The document discusses the widespread pollution of oceans from priority chemicals released by industrial and domestic sources. It notes that 90% of surface water and 75% of aquifers are grossly contaminated with these chemicals. All freshwater pollution eventually ends up in the oceans, where priority chemicals are found in all fish and marine life. This pollution has reduced primary productivity by plankton by 40% since the 1950s and is a potential factor in declining ocean pH and accelerated climate change, threatening global food security and marine ecosystems. Preventing further pollution of air and water with priority chemicals may allow marine environments to recover and better regulate climate factors.

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Priority chemical pollution
non toxic environment
GoesFoundation.com
GLOBAL OCEANIC ENVIRONMENTAL SURVEY

2. At GOES Foundation, we are marine biologists, 30 years field experience
Life support systems for public aquaria
and marine mammals
Environmental projects and effluent treatment systems in India and China we
know about environmental pollution and what is takes to destroy and ecosystem

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Billions of tonnes of Industrial
waste enter rivers every year

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from many different sources

5. National Geographic
Barrow, Alaska

6. Haina, Dominican Republic. Photo Source: Eduardo Munoz

7. Air pollution from domestic and industrial sources

8. Freshwater pollution……Un-sustainable Economies
Economies of countries including India, China are un-sustainable unless they prevent aquatic
environmental pollution
• 90% of surface water is polluted with priority chemicals
• 75% of all aquifer water is grossly contaminated
• All freshwater pollution eventually ends up in the oceans
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China textile town

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It all eventually
ends up in the
oceans

11. Mass of garbage is 6 times the mass of plankton in garbage patches
46,000 pieces of plastic per square
kilometre, killing a million seabirds
and 100,000 marine mammals each
year

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Priority chemicals impact on microscopic plankton (primary productivity)

13. Priority Chemicals, what are they?
Chemicals or substances that pose an unreasonable risk to;
• Public health, carcinogenic, mutagenic, teratogenic, neurological,
endocrine disrupters and auto-immune disorders
• Environment, water and food security, we depend upon the marine
ecosystem, if we loose it, the terrestrial system will fail
• 90% of all cancers are now known to be caused by environmental factors
• 800 billion year on treating neurological problems
• 200,000 tonnes of priority substances are manufactured
in Europe every year.

14. Source of Priority chemicals
domestic sources
Europe and North
America
Industrial pollution
S. America, Africa and Asia

15. Sun Block oxybenzone Kills corals at 0.06
ug/l
May be primary reason for coral
bleaching.
Environmental Contamination and Toxicology ISSN: 1432-
0703 (electronic version) Journal no. 244
Fire retardant
Carpets, furniture,
fabrics
PBDE 60 to 600 ug/l found
in blood of children
and marine
mammals
Persistent, bio-accumulated
endocrine disrupter, almost as
dangerous as PCBs
Tooth paste Triclosan Endocrine disrupter, skin
irritation, antibiotic resistance
Shampoo Triethanolamine Buffering agent Carcinogenic
Plastic micro
particles
TBT, DBT,
PFAS,
Bisphenol
Combination of
plastic and priority
chemicals. Injects
chemicals into
Highly toxic, endocrine
disrupter, neurological impact,
allergic sensitization
Domestic

16. Transformers and
capacitors.
PCBs No safe
level
Banned for many applications, but still is use.
Millions of tonnes manufactured, only 1% has
reached the oceans. Extremely toxic.
http://www.wsn.org/
Flame retardant,
released into the
oceans in huge
amounts in Asia
PBDE No safe
level
Some classes have been banned. Persistent, bio-
accumulated endocrine disrupter, almost as
dangerous as PCBs
Anti-fouling paint,
plasticizer in
plastic
Organic tine
TBT, DBT
No safe
level
Bio-accumulated Carcinogenic, extremely toxic.
1000 tonnes cold kill all life in the oceans. We
manufacture circa 30,000 tonnes/year.
http://www.wwf.org.uk/filelibrary/pdf/factsheet_organotins_food.p
df
Many industrial
and chemical
products
Mercury forming
methly mercury
No safe
level
Highly toxic, endocrine disrupter, neurological
impact, allergic sensitization
Industrial

17. Every fish, shrimp and living organism in the oceans contain priority chemicals

18. Ref MARBEF
1. PCB concentration in the North sea, 8.8 ng/l, concentration in biomass 600 to 1200 ng/g
(dry weight)
2. PCB concentration in Antarctic 1.2 ng/l, concentration in biomass is the same as North Sea
600 to 1200 ng/g (dry weight)
3. The above demonstrates that hydrophobic particles, concentrate priority substances.
PCBs and organochlorine pesticides in phytoplankton and zooplankton in the Indian sector of the Southern ocean
Joiris, C.R.; Overloop, W. (1991). PCBs and organochlorine pesticides in phytoplankton and zooplankton in the Indian sector of the Southern ocean. Antarctic Science 3: 371-377
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Priority chemical concentrations

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Southern Ocean and Human health
Southern Ocean
“shark have levels mercury & PCB’s 10 times higher
than safety levels recommended by the Foods
Standards Authority of Australia and New Zealand”

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Bib and whiting had the highest concentrations of PCBs: 810 - 3200 ng/g
UK, National Health Service
“Pregnant women should not eat more than two oily fish per week from the
North Sea because of pollutants such as dioxins and PCBs (polychlorinated
biphenyls)”
Oily fish are meant to be healthy ?
Voorspoels, S.; Covaci, A.; Maervoet, J.; De Meester, I.; Schepens, P. (2004). Levels and profiles of PCBs and OCPs
in marine benthic species from the Belgian North Sea and the Western Scheldt Estuary. Mar. Pollut. Bull. 49(5-6):
393-404

21. Farmed salmon, upper limit by EPA 48 ug/kg, current
levels range from 2 to 20 ug/Kg.
Contaminant levels in Norwegian farmed Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) in the 13-year period from 1999 to 2011
Ole Jakob Nøstbakkena, , ,
doi:10.1016/j.envint.2014.10.008

22. •Scientific Reports 6, Article number: 18573 (2016)
41.0 mg/kg lipid PCB is the toxicity threshold published for marine
mammals. The average concentration is lipid of European Orca is over
>200mg/kg
This orca was found washed up on the British coast in

23. PBDE is almost as toxic as PCBs, mammals
concentrate toxin in fat tissue as
well as milk
706 ng/g of PBDE endocrine disrupter
Environ. Sci. Technol., 2004, 38 (16), pp 4293–4299
DOI: 10.1021/es0495011

24. PCBs in the Blubber Beached Sperm whales up to 5000 ng/g
dry weight
Daphnis De Pooter (2013): PCB and heavy metals in beached sperm whales. Available from
http://www.coastalwiki.org/wiki/PCB_and_heavy_metals_in_beached_sperm_whales The Coastal Wiki is hosted
and developed by the Flanders Marine Institute (VLIZ)

25. PBDE levels as high as
590 ppb have been
measured in the breast milk
of Canadian women
Published by the Environmental Working Group
https://groups.google.com/group/goes-foundation/attach/7b3001c818044/MothersMilk.pdf?part=0.1&authuser=0

26. The implications of priority substances on
Marine Biodiversity

27. 95% of all life in the oceans are microscopic plankton
responsible for up to 80% of all our Oxygen
30% of CO2 fixation.
Atmospheric oxygen levels are declining, and CO2 is increasing

28. Dalhousie University Nova Scotia
Primary productivity has dropped by 40% since the 1950s.
Nature 466, 591–596 (29 July 2010) doi:10.1038/nature09268
NASA from satellite imagery shows that
primary productivity is dropping by 1%
every year.
The drop in productivity is not due to increasing temperature.
Priority chemical product started in the early 1950s, is there a
Connection with the drop in productivity?

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pH and ocean acidification
CO2 dissolves into the water and drops the pH
At current rates in 25 to 40 years, oceanic pH will
drop from pH8.06 to pH7.95, at which point there
may be a cascade destabilization of the marine
ecosystem.
The ability of the marine ecosystem to sequester CO2
will decline in proportion to the productivity
Anthropogenic CO2 emission account for up to
3.75% of the total CO2 going into the atmosphere
each year. (from IPCC)
Data from IPCC
pH at 2015
pH at 2050
Representative Concentration Pathways (RCPs)
8.5combines assumptions about high population and
relatively slow income growth with modest rates of
technological change and energy intensity improvements

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Consequences
When the pH reaches 7.95 in 25 to 40 years, the
consequences could be;
• No more marine teleost fish
• No fish then no dolphins, whales, seals,
penguins, seabirds or polar bears
• Food supply for 1.5 billion people under
threat
• Coccolithophores will be replaced by
diatoms, fixation of atmospheric CO2
drops by at least 50% climate change
accelerates

31. For discussion?
If priority chemicals are implicated in
reducing primary productivity, allowin
g
CO2 to increase, could we reverse the
trend?
Graph from MIT

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Opportunities… for a non toxic environment
• Communicate the problem
• Development of new domestic
products, cosmetics, cleaning agents,
fire retardants
• Pharmaceuticals, domestic treatment
systems
• Technology to recycle waste, eg PCs,
mobile phones
• Prevention of pollution, disposal
stratigies & catchment area
management
• Water treatment technology to
remove the chemicals from drinking
water and wastewater.

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Reduction of oceanic
pollution would allow
the marine ecosystem a
chance to recover…
and this could happen
very quickly…

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Trees take over 100 years to remove CO2
carbon from the atmosphere

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Marine Algae takes a few hours / days

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Marine Bacteria take a
few minutes

37. If we remove the brakes on marine productivity by
preventing pollution, the marine ecosystem could
recover very quickly.

38. The prevention of priority chemicals getting into the air
and water, may be our best hope to protect not only the
oceans but the terrestrial ecosystem.
but
we need to take action now
we may only have 25 years to provide a fix.

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You can’t control water you don’t measure.
GOES, Global Oceanic Environmental Survey
• Collect information
• Raise awareness of the issues
• Provide possible solutions

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GoesFoundation.com
GLOBAL OCEANIC ENVIRONMENTAL SURVEY
non toxic environment