Saving Seafood

The Serious Health Risks of a Polluted Ocean

February 8, 2021 — Ocean pollution is widespread, worsening, and poses a clear and present danger to human health and wellbeing. But the extent of this danger has not been widely comprehended – until now. Our recent study provides the first comprehensive assessment of the impacts of ocean pollution on human health.

Ocean pollution is a complex mixture of toxic metals, plastics, manufactured chemicals, petroleum, urban and industrial wastes, pesticides, fertilisers, pharmaceutical chemicals, agricultural runoff, and sewage. More than 80 percent arises from land-based sources and it reaches the oceans through rivers, runoff, deposition from the atmosphere – where airborne pollutants are washed into the ocean by rain and snow – and direct dumping, such as pollution from waste water treatment plants and discarded waste. Ocean pollution is heaviest near the coasts and most highly concentrated along the coastlines of low-income and middle-income countries.

Ocean pollution can also be found far beyond national jurisdictions in the open oceans, the deepest oceanic trenches, and on the shores of remote islands. Ocean pollution knows no borders.

Read the full story at The Maritime Executive

Local Scientists Show Link Between Ocean Pollution And Illness

December 8, 2020 — A new study from Boston College and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution draws some jarring conclusions on the link between ocean pollution and human health. Lead researcher Dr. Philip Landrigan discussed the study with GBH All Things Considered Host Arun Rath. This transcript has been edited for clarity.

Arun Rath: I think people probably aren’t surprised to hear that our oceans are polluted. But how polluted are they? And was this a surprise?

Dr. Philip Landrigan: Yeah, I agree. It’s not news that the oceans are polluted. But what we learned through this two-year study that we took in collaboration with the government of Monaco is that ocean pollution is much more extensive than previously realized, and also that it has many more effects — direct effects and indirect effects — on human health than we had previously understood. I think those are the two big messages here.

Rath: We want to talk about the effects in detail. First though, do we have a clear understanding of the various sources of the pollution that is in the oceans?

Landrigan: Mostly. Not entirely, but mostly. So to run down the numbers, mercury is one of the big pollutants in the ocean. Coal combustion is the major source of that mercury. All coal contains a certain amount of mercury, and when you burn thousands of tons of coal, the mercury vaporizes, it goes up into the atmosphere, and it comes down into the oceans. In the ocean, it accumulates in fish, especially in predator species like tuna, like striped bass, like bluefish, like swordfish, and that’s how humans can be exposed. If a pregnant mom eats fish that’s contaminated with mercury that originated in a coal-fired power plant, that mercury goes into her body, goes through to her baby, and it can cause brain damage in the baby, loss of I.Q., increased risk of attention deficit disorder, increased risk of autism spectrum disorder.

Read the full story at WGBH