Turning the toxic tide

A cocktail of toxic chemicals are discharged into our seas every day, threatening the health of marine animals, the food chain and therefore humans

Oil, radioactive isotopes, heavy metals, hazardous substances such as endocrine (hormone) disruptors and persistent pollutants like DDT, PAHs, PCBs, dioxins, aldrin and dieldrin all have long-lasting and serious impacts on marine life.

The MCS Toxic Tide Campaign will highlight the impacts of the most persistent and damaging chemicals on marine life and the human food chain whilst promoting individual, industry, business and government actions to reduce the discharge of such chemicals into the sea.

How do these chemicals enter the marine environment:

• Point-source discharges e.g. from sewage treatment works, industrial discharges from chemical and pharmaceutical manufacturers, offshore oil and gas rigs.
• Diffuse discharges e.g. from agriculture, urban run-off, chemicals leaching into waste streams from discarded house-hold items and builders' waste, toxic antifoulant paint on ships' hulls.
• Atmospheric deposition e.g. from waste incineration plants and bonfires.

Impacts:

A few examples -

• the level of polybrominated diphenylethers (PBDEs), a chemical used in flame-retardants, is doubling every five years in Arctic ringed seals. In the Wadden sea, seals are birthing half as many pups as seals in the Atlantic.
• Beluga whales in the St Lawrence river Canada are so contaminated with PCBs that their carcasses are classified as toxic waste.
• scientists in the Arctic have reported polar bears developing intersex genitals (an hermaphrodite condition) as a result of exposure to endocrine disruptors.
• estuarine and marine fish species such as cod, flounder and sand goby are developing intersex because of contamination by endocrine disruptors.

Many chemicals have not even been tested for their impact on animals, and are not monitored or regulated. Monitoring programmes concentrate on the effects of a few pollutants, whilst others go unchecked and their combined or mixed effects are largely unstudied

What you can do:

• Join the Marine Conservation Society today and support our campaigns to protect the marine environment for wildlife and future generations.
• Avoid burning manufactured items such as plastics, rubber and furniture on bonfires.
• Reduce your  use of toxic chemicals such as fly sprays, detergents and weed killers.
• Try and limit your use of plastic packaging, including plastic bags
• Don't flush petro-chemicals, battery acid and other highly noxious liquids down the toilet.
• Report suspected chemical pollution incidents on the Environment Agency hotline: 0800 80 70 60