Research Document - 2000/171
Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) in British Columbia Harbour Seals and Killer Whales.
By Addison, R.F., Ross, P.S.
Abstract
The Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) represent a wide range of environmental contaminants that have been introduced into the environment through a number of processes. The POPs include the insecticide DDT, the industrial polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), and the polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins (PCDDs) and -dibenzofurans (PCDFs). Most POPs are lipophilic, resistant to breakdown, and bioaccumulate in the aquatic food chain, often reaching high concentrations in fish-eating biota. Toxic effects in laboratory animals, fish-eating animals and humans include reproductive impacts, immunotoxicity and neurotoxicity. Despite the implementation of regulations for several POPs over the past quarter century, many persist in environmental samples and continue to present a risk to the health of wildlife at the top of the food chain. POPs have been widely distributed around the world through atmospheric processes, compounding the influence of regional sources in British Columbia and adjacent waters. Recent evidence suggests that even low to moderate contaminant levels are affecting endocrine processes in BC harbour seals. The finding that BC's killer whales now represent some of the most contaminated marine mammals in the world underscores the need to better understand the sources and fate of such chemicals in the environment, as well as the health effects on high trophic level organisms. The use of marine mammals as "sentinels" provides an integrative measure of marine ecosystem contamination and the food chain upon which they depend.
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