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https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/mar/19/victorias-unique-dolphin-population-threatened-by-legacy-of-forever-chemicals>
"It has been half a century since governments around the world, faced with
overwhelming evidence, started banning early generations of what we now call
forever chemicals. Industrial chemicals known as polychlorinated biphenyls, or
PCBs, and the notorious pesticide DDT had been widely used – DDT is credited
with saving millions of lives from insect-borne disease, while PCBs were vital
in electrical safety – before it was understood that they were serious
environmental toxins.
“The problem with these legacy contaminants,” environmental scientist Chantel
Foord says, “is that they’re amazing in our products because they don’t break
down, but they’re equally devastating in our environment because they don’t
break down.”
PCBs and DDT were banned in Australia in 1975 and 1987 respectively, and are
now prohibited under the Stockholm convention on persistent organic pollutants.
But, as Foord’s latest research shows, both are still prevalent in our
environment.
Her study, published in the
Environmental Research journal, has found that
Victorian dolphins, including the critically endangered Burrunan species that
only live in Victoria’s coastal waters, have some of the world’s highest levels
of DDT and PCBs.
The study was conducted on dolphins stranded on the Victorian coast between
2002 and 2022. Foord says that nearly two-thirds of all specimens, and 90% of
the endangered Burrunan, recorded PCB and DDT levels greater than health
thresholds, potentially contributing to the deaths of some individuals.
DDT and PCBs build up in the body over time, with higher concentrations found
in organisms higher up the food chain. The study found that PCB levels weren’t
declining over time in dolphins around the Gippsland Lakes in Victoria’s east,
suggesting pollutants were still entering the environment.
Foord says understanding the pathway of the contamination is crucial to
controlling it."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
