News Briefs
Deca in the atmosphere
Accelerating climate change
Lund University and the Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research found 71% of the BDE209, which is used primarily in electronics products, on particles in air. About 95% of the Deca detected in the study was associated with atmospheric deposition, which suggests that the other 5% came from fresh emissions of BDE-209, ter Schure says. The volumes of Deca used in Europe have increased in recent years, and the new data mirror those trends, ter Schure says. “The change from banned Pentas to Deca PBDEs is [now] even clear at remote stations,” he says. Although Deca is nonvolatile, such a huge quantity of BDE-209 is used in electronics products that if even a tiny fraction of it escapes, large quantities of it will enter the atmosphere, ter Schure says. The Bromine Science and Environmental Forum (BSEF) estimates that 56,100 metric tons of Deca were used in 2001, making it the second most widely used flame retardant. A crucial question related to the Deca formulation is whether it is breaking down to form lighter PBDE congeners, such as BDE-183,
“Atmospheric levels of carbon dioxide may be rising faster than at any time in Earth’s history,” according to the American Geophysical Union, a scientific society that has a policy of making statements based on sound science. In a statement in December, the society’s scientists also stressed that human activities are increasingly altering the climate system: “Scientific evidence strongly indicates that natural influences cannot explain the rapid increase in global near-surface temperatures observed during the second half of the 20th century.” The statement goes on to state, “It is virtually certain that increasing atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases will cause global surface climate to be warmer.” To read the entire statement, go to www.agu.org/sci_soc/policy/climate_ change_position.html.
Your computer may be spewing Deca flame retardants into the environment.
In recognition of the crucial role that rice plays in feeding the world’s population and the serious issues the food crop faces, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) declared 2004 the International Year of Rice to promote more sustainable approaches to rice cultivation. The designation marks the first time that the U.N. has devoted so much attention to a single crop. Rice is the staple food of more than half of the world’s population. The environmental concerns in rice production include indiscriminate use of pesticides, inefficient use of fertilizers, and greenhouse gas emissions from microbes in rice paddy soils. Improved technologies can help, according to the International Year of Rice website (www. fao.org/rice2004/index_en.htm).
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PHOTODISC
Rice for life
RHONDA SAUNDERS
Polybrominated diphenyl ether (PBDE) chemicals are entering the atmosphere around the Baltic Sea at strikingly high levels, according to research published in this issue of ES&T (pp 1282–1287). The research is the first to describe the long-range transport of Deca PBDE, and it pegs the total volume of PBDEs entering the Baltic Sea at 40 times that of PCBs. The quantities of BDE-209, the main compound in the Deca PBDE formulation, found in the atmosphere were particularly surprising, says the paper’s lead author, Arnout ter Schure, an assistant scientist at Lund University in Sweden. Although the levels of all the PBDE and PCB compounds measured in the atmosphere were similar, the greater tendency of PBDEs to adhere to particles that are washed out of the atmosphere by precipitation means that the levels of these chemicals entering the environment is much higher, ter Schure says. The paper supports recently published data showing the dominance of Deca in outdoor window films (Environ. Sci. Technol. 2004, 38, 724–731), which reflects what is in the air and particles, says Tom Harner, a research scientist with Environment Canada, the country’s environmental protection agency. Both papers are important for highlighting the dominance of BDE-209 in air, adds Åke Bergman, chair of Stockholm University’s Department of Environmental Chemistry in Sweden. “This is new and important data” because until recently the scientific dogma held that BDE-209 would not enter the environment, and many previous attempts to find the compound turned up no evidence of it, Bergman explains. ter Schure and his colleagues at
Environmental▼News BDE-99, and BDE-47, which have been found to bioaccumulate. Although the research does not provide evidence that BDE-209 is giving rise to any of these bioaccumulative PBDE compounds, the researchers did detect BDE-17, a compound not previously found in the air nearby known sources of PBDEs. This provides some evidence that BDE-209 is debrominating in the atmosphere, ter Schure says. The Deca formulation has been approved for use in the European Union (EU) following a risk assessment, although the implications for new research into the compound’s
neurotoxicity are still being analyzed. In the meantime, BSEF is working with EU regulators on a program to reduce emissions. There are no strictures on Deca’s use in North America. ter Schure acknowledges that his study’s data cannot be used to infer PBDE trends elsewhere due to differences in consumption patterns. But additional data may soon be available because the Canadian government is gearing up to sample for PBDEs through the Integrated Atmospheric Deposition Network (IADN), which it operates jointly with the United States, says Pierrette Blanchard, an atmospher-
ic chemist at Environment Canada who is involved with the project. Ron Hites, of Indiana University, who is a key participant in the U.S. component of IADN, says he has petitioned the U.S. EPA for funding for the project. Although previous efforts to measure BDE-209 in the atmosphere over the Great Lakes found no observable emissions, Blanchard says she expects to find the compound when sampling begins, and perhaps even in the archival samples she plans soon to begin analyzing. “It probably is there because we know the compound is in use,” she explains. —KELLYN BETTS
Traditional foes collaborate to save boreal lion hectares of Canada’s boreal forests—90% of which is publicly owned. The framework ensures economic benefits to local communities, such as sustainable logging operations that employ local workers, and uses the best science, such as land and biodiversity manageHERB HAMMOND
On December 1, an alliance of 11 industrial, environmental, and aboriginal groups pledged to exclude development from half of Canada’s boreal forest and to allow only sustainable activities on the other half. The agreement marks an emerging trend in Canada that pairs nongovernmental organizations with industry to manage natural resources. The program’s success could determine the future of the world’s largest remaining intact forest, according to the brokers of the new agreement sponsored by the Canadian Boreal Initiative (CBI), a nonprofit organization. Although some academics and environmentalists are cautiously optimistic that the new scheme could save the boreal from degradation, others say the move is based more on politics than science. Known as the “snow forest”, the boreal circles the Northern Hemisphere roughly above 50–54° latitude. Dominated by snow and cold, it remains relatively untouched in Canada and is an important carbon sink and climate regulator for the planet, says Herb Hammond, a forest ecologist with the Silva Forest Foundation, a nonprofit educational organization. The conservation framework is not prescriptive but instead sets out a national vision to maintain ecological processes, such as water and carbon storage, across all 530 mil-
Canada’s boreal forest is an important carbon sink and climate regulator.
ment, to conserve natural and cultural values, says Cathy Wilkinson, director of CBI. The wide range of partners, such as the forestry company Alberta Pacific, the Innu Nation, and the environmental group World Wildlife Fund, must develop a declaration of action to implement the framework. “Some of the most progressive examples of good management are coming from partnerships between industry and nongovernmental organizations,” says John Innes, a forest management scientist at the University of British Columbia. The partnership trend is global, but Canada is a leader, he notes.
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Government does not need to get involved in these agreements, Innes says. However, in many cases provincial governments do get involved after agreements are reached, says Fiona Schmiegelow, an ecologist at the University of Alberta. These voluntary forestry practices benefit industry by ensuring access to markets. For example, the Forest Products Association of Canada, an industry group, requires that all members belong to a sustainable forestry certification scheme, such as the Forest Stewardship Council. Thus, these Canadian companies can easily sell lumber products to retailer Home Depot, which asks a third party to certify that the wood has been sustainably harvested, Innes says. Companies also gain a critical “social license” of community approval that helps them obtain government permits to continue logging on public land, he says. However, Hammond says that “there is a legitimate concern that with these agreements the forest industry is buying a social license to lobby the government for more subsidies.” Logging is heavily subsidized across Canada’s boreal forest. Without the subsidies, companies would not find it profitable to log where environmental sensitivity is high, access is difficult, and the trees are small, he adds. Wilkinson counters that “the framework is not about calling for
