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TechnoratiGreat Lakes, Oceans Won't Be Clean Until Global Pesticides Banned
Do you ever wonder why the "scientists" quoted by Mike Ivey never mention the most toxic substance in the Great Lakes?
I retired from a career in chemical and environmental engineering wondering why the long-banned PCBs remained at a constant level in Lake Superior. After a couple of years of volunteer work with the Environmental Protection Agency and the state of Michigan, I had learned nothing. A search that included two trips to the Canadian Arctic and assimilation of international research finally led to surprising findings, the realization of horrendous government actions, and answers.
Surprise findings: Toxaphene, the pesticide that replaced DDT when it was banned, is present at twice the PCB concentration in Lake Superior trout and gives them 10 times more toxicity. The levels of PCBs and toxaphene in Lake Superior are remaining fairly constant.
Toxaphene was virtually banned in the U.S. in 1982. If it is present in waste at the level of one-half part per million, the waste is classified as "hazardous waste." The U.S. EPA, the scientific body supplying data for fish eating advisories, recommends very little ingestion of toxaphene: www.p2pays.org/ref/07/06066.jpg. Prior to 2004, toxaphene was responsible for the majority of Lake Superior's fish consumption advisories.
Horrendous government action: In 2004, the health departments of Ontario and the states surrounding Lake Superior stopped including toxaphene in their fish eating advisories. We are no longer told to restrict our intake of fish that are contaminated at 10 times the level that would classify them as hazardous waste.
Answers: In the 1960s, agricultural technology requiring toxaphene, chlordane, Lindane, etc., was exported to developing countries to save them from starvation. These countries now feed a greatly expanded population and export food back to us. The "banned" pesticides that they still use circulate through the air to contaminate our air and waters.
In this global circulation, PCBs deposit across the continental U.S. and decrease to the north. Lindane races to the Arctic and is present in the Arctic Ocean at 40 times the concentration in temperate oceans. Toxaphene likes the northern Great Lakes, mountain lakes, Lake Laberge in the Yukon, and the Arctic, where Inuit women of child-bearing age ingest four times the tolerable daily intake of toxaphene from the small portion of their diet obtained from marine mammals.
Toxaphene, PCBs, chlordane and the other banned pesticides will not leave the Great Lakes until they are globally banned. Hiding the problem will not make it go away and spending the hoped-for $20 billion to clean up the lakes will do nothing for the most toxic chemicals currently in the lakes.
My quest for answers was published as "Cold, Clear, and Deadly: Unraveling a Toxic Legacy" by Michigan State University Press.
I hope the truth of what is in our lakes will prevail and our leaders will develop the courage to address rather than hide from problems.
Mel Visser of Portage, Mich., is a lifelong resident of the Great Lakes area.
© 2007 Capital Times
11 Comments so far
Show AllThank you Douglas Barnes.
Didn't know hydrocarbons could be broken down in that manner.
Hoping they can expand on this knowledge.
imfedup,
It's hard for me to think of an inanimate substance like oil as evil or good. It just is. I do think, however, that there are, if not evil, very stupid things done with the stuff. Though it seldom is, it could be used in an environmentally beneficial way creating rather than destroying ecological niches for life to flourish in. A few examples of this include the creation of swales (water-harvesting ditches on contour) and small scale earthen dams.
The rich reserves of energy are like a trust fund - one that we have unfortunately squandered on inefficient and/or frivolous things. When we are done with the global kegger, we'll be lucky if we have enough reserves to repair the damage we've done.
To go completely off topic, there may be some light at the end of the tunnel for plastics. Considering the discovery of fungal species like Trametes versicolor and Pleurotus ostreatus to break down complex hydrocarbons and persistent pollutants like dioxins, it might be discovered that they can break down endocrine disruptors like bis phenol A and other toxins present in certain plastics. If this turns out to be the case and toxicity can be removed, the final result might be turn out to start paying back the damage they have cause. I'm sure you've noticed old plastic deteriorating and breaking into powdery bits. Over time it continues to do this until, in the end, a colloid is left. Assuming (and a big assumption here) any toxic components could be broken down, the addition of a non-toxic colloid would have a beneficial effect on the soil, fostering soil life. Again, there is an assumption in there, but considering what is being learnt about mycelium as of late, there may be some light at the end of the tunnel.
To all who responded: excellent comments.
But now I pose the question; if you removed the "evil doers" that control the oil and used it prudently, is the oil still evil? Does it make a difference if it comes from under the surface or from the soil? Yes I know the renewable sources are far more more attractive since we know the stuff under the ground will eventually run out. But we do need the materials it can produce and we can solve our energy needs that oil provides through other means. So, what about it? Is it the people who control the oil or is it the oil to blame for all our miseries. Come on people! I love to hear your comments!
http://www.hempplastic.com/newSite/
imfedup: what do you use for a plastic substitute?
Hydrocarbons come from either fossil or live sources and are made into fuel, materials (plastics) and all sorts of things. The cost of refining fossil sources ranges widely but natural gas and highest grades of petroleum have been viewed as economical. But they are becoming much less economical as everyone knows. As with fuel, materials from live sources have to be part of a comprehensive public policy to preserve the environment and provide opportunity/independence for people. When the society is organized for sustainability, consumption goes way down, efficiencies go way up, and live sources replace fossil sources.
There are synthetic oils (high performance as well), so it's probably safe to assume that non-oil plastics are possible as well.
If I'm wrong -- that plastics may only be built from oil, then that's all the more reason to devise alternative energy sources NOW. (No hyperbole here: our civilization would probably collapse without plastics.)
nayoibi January 5th, 2008 6:53 pm
GREAT LAKES OCEANS WON'T BE CLEAN , UNTIL OIL IS NO LONGER ABLE TO DUMP SO EASILY FROM ITS CARGO TANKERS AND PLASTIC PRODUCTS ARE BANNED !
Passionate... but what do you use for a plastic substitute?
for that matter what are you typing with right now? What people do in the name of oil can be really revolting. But don't demonize a product that has some good qualities with a bunch of boneheads.
GREAT LAKES OCEANS WON'T BE CLEAN , UNTIL OIL IS NO LONGER ABLE TO DUMP SO EASILY FROM ITS CARGO TANKERS AND PLASTIC PRODUCTS ARE BANNED !
Organic farming methods should be exported, not pesticides. Despite the Miami-Mafia imposed 40 yr. old embargo, Cuba has led the world in sustainable organic agriculture as well as in the production and exportation of physicians to third world countries.
Check your Mutual Funds and divest yourself of dirty chemical and agribusiness stocks. Buy socially and environmentally responsible funds only.
If Bush keeps putting the industry heads in to oversee our government there won't be any people left. The industry has for sixty years has been saying there is nothing the matter with chemicals at the expense of humanity. They say the chemicals allow more food production at the expense of our wildlife. We need to take back this country from those who put greed before Humanity.
So what do we do? How do we protect ourselves? And what effects on the human body do toxaphene, chlordane, and lindane have?