Researcher discovers toxic chemicals infiltrating glacial water
Toxic chemicals Accumulate in the Fatty Tissues
Canadian Fact Sheet on Air Toxics
Children At Risk -- PBS Program
Endocrine Disruptors
OTTAWA – While most of us are thinking about flying south for the winter, research led by a University of Ottawa biology professor is investigating a much more serious northward migration – that of chemicals like PCBs and DDT, called persistent organic pollutants or POPs.
Professor
Jules Blais has been studying this phenomenon since his
post-doctoral research at the University of Alberta,
where he worked with David Schindler, winner of this
year's Gerhard Herzberg Canada Gold Medal for Science and
Engineering. In 1998, Blais and his co-researchers
published an article in Nature describing their discovery
that POPs tend to concentrate in colder climates and in
snow.
"Chemicals like PCBs or DDT share characteristics that make them problematic – they are persistent, and don't break down easily; they evaporate fairly easily; and they accumulate in lipids (fatty tissue), which means they are rapidly taken up by plants and animals," says Blais. Essentially, what happens is this: a POP is used in a warm climate. Eventually, it evaporates and circulates in the atmosphere until it reaches a cold, high snowfall climate and condenses. This leads to greatly increased concentrations of these pollutants.
After publishing the 1998 article, the researchers went on to examine Bow Lake in Banff National Park. Bow Lake receives about three-quarters of its water through glacial melt – and, the researchers calculated, somewhere between 50 and 97 per cent of its contaminant concentration.
"This should be a concern for everyone," says Blais. He points out that although Canada has banned many chemicals like DDT and PCBs, it still receives them through the atmosphere. Others, like endosulfan and lindane, are still manufactured and used as pesticides in North America, and large amounts of PCBs remain stored in existing capacitors, transformers, and contaminated soil.
And with glacial water feeding rivers and lakes, POPs will make their way up the food chain. Blais points out that concentrations of these chemicals in human breast milk in Inuit communities (where the chemicals are not used) are higher than those in southern areas where POPs are used. "And," he adds, "Health Canada issued a warning about consuming fish because of toxaphene concentrations in Lake Lebarge in the Yukon in 1990." Many of these chemicals have been linked to serious health problems.
Blais says that he hopes this research will be used to try and predict where problems with contaminated fish or food supplies will occur in the future. "At this point, there's not much else that can be done," he says, "unless we are able to permanently ban these chemicals from use."
Toxic chemicals Accumulate in the Fatty Tissues
Persistent Organic Pollutants -- POPs
One of the most pressing environmental issues today is that presented by persistent organic pollutants (POPs). POPs take a long time to break down in the environment and it is very difficult, if not impossible, to contain them once they have been released.
Over the past few years, there has been an increasing body of evidence documenting their devastating effects on wildlife, including wasting syndromes, shrinking populations, birth defects such as missing eyes and deformed reproductive organs, and behavioural disorders such as same-sex nests and loss of sex drive. POPs accumulate exponentially in fatty tissue as they move up the food chain, such that concentrations can be 70,000 times the background levels in a top predator. The same chemicals have been reported in human blood and body fats, with high concentrations in breast milk (Colborn et al., 1996).
POPs present serious health risks including mimicking reproductive hormones (see Hormone Disrupters) and a suspicion of immune suppression and are thought to assist carcinogenic substances or cause cancer directly. Of great concern is their effect on the human embryo and infants, which are exposed to POPs at various developmental stages via the placenta and breast feeding, with effects on neurological development and sexual differentiation (see Declining sex ratios). The effects on children exposed when in the womb include lowered intelligence, poor short-term memory, a shortened attention span, and difficulties learning to read. These children are also born sooner and are smaller than average (Colborn et al., 1996; Pearce, 1997b). The effects are long-term, as can be seen from Vietnamese children born today with birth defects such as twisted or missing limbs and eyes without pupils. It is thought that these defects are due to dioxin-containing defoliants (e.g. Agent Orange). In the face of these facts, it is alarming that POPs are found with increasing frequencies in a variety of food products with millions of people potentially exposed to dangerous levels.
Furthermore, POPs are transported globally. For example, dioxin in the Great Lakes comes from as far away as Florida and California (Kleiner, 1996b) and potentially damaging levels of DDT, PCBs and dioxin-like compounds have been found in wildlife on remote Pacific islands thousands of kilometers from heavily populated areas.
There is a systematic transfer of these chemicals from warmer to colder areas through the process of global distillation. The pollutants evaporate from soils in warm areas such as the tropics, are transported as vapour around the globe, and condense over cold areas as toxic snow or rain. If bound in snowflakes, the spring melting causes a toxic flush just when biological activity is at its most intense.
As a result, one of the most serious environmental POP-related crises is the widespread contamination of the arctic and antarctic ecosystems, with high levels found in wildlife and people (Van den Brink, 1997; Pearce, 1997b). POPs accumulate in the fat of seals and beluga whales, which are then eaten by Inuits. Thus, chlordane levels in the breast milk of Inuit women are 10 times higher than in the south of Canada, and PCB levels are 5 time higher (AMAP, 1997). In some traditional Inuit villages, two thirds of children have blood-PCB levels above Canadian health guidelines. Men are more affected than women, as lactation drains some of the poison - straight to the children - and older people have higher levels, as they have been accumulating the poisons over longer periods of time. And the problems are not limited to POPs, as heavy metals (see Heavy metals) also end up in the Arctic (Pearce, 1997b).
Many countries do not control releases of POPs, or fail to implement existing legislation. These problems are often compounded by lack of treatment, unsafe transport, concentration in urban areas and inadequate management. Thus, some countries have imposed tough standards which have resulted in largely dioxin-free emissions from incinerators. However, the dioxin remains in the ash, which is often used as landfill, such that the dioxin merely reaches the environment by another route (Pearce, 1997d).
POPs present a special challenge to developing countries, which typically lack the capacity to identify and respond to sources of releases of POPs to the air, water and soil. They have also been victims of shipments of toxic chemicals from industrialised countries. In addition, other public health considerations, such as the fight against the malarial mosquito and tse-tse fly, make developing countries reluctant to agree to curtail the use of effective pesticides like DDT. Alternatives to DDT are often more toxic. For example, chronic low-level exposure to organophosphate pesticides can cause irreversible neurological and physical damage, such as osteoperosis and osteopenia (Day, 1997). They must also be reapplied more frequently, making them more expensive, and may be less effective than DDT, as mosquitoes rapidly develop multiple resistance to them (Boyce, 1998). In contrast, some countries that are subjected to global distillation, are pushing for restrictions on the use of all persistent chemicals, whether they are known to be toxic or not, pointing to the fact that we have 300 to 500 measurable manmade chemicals in our bodies that would not have been found there 50 years ago (Lowrie, 1997).
Reconciling these concerns is difficult, but building a global defence through a legally binding convention is vital for the protection of public health and the environment. Action is being taken against the most threatening chemicals. In June 1998, in Aarhus, Denmark, thirty-three countries and the European community agreed the UN/ECE Protocol on Persistent Organic Pollutants to the Convention on Long-range Transboundary Air Pollution (link to protocol), which bans 16 different POPs. In September 1998 in Rotterdam, a legally binding convention requiring the prior informed consent (link to PIC at FAO, or PIC homepage) of countries to international shipments of toxic chemicals was signed by sixty-one countries. And under the aegis of UNEP, 103 governments are currently negotiating a legally binding international agreement to reduce and/or eliminate releases of 12 of the POPs most widely implicated in damage to human health and the environment. The 12 POPs are the pesticides aldrin, chlordane, DDT, dieldrin, endrin, heptachlor, mirex and toxaphene; the industrial chemicals polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and hexachlorobenzene which is also a pesticide; and the unintended by-products of combustion and industrial processes, dioxins and furans. The mandated deadline for reaching an agreement is the year 2000. Reports of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committees (INCs) and the meetings of the expert group mandated to devise criteria and a procedure to add POPs to the treaty in the future, as well as other official UNEP documents, are available at http://www.chem.unep.ch/pops/.
Two useful online resources on toxic
chemicals are the State of the Arctic Environment Report
on Arctic Pollution Issues at the Arctic Monitoring and
Assessment Programme (AMAP) website and the National
Centre for Environmental Assessment website.
References
AMAP, 1997. Report: State of the Arctic Environment: Arctic Pollution Issues Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme, 1997. http://www.grida.no/amap/assess/soaer-cn.htm
Boyce, Nell. 1998. "A necessary evil". New Scientist, 7 February 1998, pp. 18-19.
Colborn, Theo, Dianne Dumanoski, and John Peterson Myers. 1996. Our Stolen Future. Dutton, New York.
Day, Michael. 1997. "Sheep dip clue to broken bones". New Scientist, 24 May 1997 , p. 6.
Kleiner, Kurt. 1996b. "Long-lived pollutants threaten the great Lakes". New Scientist, 13 July 1996.
Lowrie, Margaret. CNN environment, 27. June 1997.
Pearce, Fred. 1997b. "Northern Exposure". New Scientist, 31 May 1997, pp. 24-27.
Pearce, Fred. 1997d. "Errors of emission". New Scientist, 4 October 1997, p. 21.
Van den Brink, NW. 1997. "Directed transport of volatile organochlorine pollutants to polar regions: the effect on the contamination pattern of Antarctic seabirds". The Science of the Total Environment, vol., 198 (1), 1997, pp. 43-50.
Ban
agreed on toxic chemicals
Environment ministers and senior officials agreed to support a UN treaty on persistent organic pollutants (POPs) without a vote at a conference hall in central Stockholm.
If we fail with the
environmental issues, then all other political
work will be pointless
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Swedish Prime Minister Goran
Persson
|
They applauded after conference chairman Kjell Larsson, the Swedish environment minister, declared the treaty adopted.
"We must put a stop to the use of poisons which threaten plants, animals and the environment in which we live", said the Swedish prime minister Goran Persson at the opening of the conference.
POPs are found in everything from paint to pesticides and remain in the environment for decades without breaking down.
They are spread by winds and oceans, and have been found everywhere from Antarctica to remote areas of Canada.
They accumulate in fatty tissue and have been blamed for disease and birth defects in humans and animals.
"POPs are a chemical time bomb", Mr Persson said.
DDT exemption
One widely known chemical is DDT, which was originally created to control the spread of malaria during World War II.
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The 'dirty dozen'
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Aldrin
Chlordane
DDT
Dieldrin
Dioxins
Endrin
Furans
Heptachlor
Hexachlorobenzene (HCB)
Mirex
Polychlorinated Biphenyls
(PCBs)
Toxaphene
|
Although it is widely banned or restricted, some nations have continued to use it to control insect-borne diseases.
The treaty will allow about 25 countries to continue using DDT to combat malaria in accordance with World Health Organization guidelines, until they can develop safer solutions.
The environmental group Greenpeace has welcomed the treaty, but pointed out that it still has to be ratified by individual parliaments.
It will take effect once 50 countries ratify it.
The treaty aims to control the production, import, export, disposal, and use of POPs.
It has been endorsed by US President George W Bush, giving him an environmental reprieve with European leaders and environmentalists worldwide, who criticised his rejection of the 1997 Kyoto global warming treaty and domestic policies they say favour production over conservation.
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Fact Sheet on Air Toxics
Toxic comes from the Greek word toxikon which referred to the poison smeared on an arrow. The meaning has changed but not the intent. Air toxics are poisonous airborne pollutants which exist in the atmosphere either as gases or attached to fine particles.
Some air toxics come from natural sources such as dust, forest fires, volcanic gases and soil erosion. But most are created by human activities including industrial processes, the manufacture and use of pesticides, and the burning of fossil fuels such as gas, oil or coal.
Air toxics find their way into the atmosphere in two ways. Some are emitted directly from cars, trucks and train engines or from factories which burn fossil fuels. Others are discharged into water or onto the land, and because they possess the characteristic known as volatility, they escape into the air as gases or attached to fine particles.
The atmosphere plays an important role in the environmental cycle of air toxics. Sometimes it can carry them thousands of kilometres from their source and wash them to earth as rain, snow, fog or mist. The atmosphere may also transform air toxics into even more dangerous chemicals.
Air toxics pose a serious threat to human health and to wildlife for three reasons.
First, they are poisonous, or may become poisonous after combining with other substances or bioaccumulating in the food chain. The toxics may cause death, disease, birth defects, genetic mutations and behavioural abnormalities as well as physiological or reproductive harm in organisms or their offspring.
Second, the toxics bioaccumulate in the fatty tissue of animals, and are difficult or impossible to metabolize or excrete. Even minute amounts may have a major effect on wildlife as the toxics build up to a dangerous level over the lifetime of the animal. Bioaccumulating in the food chain occurs when, for example, plankton which has absorbed toxic chemicals from the water is eaten by fish, which, after storing the toxics in fatty tissues, are then eaten by birds. Because the birds are at the top of this food chain, they may over time accumulate levels of toxics which are thousands of times higher than those in their prey, which themselves were thousands of times higher than those in the plankton.
Third, these toxics are persistent, meaning that they do not break down easily in the environment and may remain intact for decades or even centuries.
Environment Canada is involved in a range of research projects aimed at understanding how air toxics are emitted, transported, transformed and deposited by the atmosphere. Further, the department is heavily involved in the development and enforcement of regulations to prevent the emission of air toxics into the atmosphere.
The most common culprits:
The industrial world uses more than 65,000 commercial chemicals. In 1985, the International Joint Commission identified 11 pollutants which the Canadian-U.S. body considered critical.
1. Polychlorinated Biphenyls (PCBs) -- Although PCBs are no longer manufactured, they are still widely used in sealed electrical and hydraulic equipment.
2. Mirex -- All uses of this extremely persistent insecticide and flame retardant were banned in Canada in 1978.
3. Hexachlorobenzene (HCB) -- This was originally manufactured as a fungicide for crops and generated as a byproduct when pesticides were manufactured. The use of HCB has been restricted in Canada since 1971.
4. Dieldrin -- This chemical, which was used primarily as a pesticide, is no longer made in either Canada or the United States.
5. DDT -- DDT was introduced to North America as an insecticide in 1946. Although it was banned in Canada in 1989, DDT is still used elsewhere in the world and continues to be carried into Canada in the atmosphere.
6. 2,3,7,8-TCDD -- This is a dioxin. It is produced as a by-product by pulp and paper mills which use chlorine in their bleaching process. This dioxin is also created when chlorophenoxy herbicide is produced and chlorinated waste is incinerated.
7. 2,3,7,8-TCDF -- This is a furan which is structurally and chemically similar to 2,3,7,8-TCDD and is a by-product of the same industrial processes and waste incineration.
8. Benzo[a]pyrene -- This is a polycyclic aromatic compound which is formed by the incomplete combustion of fossil fuels, wood and tobacco and during the production of steel and coke. This compound is also formed when garbage is burned or when coal is liquified or turned into a gas.
9. Toxaphene -- This insecticide was widely used the United States until the late 1970s. Toxaphene is still used in the Third World.
10. Mercury -- In the past, mercury was widely used in the pulp and paper industry and in the manufacture of chlorine and caustic soda.
11. Alkylated lead -- This is produced mainly as a gasoline additive. Today, levels of this compound are decreasing as leaded gasoline is phased out.
Published by Authority of the Minister of the Environment
@ Minister of Supply and Services Canada 1992
Catalogue No. En56 97/1992E
ISBN 0-662-19934-0
Children At Risk -- PBS Program
|
Golden eagles found poisoned
UK: Scotland Golden eagles found poisoned  A third golden eagle is missing, presumed dead Police are investigating the poisoning of two golden eagles after a female and her chick were found dead. Officers from the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds in Scotland also suspect a third bird - an adult male - has been killed, although no remains have been found. The dead eagles were found at a site in Kingussie, Strathspey, by a member of the Raptor Study Group, a network of volunteers which monitors birds of prey. Poisoned bait The incident was reported to the RSPB and a police inquiry was launched. A post-mortem examination found the birds had been poisoned with the highly toxic insecticide Carbofuran. //
It is believed the male eagle picked up poisoned bait and carried it back to the nest where it was eaten by the other birds. Carbofuran has been used in other poisonings and the eagles may have been the victims of the misuse of poisons directed at other birds of prey or wild animals, said an RSPB spokesman. However, officers were not ruling out the possibility that the bait was deliberately laid for the eagles. The RSPB said it had been 10 years since two golden eagles from the same nest were found poisoned, the only similar reported incident. Senior investigation officer for the RSPB in Scotland, Dave Dick, said: "There are 430 pairs of golden eagles all over Scotland. Fortunately this is a rare event." Charges unlikely Officers at Northern Constabulary investigating the case say it is now unlikely anyone will be charged over the incident. As the site where the birds were killed is remote there would have been few, if any, witnesses and the nature of the crime means offenders would be difficult to trace. Police condemned the poisoning as "utterly irresponsible" and warned that using poisons could also put the public at risk. |
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Some endocrine disrupting
chemicals are persistent in the
environment and bioaccumulate;
they accumulate in the fatty
tissue of organisms and increase
in concentration as they move up
through the food web. Because of
their persistence and mobility,
they accumulate in and harm
species far from their original
source. 
Many
contaminants such as dioxins and PCBs have an
affinity for fatty tissue.
During pregnancy, women mobilize their amassed
stores of body fat to provide nourishment for
their growing babies; the contaminants in the
fat are then passed to their children. Nursing
mothers also transfer a good portion of their
lifetime accumulation of chemicals to their
babies.![[ image: The dead eagles were found at Kingussie]](images/_422629_goldeneagle150.jpg)