[CPEO-MEF] GLOBAL, BIOTA: PCB's in Saglek Bay, Labrador (CAN)

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

Fragile Labrador ecosystem overcomes a toxic past

By Martin Mittelstaedt
Toronto Globe and Mail (ONT)
December 21, 2009

After cleanup in late 1990s, PCB levels in Arctic wildlife in the Saglek 
Bay area dropped dramatically

When scientists visited Saglek Bay on the remote northern coast of 
Labrador in the late 1990s and conducted tests on fish and birds living 
in the area, they found them laced with dangerous PCBs.

The finding wasn't too surprising, given that Saglek Bay was the site of 
an abandoned Cold War era U.S. Air Force radar station. The toxic 
chemicals, once widely used in electrical transformers, had been dumped 
onto the ground around the site, spreading contamination to the soil, 
the nearby seacoast for a distance of 50 kilometres, and to wildlife.

But on a recent return visit, researchers were astonished at how rapidly 
animals in the area have been able to recuperate from their toxic 
exposures. The levels of PCBs in some of the fish and birds had fallen 
by up to 95 per cent.

...

For the entire article, see
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/fragile-labrador-ecosystem-overcomes-a-toxic-past/article1408308/

--


Lenny Siegel
Executive Director, Center for Public Environmental Oversight
a project of the Pacific Studies Center
278-A Hope St., Mountain View, CA 94041
Voice: 650/961-8918 or 650/969-1545
Fax: 650/961-8918
<lsiegel@cpeo.org>
http://www.cpeo.org



_______________________________________________
Military mailing list
Military@lists.cpeo.org
http://lists.cpeo.org/listinfo.cgi/military-cpeo.org