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But according to Sara Jonasson, one of the research team at Stockholm University, the researchers lack the necessary funding to forward the analysis of human cells, writes LETA.

The Swedish researchers, led by Birgitta Bergman, were informed by US colleague Paul Cox that the blue-green algae can generate BMAA – a poison linked to the high incidence of Lou Gehrig's, formally known as Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), Alzheimer's and Parkinson's, among the residents of Guam in the south Pacific.

The Swedish team have since tested and found traces of BMAA in the Baltic algae but a lack of funding has put a stop to tests on the human samples.

In order to conduct a comprehensive analysis the researchers would need to acquire a mass spectrometer – a piece of equipment which costs in the region of 2.5-4 million kronor (332,000 – $531,000 US dollars).

The researchers must currently wait their turn in a long queue for time on the spectrometer at another of the university's institutions in order to analyze a large number of samples from algae, fish and other organisms.