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Yacht paint toxins damage shellfish
Volume 15/Number 5/May 1984
Greenland current, more than would be expected from the atmospheric nuclear bomb tests which have also spread it across the Arctic. Contamination has also been found off the Northern coast of Norway by British scientists. They agree that Sellafield is almost certainly the source of this caesium-137. If all three 'sightings' have the same origin the Canadians' report is interesting as they were working a great deal further away from Cumbria, as the ocean currents flow, than the other two teams.
Pollution's Magnetic 'Fingerprints' Magnetism is being used by a team from the University of Liverpool to measure pollution and track down where it comes from. The technique is cheaper than other methods, and relies on the fact that iron oxide is widely present in pollutants and has a magnetic fingerprint, depending on its source. It was developed by Professor Frank Oldfield of the University of Liverpool, and Dr Roy Thompson, from the University of Edinburgh. Samples can be taken from the atmosphere, sea and river water, or the sediment at the bottom of harbours and rivers. In developing the technique, Professor Oldfield was able to trace the dispersal of waste discharged from an iron and steel works into the Elfis Gulf in Greece. Richard Maxted, an advisory officer with the Environmental Advisory Unit, says that the potential commercial areas being investigated are: atmospheric monitoring; tracing pollution in rivers, and the sea; studying soil erosion and tracking silt, sand and shale.
Yacht Paint Toxins Damage Shellf'tsh Shellfish in estuary waters around Britain are under threat from the undersides of yachts. Antifouling paints traditionally used on the hulls of yachts are causing the death or deformity of significant numbers of shellfish, especially along Britain's south coast where the yachting population is highest. According to scientists at the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, the paint, which slowly releases toxins into the water inhibiting marine growth, contains tin-based compounds which can in turn be deadly to many kinds of marine life and their larvae. Oyster samples taken from the River Dart showed a high level of tributyl tin which, say the MAFF scientists at the Burnhamon-Crouch fisheries laboratory, explains the poor growth rates in recent years. The Pacific oyster has been found to be particularly sensitive to TBT. In addition, the gradual disappearance of winkles, cockles, mussels and shrimps from areas along the south coast is blamed on chemicals leaking from antifouling
paints with shellfish growers claiming that their livelihoods are threatened. Some growers have moved stock to less polluted rivers but this is not possible for all of them. Meanwhile the Shellfish Association of Great Britain is lobbying Government departments and MPs in a bid to bring about a ban on the use of paints containing TBT. The paint manufacturers have also expressed concern at the problem. A spokesman for International Paints said a ban on TBT antifouling paints would mean a return to the copper compounds used previously, and these could prove equally damaging to shellfish at high levels of concentration.
Aquatic Toxicity The Eleventh Annual Aquatic Toxicity Workshop will be held in Vancouver, British Columbia, 13-15 November 1984. The workshop will include a plenary session on the effects of mine wastes on aquatic systems, contributed and invited papers and poster sessions. For further information contact: Dr Glen H. Geen, Department of Biological Sciences, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, B.C., Canada, V5A 1$6.
Round-the-World News UK Recent results from monitoring the beaches near the nuclear reprocessing plant at Sellafield, in Cumbria, have raised doubts about the safety of routine discharges from the plant into the sea. The report by the National Radiological Protection Board (NRPB) shows that, since the accidental discharges of highly radioactive solvents last November, contamination of the beach has not declined, in fact radioactive 'tar' has appeared, which could be due to further routine releases. The report suggest two other possible causes: that the contamination was already on the beach and has been uncovered by tide and wind, and that the 'tar' has been in the sea since November and is only now being washed ashore.
Scotland Evidence of radioactivity which has been found on beaches near the UK Atomic Energy Authority's reactor at Dounreay in Scotland is thought to be the result of contamination arising from maintenance work carried out some time ago on a pipeline which carries low-level liquid wastes from the plant to the sea. Dounreay has a small plant which reprocesses spent fuel from the fast breeder reactor and the authority believes that the spots of radioactivity contain fission products with low levels of radioactivity.
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Greenland current, more than would be expected from the atmospheric nuclear bomb tests which have also spread it across the Arctic. Contamination has also been found off the Northern coast of Norway by British scientists. They agree that Sellafield is almost certainly the source of this caesium-137. If all three 'sightings' have the same origin the Canadians' report is interesting as they were working a great deal further away from Cumbria, as the ocean currents flow, than the other two teams.
Pollution's Magnetic 'Fingerprints' Magnetism is being used by a team from the University of Liverpool to measure pollution and track down where it comes from. The technique is cheaper than other methods, and relies on the fact that iron oxide is widely present in pollutants and has a magnetic fingerprint, depending on its source. It was developed by Professor Frank Oldfield of the University of Liverpool, and Dr Roy Thompson, from the University of Edinburgh. Samples can be taken from the atmosphere, sea and river water, or the sediment at the bottom of harbours and rivers. In developing the technique, Professor Oldfield was able to trace the dispersal of waste discharged from an iron and steel works into the Elfis Gulf in Greece. Richard Maxted, an advisory officer with the Environmental Advisory Unit, says that the potential commercial areas being investigated are: atmospheric monitoring; tracing pollution in rivers, and the sea; studying soil erosion and tracking silt, sand and shale.
Yacht Paint Toxins Damage Shellf'tsh Shellfish in estuary waters around Britain are under threat from the undersides of yachts. Antifouling paints traditionally used on the hulls of yachts are causing the death or deformity of significant numbers of shellfish, especially along Britain's south coast where the yachting population is highest. According to scientists at the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, the paint, which slowly releases toxins into the water inhibiting marine growth, contains tin-based compounds which can in turn be deadly to many kinds of marine life and their larvae. Oyster samples taken from the River Dart showed a high level of tributyl tin which, say the MAFF scientists at the Burnhamon-Crouch fisheries laboratory, explains the poor growth rates in recent years. The Pacific oyster has been found to be particularly sensitive to TBT. In addition, the gradual disappearance of winkles, cockles, mussels and shrimps from areas along the south coast is blamed on chemicals leaking from antifouling
paints with shellfish growers claiming that their livelihoods are threatened. Some growers have moved stock to less polluted rivers but this is not possible for all of them. Meanwhile the Shellfish Association of Great Britain is lobbying Government departments and MPs in a bid to bring about a ban on the use of paints containing TBT. The paint manufacturers have also expressed concern at the problem. A spokesman for International Paints said a ban on TBT antifouling paints would mean a return to the copper compounds used previously, and these could prove equally damaging to shellfish at high levels of concentration.
Aquatic Toxicity The Eleventh Annual Aquatic Toxicity Workshop will be held in Vancouver, British Columbia, 13-15 November 1984. The workshop will include a plenary session on the effects of mine wastes on aquatic systems, contributed and invited papers and poster sessions. For further information contact: Dr Glen H. Geen, Department of Biological Sciences, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, B.C., Canada, V5A 1$6.
Round-the-World News UK Recent results from monitoring the beaches near the nuclear reprocessing plant at Sellafield, in Cumbria, have raised doubts about the safety of routine discharges from the plant into the sea. The report by the National Radiological Protection Board (NRPB) shows that, since the accidental discharges of highly radioactive solvents last November, contamination of the beach has not declined, in fact radioactive 'tar' has appeared, which could be due to further routine releases. The report suggest two other possible causes: that the contamination was already on the beach and has been uncovered by tide and wind, and that the 'tar' has been in the sea since November and is only now being washed ashore.
Scotland Evidence of radioactivity which has been found on beaches near the UK Atomic Energy Authority's reactor at Dounreay in Scotland is thought to be the result of contamination arising from maintenance work carried out some time ago on a pipeline which carries low-level liquid wastes from the plant to the sea. Dounreay has a small plant which reprocesses spent fuel from the fast breeder reactor and the authority believes that the spots of radioactivity contain fission products with low levels of radioactivity.
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