Ear Wax

Maybe it seems like our Congressmen have an ear wax overload. They sure don’t seem to be listening to anyone, the people they were elected to represent or each other. But the ear wax I’m waxing on about comes from whales. The plugs of wax found in the ears of whales formed in layers tell the story of the whale’s life like the rings inside the trunks of trees. Ear wax plugs found in blue whales’ ears can weigh up to 250 grams and be 25 centimeters long. During the six-month feeding season, wax is light-colored, filled with fat from the whale’s rich diet. As it fasts during migration, a darker layer forms. Studying these layers help researchers determine how old whales were during necropsies.

One ear wax plug from a whale studied also helped researchers with recording ocean contaminants because traces of these contaminants, like DDT, flame retardants, and mercury were all there embedded in the layers. The plug studied by Sascha Usenko and Stephen Trumble of Baylor University, Waco, Texas, came from a 12-year-old male blue whale killed in a 2007 boating accident off the coast of California. The ear wax also contained a record of fluctuations in stress hormones throughout the animal's life. And that, in combination with the chemical pollution data, may in the future provide better insight into the potential impacts of these chemicals on whales. Usenko and his team identified the whale as a male aged about 12 years. During his brief life he came into contact with 16 persistent organic pollutants, including pesticides and flame retardants. Exposure to the most persistent chemicals was greatest in the first year, and accounted for one-fifth of his total lifetime contact, suggesting a transfer of contaminants from his mother in the womb and during nursing.

Maternal transfer of pollutants is known to happen in other mammals, such as seals and humans. Once these compounds enter the food chain, they are passed on and accumulate. Some of these chemicals are no longer in use, such as flame retardants that were outlawed in 2005, but they can stick around for 50 or 60 years. Other toxins uncovered from the earwax were probably picked up along the way. Mercury, which can cause brain damage, spiked twice in the sample, at around five and ten years.

I wonder if mercury might be found in the ear wax of some of our politicians in Washington. Brain damage might be a better excuse than plain stubborn mule headedness.