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Researchers Find Toxins in Many Arctic Animals

Posted on: Thursday, 3 June 2004, 06:00 CDT

By DOUG MELLGREN

OSLO, Norway (AP) -- Researchers have found the man-made toxin deca-BDE in the polar bears and sea gulls, a sign the flame-retardant chemical normally used in televisions and plastic toys has found its way to the Arctic and its food chain.

Norwegian environment minister Boerge Brende called it "a warning bell for the global environment."

Janneche Utne Skaare, of the Norwegian Veterinary Institute, told The Associated Press on Thursday, that the find was disturbing because researchers previously believed that deca-BDEs would not spread over long distances or be absorbed by organisms.

"It being found in those animals means it is transported and absorbed," she said.

Skaare said the levels found were tiny and posed no health threat to the animals. However, it's likely the levels could increase with time, possibly resulting in long-term health problems for wildlife.

Researchers have long known that that PCBs and other manmade toxins can cause hormonal imbalances in Arctic wildlife. One result was female bears with vestigial male sexual organs being found in 1997 on Norway's Svalbard Archipelago and the surrounding Barents Sea region.

PCBs - polychlorinated biphenyls - are chemical compounds once widely used in plastics and electrical insulation. It can take years, or decades, for them to break down. Their production and use is banned in the West.

Decabromodiphenyl ethers, or deca-BDEs, are one of about 70 types of brominated flame retardants, and are commonly used in televisions, computers, stereos, and plastic toys.

There are no known sources of deca-BDEs on the remote Svalbard archipelago, just 600 miles from the North Pole, so it had to be transported by winds and ocean currents from industrialized areas, researchers said.

The Norwegian Pollution Control Authority said a 2003 investigation found traces of the toxin in Arctic moss last year.

The veterinary institute in Oslo tested samples taken in 2001 to 2003 from eight polar bears on the Svalbard islands and found traces of deca-BDEs in all of them.

The Norwegian Polar Institute also tested for hazardous chemicals in blood and eggs from glaucous gulls, and deca-BDE was found.

Scientists had believed that deca-BDEs could not build up in the food chain, a process called bioaccumulation, because of its molecular structure.

Skaare said it is now clear that the toxin breaks down into chemical components that can be absorbed "but we don't know exactly what happens."

Little is known about the affects of deca-DBE's on living organisms, although there is evidence that it breaks into the two most dangerous brominated flame retardants, penta-BDE and octa-BDE, both of which will be banned in Norway and in the European Union this summer, the pollution authority said.

The European Union is currently assessing the risks of deca-BDEs.

"We will use these results to actively influence the EU's work on reducing emissions of deca-BDEs," said Brende, the environment minister.

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