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BELUGAS Sentinel

Photo taken by Ansgar Walk-Wikipedia

Dolphins beluga whales, two marine species at the top of the food chain, accumulate chemical contaminants when they live and feed in waters near urban areas. Among the substances are known compounds that affect neurodevelopment, immune and endocrine systems of living beings.

U.S. scientists Hollings Marine Laboratory, in collaboration with the University of Charleston SC have published the results of their investigacionesen the journal Environmental Science & Technology.
A research team analyzed the levels persistent organic pollutants (POPs) present in male dolphins along the eastern U.S., the Gulf of Mexico and Bermuda, while another group examined levels of perfluorinated compounds (PFC) in beluga whales in two places Alaska.

The data collected in both studies are expected to serve as measures of reference for future research to define the health effects and impact of these pollutants in the two species.

persistent organic pollutants affect neurological development and immune systems. Persistent organic pollutants are a large group of artificial chemicals, as its name implies, persist in the environment. They can spread worldwide through the air and water, accumulate in the food chain and may have carcinogenic effects on neurological development, immune or endocrine both in animals and humans.

To study the concentrations of POPs in male bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncates), researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and others Hollings Marine Laboratory associated with banded together to collect and test samples of fat biopsies between 2000 and 2007 in eight areas along the U.S. east coast, five sites in the eastern Gulf of Mexico and around Bermuda . The researchers analyzed the fat of the dolphins looking COP, which in the past has been used as insecticides (like DDT), fluids insulation (polychlorinated biphenyls or PCBs), flame retardants (polybrominated diphenyl ethers or PBDEs) and a fungicide (hexachlorobenzene or HCB).

In general, PCBs were the contaminants found in higher concentrations in the 14 sampling points, followed by DDT and other pesticides, PBDEs and HCB. Levels of persistent organic pollutants are significantly higher in dolphins that live and feed in waters near urban and industrialized areas. Reported PCB levels in dolphins that live in the waters near Brunswick, Georgia, were the exception.
The area contaminated by a former

factory, presented the highest PCB levels observed in a group of living mammals.

In the second study, a team from NIST analyzed levels of 12 types of PFC found in the liver of 68 beluga whales (Delphinapterus leucas) who had lived and were fed two areas of Alaska: Cook Inlet in the south, the most urbanized state and in the Chukchi Sea to the north. The samples were collected between 1989 and 2006 by natives of Alaska during subsistence hunting and stored in the National Bank of tissues of marine mammals. This is the first study to examine the concentration of PFCs in belugas of Alaska.

PFCs have been used for curtains and carpets. PFCs are used as coatings, release agents and additives in a wide variety of products including kitchen utensils, curtains, carpets, food packaging, fire-fighting foams and cosmetics. Are very stable, persist for long in the environment and are known to be toxic to the liver, reproductive organs and immune system of mammals laboratory.

PFC was detected in all livers of belugas, with two compounds, perfluorooctane sulfonate perfluorooctanoy sulfonamide present in more than half of the samples. In all but one case, PFC concentrations measured were significantly higher in belugas in Cook Inlet, an expected result given the nearby urban and industrialized. They also found that concentrations of PFCs in belugas has grown significantly over the seven years of the study and were generally higher in males.

PFCs are presented in all samples analyzed, the scientists reported in February in Environmental Science & Technology. This suggests that these chemicals travel through the atmosphere and oceans to almost all corners of the Earth.

"I think it's important to realize that anthropogenic pollutants released at lower latitudes, as in the United States, China and Russia, sliding into the Arctic," said lead researcher Jessica Reiner, a research chemist at the National Institute of Standards and Technology in Gaithersburg, Maryland.

"What human beings do not only affects the place where they are directly", he added. "It has implications around the world ..."

Source: J. Kucklick, L. Schwacke, R. Wells, A. Hohn, A. Guichard, J. Yordy, L. Hansen, E. Zolmo, R. Wilson, J. Litz, D. Nowacek, T. Rowles, R. Pugh, B. Balmer, C. Sinclair and P. Rosel. Bottlenose dolphins as Indicators of Persistent Organic Pollutants in the western north Atlantic ocean and northern gulf of Mexico. Environmental Science & Technology . Published online Apr. 28, 2011.

J.L. Reiner, S.G. O’Connell, A.J. Moors, J.R. Kucklick, P.R. Becker and J.M. Keller. Spatial and temporal trends of perfluorinated compounds in beluga whales (Delphinapterus leucas) from Alaska. Environmental Science & Technology . Published online Feb. 10, 2011.