"Shrinking Balls & Degraded Bones" - Danish Zoologist Tracks POP Effects On Greenland Polar Bears

[hatrack]

COPENHAGEN - Persistent organic pollutants used in industry are changing the genitals and bones of polar bears in East Greenland, says a Danish wildlife veterinarian and toxicologist.

``Shrinking balls and degraded bones,'' linked to the presence of pesticides and flame retardants in the Arctic, are likely to affect the animals' fertility and reproductive success, said Christian Sonne at last week's conference on Arctic climate change and pollution in Copenhagen.

These impacts are ``not just'' affecting polar bears, said Sonne who works at the National Environmental Research Institute of Denmark.

People, as well as other animals, in Canada's Arctic may also be at risk of similar effects from these pollutants, although the toxic ``cocktail'' becomes somewhat lower as you head west from Greenland across the Arctic region, he said. Polar bears from East Greenland are among the most polluted species in the Arctic because their diet depends on contaminant-loaded blubber from ringed and bearded seals.

EDIT

http://www.canada.com/Pollutants%20taking%20toll%20polar%20bears%20researchers/4752248/story.html

[kristopher]

1. Thanks for this.

Unregulated POPs = major area of concern.