Why it matters
Preemptive pollution prevention
12th July 2008
Scientists screen more than 100,000 chemicals to see which could wind up in our own bodies
Persistent pollutants like DDT and PCBs are pervasive in the Arctic - decades and thousands of miles away from their production
Some chemicals, such as DDT and PCBs, have become notorious pollutants in the Arctic, contaminating the blood and milk of seals, whales and people, even though they were used thousands of kilometres away decades ago.
In an effort to identify other chemicals that could become a problem (or already are), environmental chemists at the University of Toronto, led by Frank Wania, screened more than 100,000 chemicals currently in use, looking for similarities in their molecular structure to known pollutants.
The study, to be published in an upcoming issue of the journal Environmental Science and Technology, identified more than 4,000 candidates, of which 120 are known to be produced in high volumes.
All 4,000 of these share certain characteristics with known “persistent” pollutants, which don’t easily break down, can travel huge distances and accumulate in the food chain.
But there were many chemicals on the list of 4,000 whose production volume is unknown, since industry is not always required to report this information. So, while not all of the 120 chemicals may be a problem, “certainly we should be looking at many more than just those 120 – this is not the last word,” Prof. Wania says.
Published in The Green Report in The Globe and Mail
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