How Chemical Pollutants Persist in the Environment

Just because the production of a given pollutant is halted due to environmental
or health concerns doesn’t mean that it’s going anywhere, any time soon.  Consider
DDT.  The production of this pesticide and highly reactive toxin is still being found
in soils and groundwater, decades after it was applied.  In fact, the breakdown chemical
DDE can still be found in very high levels in both groundwater supplies and the bodies
of people and animals who were exposed many years previously.

These chemicals persist for several reasons.  For starters, they bind to lipids, or fatty
tissues, that animals use to store energy for later use.  Fat cells are not created or
destroyed over the life of an organism – they simply fill up or shrink down.  Also, many
of the original or breakdown chemicals have an affinity for soils.  They remain tightly
bound to soil particles and minerals until something “knocks” them loose.

Yes, this is another area where sustainable development initiatives become challenging.

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Biomagnification Explained

Pollution Accumulating in Your Dinner – Biomagnification Explained

When the landmark book Silent Spring was released in the 1960s, it was the first time the public
was made aware of the dangers of chemical bio-magnification.  In this particular case it was
birds of prey accumulating massive amounts of DDT in their bodies that resulted in their
inability to reproduce because of soft egg shells.

Since then, this has been observed in nearly every higher order creature on Earth with one
chemical or another.  Human beings are not immune.  The affinity that some of the most dangerous
chemicals have for lipids causes them to accumulate in fatty tissues.  Any creature that eats
another can easily take these toxins into their own bodies where they are also stored in fat
tissues, often causing drastically higher levels of body-toxins than are observed in simpler
organisms that are lower on the food chain.

Who ever thought that it might be a good thing to be lower in the food chain?  Just think, you
could have drastically lower body-toxins.

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