Toxic chemicals in UK whales and dolphins are exceeding safe limits. The compounds, once used in pesticides, flame retardants and coolants, are having significant impacts on the health and reproduction of the animals. Despite many being banned almost 20 years ago, levels of persistent organic pollutants (POPs) remain high in the oceans. In fact, these […]
Nearly half of the whales and dolphins found in UK waters over the past five years contained harmful concentrations of toxic chemicals banned decades ago, an investigation has found. Among orcas stranded in the UK, levels of PCBs, a group of highly dangerous and persistent chemicals that do not degrade easily, were 30 times the concentration […]
A new study from McGill University suggests that while some Icelandic Orcas have very high concentrations of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in their blubber, others from the same population have levels of PCBs that are much lower, with a 300-fold difference between the levels of PCBs among the most contaminated Orcas compared to the least contaminated […]
Most organochlorinated contaminants were banned in developed countries in the 1970s and 1980s. However, their chemical properties favour long-range transport and persistence in water, air and biota, including the deepest ocean fauna. Studies of cetaceans in Europe have reported bottlenose dolphin, Tursiops truncatus, with markedly elevated Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) concentrations in their blubber. “Hotspots” include […]
Marine pollution hasn’t gone away. There was a high level of media coverage calling for much more action to help remove PCBs from the environment. Benny the Beluga has been a pleasant distraction from the grim reality of our politics but he as affected by PCBs as other species higher in the food chain. PCB—still […]
The main article was carried in Nature: http://www.nature.com/articles/srep18573 ‘Organochlorine (OC) pesticides and the more persistent polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) have well established does – dependent toxicities to birds, fish and mammals in experimental studies, but the actual impact of OC pollutants on European marine top predators remains unknown. Here we show that several cetacean species have […]