Environmental ▼News PBDEs poised to overtake PCBs in popular fish ountain whitefish from the mals, Ikonomou says. The levels are eastern British Columbia where Columbia River in Canada’s on a par with the highest levels they conducted their studies. After Pacific Northwest are taking recorded to date in Virginia carp by ruling out obvious sources like atup polybrominated diphenyl ether Rob Hale of the Virginia Institute of mospheric deposition and automo(PBDE) compounds more rapidly Marine Science (Environ. Sci. tive wrecking yards, Ikonomou than any other organism yet tested, Technol. 2001, 35, 4585–4591). They determined that septic fields and according to Michael Ikonomou of are not directly comparable, howevdomestic sewage were the most Fisheries and Oceans Canada, a gover, because Ikonomou determined likely source of the PBDEs in the ernmental agency. In research pubthe concentration of contaminants fish—another surprise. lished in this issue of ES&T (p 2847– as a function of the wet weight of Sediments in the area inhabited 2854), a team led by Ikonomou rethe tested samples, while Hale by the whitefish have ratios of orports that the popular food fish’s levmade measurements on a lipid ganic carbon to organic nitrogen els of the persistent organic pollutant basis. Ikonomou says his team did that suggest they were enriched by are doubling every 1.6 years. At this not lipid-normalize the data bewastewater, and it is well-known rate, whitefish will become the first cause they did not have reliable that PBDEs come from domestic known organism in the world with a lipid data for their oldest samples. sewage, Ikonomou says. Because the higher body burden of PBDEs Columbia River is so extensively than polychlorinated biphenyls dammed, the water in different (PCBs) this year. segments of the river provides a The impact of these comfairly unambiguous signature of pounds on the whitefish—and the contaminants in it, he adds. the people who consume it, “It surprises me that [the levsome of whom are taking up els Ikonomou found] are relatvery high levels of the PBDEs ed to household septic systems (Environ. Sci. Technol. 2003, 37, unless they were really mal164A–165A)—is as yet unclear. functioning, because the stuff The chemicals are suspected to is so hydrophobic that I would Mountain whitefish appear to be taking up polyimpact thyroid and endocrine think that it would get taken brominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) more rapidly system functioning, and rodent out pretty readily before it than any other studied organism, including humans studies show that they may im- and ringed seals from the Canadian Arctic. The con- reached the surface water,” pair neurological function, says centrations measured in whitefish mirror the levels says Hale, who has conducted Linda Birnbaum, director of many of the studies linking of PBDEs being produced, which are on the rise. the Experimental Toxicology sewage and PBDEs. Division of the U.S. EPA’s National Ikonomou did not expect to find “We have seen information to Health and Environmental Effects such high PBDE levels because the suggest that low levels do get out of Research Laboratory. area where his studies were consewage treatment plants—at subIkonomou and his fellow reducted is quite pristine, he says. parts-per-billion levels—but the searchers at Fisheries and Oceans “Originally, we thought that we had volumes of sewage treatment plants Canada and the University of contaminated the samples someare so large that that may actually Victoria in British Columbia underhow,” Ikonomou admits. So when be a reasonable source,” Hale says. took the study of whitefish, which the researchers returned to collect Another notable aspect of are considered a sentinel species more samples in 2000, they elimiIkonomou’s latest findings is that the for the Columbia River, because of nated all possible sources of contawhitefishes’ levels of the various the paucity of studies examining mination. And the fish they caught brominated flame retardant comhow PBDE levels have changed over that year contained the highest levpounds, or congeners, closely mirthe 20 years the chemicals have els they had seen to date. rors the patterns in the mixtures been used extensively as flame reThe Canadian researchers consold commercially. The Penta mix, tardants in North America. ducted an exhaustive analysis to which is used extensively in polyThe PBDE levels in the whitefish determine how PBDEs were enterurethane foam in the United States were 15,000 times higher than the ing the mountainous area near the and contains the less-brominated levels found in Arctic marine mamColumbia River’s source in southcompounds that many observers U.S. EPA
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suspect are most likely to be toxic, contains more BDE-99 than BDE-47, and this is what is found in whitefish. The industry has previously called some findings into question because other organisms have higher body burdens of BDE-47, Ikonomou says. The high levels of BDE-99 indicate that the fish must be near a source, Hale adds. The industry is quite concerned
about these findings, says Peter O’Toole, the U.S. director of the Bromine Science and Environmental Forum (BSEF). He stresses that the manufacturers of the Penta products—and all brominated flame retardants—have undertaken a “significant new product stewardship program to reduce pathways for the product to get into the environment.” —KELLYN S. BETTS
“No data, no market” for chemicals in EU A draft proposal overhauling chemical regulation in the European Union (EU) goes far beyond requirements elsewhere, shifting the burden from government to industry to prove that individual chemicals can be used safely before they are marketed. Additionally, the legislation, which was released in May by the European Commission (EC) for public comment, eliminates the distinction between new and socalled “existing” chemicals that were first marketed before 1981 and therefore have not been subject to the same testing requirements as
newer chemicals in the EU or elsewhere. These existing chemicals make up more than 99% of total substance volume currently on the market, according to EC estimates. The EC proposes a new chemicals agency to manage the Registration, Evaluation, and Authorization of Chemicals system, known as REACH. Under the REACH framework, which is based on the precautionary principle, companies will be required to register all substances that they produce or import in volumes of one or more metric tons annually. Additionally, they must
News Briefs Taking stock of chemical releases North America’s large industrial facilities reduced their releases and off-site transfers of some 200 hazardous chemicals by 6% from 1999 to 2000, according to an April report from the Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC), an organization created under the North American Free Trade Agreement. That’s the good news. The bad news is that CEC’s analysis, based on pollutant release and transfer registry databases from Canada and the United States, show that releases and transfers of smaller facilities shot up 32% in the same period. The smaller facilities, each emitting less than 100 tons a year, are under less pressure to reduce their use of hazardous chemicals than the larger, better-known industrial plants, according to CEC’s Acting Executive Director Victor Shantora. To download a copy of the report Taking Stock, go to www.cec.org.
Protecting public drinking water
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The implementation of the proposed REACH framework initially targets high-production volume chemicals (1000 metric tons [t] or more per year) and chemicals that are carcinogenic, mutagenic, and toxic to reproduction (CMR); then substances with production volumes of 100–1000 t; and finally products with volumes as low as 1 t. The REACH program also sets aside time for preregistration (P) and consortia building (CB).
Drinking water utilities are becoming much more security conscious, according to a report released in May by the nonprofit American Water Works Association. The report lists accomplishments resulting from U.S. EPA’s partnership with the water utilities, which include “hardening” facilities with more locks, fences, and guards; educating the public on reporting suspicious activity near sites; and developing the Water Information Sharing and Analysis System, which helps member utilities identify threats, access databases, and directly communicate with other utilities. Drinking Water Security in America After 9/11 is available at www.awwa.org.
