Tuesday, February 22, 2000

WILMINGTON, NC -- Dr. Michael Mallin, research associate professor at the UNC Wilmington Center for Marine Science, wrote the cover article "Impacts of Industrial Animal Production on Rivers and Estuaries" for the January/February issue of American Scientist.

The article dealt with how animal waste lagoons and sprayfields near aquatic environments may significantly degrade water quality and endanger health. Mallin wrote about his and collaborating laboratory research efforts on the New River and the Cape Fear River following the rupture of several swine waste-holding lagoons in 1995, as well as studies in the Cape Fear region following Hurricanes Fran and Bonnie in 1996 and 1998.

According to the article, Mallin stated "major pollution events caused by concentrated animal operations are by no means limited to one state or region." He provided examples of an Iowa hog-waste discharge that killed more than 100,000 fish.

American Scientist is published by Sigma Xi: The Scientific Research Society, which was founded in 1886 as an honor society for scientists and engineers. Today, there are more than 80,000 active members of Sigma Xi worldwide.

To contact Dr. Mallin, call 910/962-2358 or e-mail mallinm@uncwil.edu. Additional information on Sigma Xi is available on the World Wide Web at http://www.sigmaxi.org/.