As part of the OHEEI international initiative, Shrimp Scampi was initiated by Massachusetts (MA) students from Algonquin Regional High School in Northborough, MA to assess the adverse health effects to the environment, wildlife, pets, seafood, and people, caused by the antimicrobial and herbicide Glyphosate, glyphosate-based herbicides (GBH), and other endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) like metals and Bisphenol A (BPA). These EDCs appear associated with obesity, diabetes, non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, antimicrobial resistance, neurodevelopmental syndromes, congenital malformations, and neural tube defects.
Shrimp is the favorite seafood of Americans, most of the shrimp we eat is imported, causing a yearly ~US$4.5 billion trade deficit. Although shrimp viruses and metals have been detected in frozen shrimp sold at MA supermarkets, no official compulsory testing of contaminants in imported seafood is being performed by government agencies. The long-term goal of ‘Shrimp Scampi: A Citizen Science Project’ is to educate American and Ecuadorian mothers about contaminants in our seafood. In addition to monitoring EDC levels in muscle of frozen shrimp from US supermarkets and wild shrimp from Ecuador, another goal is to perform in-depth reviews of the scientific literature about EDCs like glyphosate, metals, and BPA and their generational epigenetic inheritance.
The Rotary Club of Southborough, MA is helping us to educate by donating foldscopes - paper microscopes (222 foldscopes so far) through their ‘Foldscopes: From Southborough to Ecuador’ project (https://fucobi-english.weebly.com/). These paper microscopes are making microscopy available to schools in remote areas. Students and teachers have a wonderful time learning about microcosms, and teachers express their gratitude and enthusiasm for being able to have this new classroom tool since they currently do not have a science laboratory.