Site Under Perpetual Construction!
This page is maintained by: Dr Rick Leah, Jones Building, School of Biological SciencesAny feed back or comment would be welcome. Please emailNB: The HTML has not yet been 'verified' - apologies to any disabled users - I will try to attend to this during this academic yearOriginal material is Copyright University of
Liverpool, 2006
|
The consequences of unintended dispersal of industrial chemicals: PCBs and Dioxins
PCBs and Dioxins are important toxic chemicals because they are persistent and toxic. They are implicated in causing Endocrine Disruption. You should understand what they are and what the implications of their dispersal into the environment are. You should be able understand what has happened in significant cases where these substances have been involved in environmental pollution incidents.
Background info on
PCBs
Be aware that PCBs and Dioxins are included in the 12 priority chemicals
designated as - Persistent Organic Pollutants (see the
UNEP POPs Programme) because of
their toxicity
Relevant Case Histories :
Baltic Sea
More background on PCBs plus info on the PCB impact in the Baltic Sea
There is now good evidence that the PCB contamination of Baltic sea fish is reducing with time.
The Hudson River PCB Controversy, New York State, USA
The Hudson River is one of the most PCB contaminated waterways in the world since the General Electric Co (GE) contaminated it with ca. 5,000 tonnes of PCBs during many decades of manufacture of capacitors. Around 200 miles of the river were declared a 'Superfund site' by USEPA and a plan to clean-it up by dredging out much of the contaminated sediments was agreed by USEPA in 2001.
The USEPA Hudson River Homepage - provides a mass of information about the problem and what is being done to rectify the situation. Changes frequently and includes up to date links as things change. Use its own menu to browse the various useful parts of the site.
Over the past twenty-five years, disturbing or dredging the PCB's from the Hudson River became a major source of controversy in the Hudson Valley. One proposed solution for the removal of PCBs from the Hudson is the process of dredging. Originally put forward by the Environmental Protection Agency, this is a highly controversial approach, as it will destroy the multiple ecosystems along forty miles of the upper Hudson and potentially re-mobilise the PCBs still locked into sediments. There are many health risks associated with excessive exposure to PCBs generated by their presence in the water and sediments of the river. Not only are they carcinogenic, they are also the source of many birth defects. Therefore, it is strongly recommended that nobody eat fish or drink water from the Hudson River. However, historically, it has not been possible to stop some members of the public eating the fish and a number of communities continue to use the river as a source of water. In the EPA judgement, the disadvantage and health risks outweighed the cost and renewed environmental disruption. In contrast, General Electric and assorted local citizens groups were adamantly opposed to dredging.
On the other hand, environmental organizations such as Clearwater and Scenic Hudson strongly supported the dredging plan. Within five year's time, they predicted that dredging will eliminate nearly all the PCB contamination of the river. Rich Schiafo of Scenic Hudson said, "We have been working on this issue for close to twenty years to try to get the PCB contamination removed from the Hudson River so that we can fully restore and use the Hudson River." The ongoing dilemma of whether to dredge the Hudson River was supposed to conclude in August of 2001 when the EPA was due to make its final decision – however due to legal actions and practical difficulties, the full dredging plan is still not underway. At the time of writing, the start of dredging has been moved forwards to January 2009.
There's a lot of it (50pp) but this report presents
the Draft Clean-up plan for re-habilitating the river together with the costs
involved.
Videos demonstrating how to
dredge sediment from a river in an environmentally sound manner
Fox River and Green Bay, Lake Michigan
Fox River Activist Site
Susan Schantz, a professor of veterinary medicine, has studied
Lake Michigan fish-eaters since 1992. Her studies show that many former
high quantity consumers of sport-caught fish now have high levels of
polychlorinated biphenyls in their blood and problems with learning and memory.
Impact of PCBs on Babies from Gt Lakes Region in North America
Impact of PCBs
on Babies from Mothers living near the Hudson Bay in the Arctic, Baltic Sea etc
Impact of Environmental Contamination by PCBs & Dioxins on Finnish Fishermen eating fatty fish from the Baltic
Page last Edited:
11/02/2008