Transcript The Consequences of Unintended Dispersal of Industrial

Persistent Organic
Pollutants in Marine
Ecosystems
Persistent Organic
Pollutants
• Fate of PoPs
• Mechanisms of Environmental
Control
• Characteristics
• Main groups
• Issues
pcwww.liv.ac.uk/aquabiol/BIOL415_Web/
Tri-Butyl Tin
• Nucella
• Imposex
Halogenated
Aromatic Hydrocarbons
Chlorine
Bromine
Fluorine
Types of PoP
• Pesticides
• Industrial Chemicals
• By-Products
Associated Issues
• Bioaccumulation – Biomagnification
• Loss of higher predators
• Adverse impacts on marine food
chains
• Fish eating – Gt Lakes of North
America, Baltic & North Sea
• Birth defects, reduced aptitude in
new born babies
• Endocrine Disruption
Stockholm Convention
UNEP decided to convene an
Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee
(INC) to prepare an legally binding instrument
on persistent organic pollutants (POPs).
The INC completed work on the instrument,
the Stockholm Convention on Persistent
Organic Pollutants, in December 2000.
Stockholm convention
The Convention entered into force on
17 May 2004.
The first meeting of the Conference of the
Parties took place from 2-6 May 2005
in Punta del Este, Uruguay
PoPs in
Swedish
Breast
Milk
Toxicity of PoPs
• Related to structure
• Related to ‘most toxic
substance’
– 2,3,7,8 tetrachloro dibenzo dioxin
• Toxicity Equivalent - TEQ
– Relative Factor of 1 for 2,3,7,8
TCDD
Dioxins/Furans
• 75 individual chlorinated dioxins
• 135 individual chlorinated
furans
• Very stable & bind to soils and
sediment
DDT
• Old problem – Peregrine Falcons
etc
• Residues remain
• DDE – oxidative environments
• DDD – reducing environments
• Mersey estuary and Irish Sea
PCBs – Major Problems
• Baltic Sea & North Sea
• Gt Lakes of North America
• Hudson River
• Local “difficulties” :
– Mersey Estuary & Liverpool Bay
Poly Chlorinated
Biphenyls
• 209 Compounds - ca 100 in env
PCB
• Congener 209 –
Deca-choro biphenyl
Poly Chlorinated
Biphenyls
•
•
•
•
209 Compounds - ca 100 in env
Highly inert
Introduced 1930s
Discovered in environment 1966
by Jensen in Sweden during
analysis for DDT
• 750,000 tonnes manufactured
Poly Chlorinated
Biphenyls
• Banned by USEPA in new uses
in 1979
• Manufacture completely banned
in 1984
Poly Chlorinated
Biphenyls
• Technical Mixtures
– Arochlor 1242
– Arochlor 1254
– Arochlor 1262
600
Total Arochlor W2
500
400
Conc
(µg/kg)
300
200
100
PCBs
0
1800
1900
Date
2000
Brominated Fire
Retardents
• Poly brominated diphenyl ethers
(PBDEs)
• 209 Congeners
Brominated FRs
• Among the many BFRs used in the
world the main commercial BFRs are
the following:
• TBBPA: Tetrabromobisphenol -A
• HBCD: Hexabromocyclododecane
• PBB: Polybrominated biphenyls Phased out in Europe
PBDEs
• Deca-BDE (Decabromodiphenyl
ether)
• Octa-BDE (Octabromodiphenyl ether)
- Phased out in Europe
• Penta-BDE (Pentabromodiphenyl
ether) - Phased out in Europe
Flame Retardents
• Polybrominated
diphenyl ethers
Other Brominated
materials:
• Brominated polymers such as
brominated epoxy, brominated
polystyrene, brominated
polycarbonate, poly (brominated
acrylate), and brominated
polyols.
Mersey Estuary
• High levels of
BDEs especially :
DecaBromoDiphenylEther 209
• On-going research
PoPs: Impacts of tissue
residues
Endocrine Disruption
Intersex
Mersey
Male
Flounde
r
Gonad
Intersex Flounder
Endocrine Disruption
• Molluscs –– TBT - IMPOSEX
Nucella