If you read the latest press release circulating the web:
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2009-10/acs-gmm102109.php
You would think that glacial melt was a significant POPs source. Those glacial lakes, just like the Arctic Ocean continue to receive POPs through the air from uses in the developing world. Let’s not get distracted. I sent the contact people the following:
Dr. Bogdal and Mr. Woods,
I question the conclusion that melting glaciers are a significant source of POPs to the environments of our northern lakes and the Arctic.
Please see the attached USEPA 2008 table of POPs concentrations in Lake Superior … far from any glaciers.
In the mid 1980s, Inuit women of Broughton Island, in the Canadian Arctic just above the Arctic Circle, were found to be consuming 15X the tolerable daily intake of chlordane, toxaphene, and PCBs. By the end of the last century, an eight nation circumpolar effort under the Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme AMAP concluded that POPs concentration in the Arctic were being maintained by continuing uses in the developing world. The UNEP program to voluntarily eliminate POPs has had little to no success as measured by continuing AMAP monitoring. The Stockholm Convention has focuse on dioxin, chlorine chemistry, and DDT … efforts that will not help the levels of chlordane, toxaphene, and PCBs in your lakes, Lake Superior, or the Arctic.
The Northern Hemisphere will continue to be poisoned as long as megatonnes of POPs are used anywhere in the Northern Hemisphere.
For more information, see my website or read the book mentioned below.
Mel Visser
Melvin J. Visser is the author of Cold, Clear, and Deadly: Unraveling a toxic legacy (Michigan State University Press.) He currently works to raise the awareness of the pollution of North American air and waters from PCB and “banned” pesticide uses in developing countries. See coldclearanddeadly.com.
