Two Critical Water Pollutants Affecting Human Health – Mercury and PCBs

1. Two Critical Water Pollutants Affecting Human Health – Mercury and PCBs

2. 1. Heavy Metals • Naturally Occurring (in rock) • Also released by human activities • Mercury (Hg), Lead (Pb), Cadmium (Cd), Copper (Cu), Arsenic (As) + others • All are neurotoxins • All can bioaccumulate (build up in the tissues, not excreted) • All can biomagnify (concentration increases “up the foodchain”)

3. Mercury • Very rare in the Earth’s crust • Only metal that is liquid at room temp. • Uses: thermometers, preservative in vaccines, dental fillings, mercury-vapour lamps……

4. Example: Mercury (Hg) • Minimata, Japan • Mercury from a chemical plant released into the bay 1930s-1960s • About 2000 deaths and 10,000 ill • 1956 – “Minimata disease”…..difficulty walking and speaking, convulsions • Cause was identified by 1958 – mercury in fish

5. Grassy Narrows, Ontario

6. Grassy Narrows - Ontario • Late 1960s • First Nations people experience symptoms similar to Minimata (blurred vision, speech and hearing, tremors…) • Japanese doctors called in to help • Source: paper bleaching factory (Dryden Pulp and Paper Company) • Over 9000 kg of mercury was dumped into the Wabigoon-English River system before ordered to stop in 1970

7. 1970 CBC • http://rc-archives.cbc.ca/environment/pollution/topics/1178/ • 2011 CBC • http://www.cbc.ca/thenational/blog/2010/04/grassy-narrows-marred-by-mercury.html • http://www.cbc.ca/video/#/Shows/The_National/Environment/1290117620/ID=1461698083

8. 2. PCBs • Polychlorinated Biphenyls • Used widely in Canada (never produced here) • SYNTHETIC - Not naturally occurring – manufactured in U.S. 1929-1977 • Versatile chemical – many uses • Resistant to acids and bases • Resistant to heat

9. Used as an insulating material in electric equipment, such as transformers and also in heat transfer fluids and in lubricants. • used in wide range of products such as plasticizers, surface coatings, inks, adhesives, flame-retardants, paints …

11. An interesting history with chemical companies often “hiding” the truth! • 1933 --- 23 out of 24 workers in aplant had acne-like pustules on their faces and bodies. Some complained of loss of energy, appetite and libido as well as other skin ailments. • 1937 --- A study published in the Journal of Industrial Hygiene and Toxicology suggested links between PCBs and liver disease. • 1938 --- A study of PCB-oil mixtures manufactured by Westinghouse and GE demonstrated that liver damage could be caused by skin contact alone • 1947 --- GE began using PCBs in the manufacture of electrical equipment at its Ft. Edward plant on the east shore of the Hudson River.

12. 1950 --- A GE instruction manual for PCB transformers assured utilities that "transformer Pyranol [GE’s trade name for PCBs] may be handled in the same manner as mineral oil." • 1954 --- Appleton Paper Company began making PCB coated carbonless copy papers, and discharging PCB contaminated wastewater to the Fox River. • 1969 --- Between 1969 and 1971, at least 9 major food contaminations occurred with PCBs. • 1969 --- Monsanto wrote a "Pollution Abatement Plan," which admitted that "the problem involves the entire United States, Canada and sections of Europe, especially the United Kingdom and Sweden....

13. 1970 --- Monsanto purchased 50 hogs from Jeremiah Smith, local farmer in Anniston, Alabama, after the hogs grazed on property near the company’s PCB plant. The hogs were shot and buried, not sold for market. • 1970 --- Monsanto said steps had been taken to insure public safety, but denied knowledge of whether any PCBs had been released from its W.G. Krummrich plant in Sauget, Illinois. • 1970 --- Campbell’s Soup Company had to slaughter 146,000 chickens after detecting high levels of PCBs in chickens raised in New York State.

14. 1970 ---- In order to maintain its position that "PCBs are not and cannot be classified as highly toxic," Monsanto engaged Industrial Bio-Test Labs of Northbrook, Illinois, to do safety studies on its Aroclor PCB products. Seven years later, IBT Labs would be at the center of one of the most far-reaching scandals in modern science, as thousands of its studies were revealed through EPA and FDA investigations to be fraudulent or grossly inadequate. • 1975 --- 124,000 cans of salmon from Lake Michigan were seized because of a PCB • 1978 --- President Jimmy Carter declared Love Canal (Niagara Falls, NY) a disaster area and ordered the evacuation of all homes in the area due to toxic chemicals.

15. 1979 --- The Environmental Protection Agency issued final regulations banning the manufacture of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), after a 3-year phase-out period. • 1991--- The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services labeled PCBs as a probable carcinogen. • 1995 --- Studies showed (6) that women who eat fish from the contaminated waters of the Great Lakes and Canada give birth to children with an unusually high susceptibility to bacterial infection.

16. Slow to break down – 2,000,000 tons produced – 10% remain in the natural environment

17. Disposal – (e.g. decommissioned transformers) – must go to an approved storage site • 23 sites in Ontario where they remain “in storage” and protected. • 2011 – federal regulation is that by the end of 2011, they are to be disposed of (probably by incineration) • Health effects – cancer, liver damage, nervous/immune system damage

20. PCB storage site – South Etobicoke (Toronto)……notice in the background how close residential neighbourhoods are!

21. PCBs • Can bioaccumulate and biomagnify up the food chain. • refer to The Guide to Eating Ontario Sport Fish for consumption advice.

22. http://www.ene.gov.on.ca/environment/en/mapping/sportfish/index.htmhttp://www.ene.gov.on.ca/environment/en/mapping/sportfish/index.htm