A University of Rhode Island researcher says look in the sea.
Rainer Lohmann, associate professor at the Graduate School of Oceanography and a Canadian colleague says a global monitoring network needs to be established to verify that banned chemicals, such as PCBs and others that can accumulate in the food web - are truly disappearing in the environment.
Lohmann says the U.N. Stockholm Convention, which continually analyzes and bans the production and use of some chemical compounds is vital, "but it is very difficult to verify whether or not it is working,'' he said.
While atmospheric testing is done in some parts of the world, Lohmann says aquatic monitoring is critical because people and wildlife can ingest the banned chemicals by eating fish, shellfish and other marine organisms. He recently called for the network in the journal Environmental Science and Technology.
Inexpensive plastic painter's drop cloth can help, he said. The thin polyethylene material absorbs dissolved chemical compounds - and a lab can then identify and measure levels of those chemicals. The sheets - usually a foot long by 1/2 foot wide are anchored in the water column for several weeks before being hauled up to be tested.
Lohmann didn't invent the polyethylene samplers, but he helped test them in Boston Harbor in 2007 and subsequently won a $300,000 National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration grant to further study them.
What's more, he says, they are so easy to use volunteers could even help test waters, decreasing costs further.
I'll keep you posted on his efforts.
Article courtesy of The Boston Globe
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