Banned Chemicals From 1970's Persist In Deepest Reaches of the Pacific Ocean, Study Shows (bbc.com)
walterbyrd quotes a report from BBC: Scientists were surprised by the relatively high concentrations of pollutants like PCBs and PBDEs in deep sea ecosystems. Used widely during much of the 20th Century, these chemicals were later found to be toxic and to build up in the environment. The results are published in the journal Nature Ecology and Evolution. The team led by Dr Alan Jamieson at the University of Newcastle sampled levels of pollutants in the fatty tissue of amphipods (a type of crustacean) from deep below the Pacific Ocean surface. The pollutants found in the amphipods included polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs), which were commonly used as electrical insulators and flame retardants. PCB production was banned by the U.S. in 1979 and by the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants, a UN treaty signed in 2001. From the 1930s to when PCBs were banned in the 1970s, the total global production of these chemicals is estimated to be in the region of 1.3 million tons. Released into the environment through industrial accidents and discharges from landfills, these pollutants are resistant to being broken down naturally, and so persist in the environment. The authors of the study say that the deep ocean can become a "sink" or repository for pollutants. They argue that the chemicals accumulate through the food chain so that when they reach the deep ocean, concentrations are many times higher than in surface waters.
MH370
Destroy the environment! Rape every ocean!
Wsr with Atlantis itself. Their great undersea empire will rise up and crush us beneath the booted heel of justice.
Soon, we will be fed to dolphins in Tuna, not the other way around.
Be warned. The tides are coming.
Surprising that people think seafood is healthy.
I have been looking all over for them.
Good, when the concentration of toxins get high enough, catch the organisms, and throw them into landfills. I guess landfills at the bottom of the ocean will have to be built. It would also be a good place to store nuclear waste.
Used widely during much of the 20th Century, these chemicals were later found to be toxic and to build up in the environment.
Scientists were surprised by the relatively high concentrations of pollutants like PCBs and PBDEs in deep sea ecosystems.
In other words, scientists were surprised to find relatively high concentrations of pollutants built up in the environment, yet that is in fact what they said would happen...
Toxic chemicals that build up in the environment found to build up in the environment!!!
You have the right to remain sentient. If you give up the right to remain sentient, you will be elected to public office
Just saying...
Someone please fill me in on what ng g1 dw is. I get the nanograms, I get the inverse grams. WHAT IS A dw. Thanks
Slasshdot is supposed to be a tech site. Can you please Stop BeauHD from continuing to tranform the site into a tree hugging left wing haven with the incessant SJW and Environazi article fwapping?
Dump our waste that will remain for all eternity into the area on our planet that we understand the least, and in case we fuck up, we have no way to undo it.
Is it me or does this sound like a really bad idea?
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Although, we can't blame it all on lax Chinese cleanup processes. We can probably blame the rest on maritime decomissioning.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
instead of the Oroville dam? This might hurt some fish, but a catastrophic dam failure would put my data center under more than a 100' of water.
for dumping all those PCBs when he was running General Electric's plastics division. BTW Welch later invented offshore outsourcing as CEO of GE. Look it up.
He's now busy promoting Trump, as I guess he's decided they are kindred spirits. They probably are.
(N/T)
apostrophe's
Relevant.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z3JLKw0q4kY
because they where only band in the 70's in the US
Yeah, sure they are. Why PCB and BPA are still found in the plastic lining of canned foods and soups if they're banned products?
Many PCBs are stable in cold and dark conditions and need to be broken down by sunlight or the right kind of microorganisms. Without sunlight to break the chemicals down they are bound to persist for many decades and possibly centuries. In soil there are microorganisms that can break down PCBs, but they don't exist in the deep ocean (that I'm aware of).
I suspect the concentrations to only increase over time, as rivers and lakes eventually get stable material from the bottom dredged from floods, construction or even drought. Resulting in more contaminates flooring into the ocean.
Look, chemistry is a very powerful thing in nature. And we carry a huge burden of responsibility for the planet when we produce different chemical compounds on an industrial scale. There's nothing wrong with science and technology that can't be fixed with a little cautious restraint in how it is applied.
"In all of your deliberations in the Confederate Council, in your efforts at law making, in all your official acts, self interest shall be cast into oblivion. Cast not over your shoulder behind you the warnings of the nephews and nieces should they chide you for any error or wrong you may do, but return to the way of the Great Law which is just and right. Look and listen for the welfare of the whole people and have always in view not only the present but also the coming generations, even those whose faces are yet beneath the surface of the ground -- the unborn of the future Nation." -- The Constitution of the Iroquois Nation (The Great Binding Law)
“Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
So "fish" that eat "fish' have bad stuff in them, what's new? I regulate my tuna consumption because of the mercury buildup, and I love tuna. I would bet their mercury levels were high as well, but then that would not make news I suppose.
There are three kinds of falsehood: the first is a 'fib,' the second is a downright lie, and the third is statistics.
ng * g ^-1 :
nanograms [of the polluant, found] per gram [of the medium].
10 ng * g ^-1 :
if you take 1 gram of the soil of the bottom of the pacific ocean, you'll find that it contains 10 ng of the plastic polluant.
"Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
This is fake news!
The origin of these chemicals is obviously not human /s
We all took chemicals that were banned, man!
Inorganic materials never break down, they stay in the environment, and in the organisms, forever. No surprise. I'm glad I grew up during a time when science education was considered important, and also fact-based and unpolluted by lesson plans from industries wanting to influence us. Except for Reddy Kilowatt. He was cool.