Online Facts and Stats

• the most common toxins produced by blue-green algae are hepatotoxins, neurotoxins and dermatoxins; boiling the water doesn't break them down
• symptoms of exposure to these toxins include stomachache, nausea, diarrhea and vomiting when ingested; direct contact may result in skin, nose, throat and eye irritation
• more serious outcomes are dizziness, headache, fever, liver damage -- including liver tumours from chronic exposure -- and nervous system damage
• blue-green algae are in fact photosynthetic bacteria that predate true plants; they're correctly called cyanobacteria
• they're found in almost every conceivable habitat -- from fresh water and oceans to bare rock and soil; they've even been found on the fur of polar bears
• cyanobacteria have been around for > 3.5 billion years and are the oldest known fossils, discovered on Archaean rocks in western Australia
• the evolution of our atmosphere from an anoxic to an oxygen-containing gas mix has been the result -- at least in part -- of blue-green algae activity, as these bugs produce oxygen when they grow
• not all cyanobacteria are toxic; the prevalence of toxic strains seems to be related to nutrient availability and water turbidity in a given lake
• reports of cyanobacteria's toxic effects go back at least 1,000 years, when they were reported in China