ontario environmental standard may soon be having a global impact.

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