30 Yrs After PCB Ban, SC Dolphins' Readings Among Highest Ever Recorded For Marine Mammals

[hatrack]

EDIT

Studies of dolphins in coastal Georgia discovered some of the highest levels of PCBs ever found in the fat of a marine mammal, 30 years after the use of the toxic industrial insulating compound was banned. "Some of these (dolphins) are living on the edge," said Lori Schwacke, principal scientist at the NOAA Oceans and Human Health Center of Excellence at Fort Johnson. Their immune systems have been suppressed to the point where the outbreak of a single virus could result in mass kills, she said. "While we don't understand the risk to people yet, it's enough of a red flag to make us want to do further experimentation."

The study is joined by studies of dolphins and sea lions in California, as well as controlled laboratory studies of rats, that show a connection between how these animals develop diseases, such as epilepsy, and how people do. Studies also found that dolphins develop diabetes and have been exposed to the human papillomavirus. Those discoveries could lead to new treatments for the diseases in people.

Dolphins first were studied in an area around Brunswick, Ga., the location of four federal Superfund contamination sites. But when researchers moved to an estuarine research reserve some 30 miles away, expecting to find healthy dolphin to use as a control population, they found PCB levels just as high.

Because dolphins tend not to roam, the finding suggests that they were getting the chemical from fish they ate; the fish do roam. "The contaminants aren't settling in the sediment or moving out in the ocean. They're actually moving into the coastal food web," Schwacke said. "And the levels we're seeing in these animals is just incredibly high."

EDIT

http://www.postandcourier.com/news/2010/feb/19/dolphins-at-risk/

[HillbillyBob]

1. Does anyone realize that

Monsanto was the biggest maker of pcbs? Actually I think they were the only manufacturer I don't recall off hand.

[NNadir]

2. This is not all that surprising, given that PCB's are very stable, more stable than the containers,

including transformers, in which they were placed.

[Massacure]

3. In my neck of the woods, PCBs were used in carbonless copy paper.

The paper companies are currently fighting over the $600 million dollar cleanup cost.