Bullets for Interagency BMAA Fact Sheet
Public Health Bullets:


Beta-N-Methylamino-L-alanine (BMAA) is non-protein amino acid. Some
researchers have reported that BMAA can be produced by most
cyanobacteria (blue-green algae). However, some concerns have been raised
regarding the specificity of the earlier analytical methods and whether BMAA
was the only substance quantified.



Little evidence to show how the type of brain changes seen in people with
ALS could be induced by BMAA. No animal model has demonstrated that
BMAA exposure results in ALS-like neuropathy. Also, no large scale
epidemiological studies have been performed that can definitively link BMAA
levels as the cause of ALS.



Proximity and spatial association to a water body with cyanobacteria does not
prove causality. The BMAA hypothesis is still a hypothesis. No proven
connection has been found between cyanobacteria and ALS.



BMAA is one of the many possible environmental triggers to neurological
disease that is being investigated by researchers in Florida and elsewhere.
There are millions of potential environmental exposures. BMAA is just one of
those potential triggers.



There has been little evidence of BMAA being linked to neurodegenerative
disease in the general public. BMAA has been reported to be associated with
the neurological disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis-Parkinson dementia
complex (ALS-PDC), in a local population in Guam. This relationship was first
noted over 40 years ago. The source of exposure for this population was
cycad plant seeds, used for making flour, and fruit bats that feed on cycad
fruit; the amount of BMAA exposure was very high. This is an unusual and
very limited population.



In laboratory tests on cells and in animals, BMAA has been shown to be a
potent neurotoxin, especially when given through injection or other non-food
exposures. There is a lack of toxicological information based on standard
tests using the oral route of exposure upon which to base a health-based
value for use in a risk assessment.



There are the studies of Canadian and U.S. ALS patients that had higher
BMAA concentrations in their brain tissue than Huntington disease patients or
non-neurologically affected patient. However, this finding may be
coincidental. Various chemicals exist in our bodies as part of living in an
industrialized society but are at levels that do not necessarily affect our
overall health.

 

Recent research has identified levels of BMAA, on par with levels observed in
Guam fruit bats, in shrimp, crabs, bottom fish, and shark fins from South
Florida marine ecosystems; however there are no known cases of human
neurological diseases related to ingesting animals from these waters.