Polar bears ill from accumulated environmental toxins—Arctic foxes and sled dogs also harmed

[OKIsItJustMe]

http://news.ku.dk/all_news/2011/2011.10/polar_bears/

2011-10-13

Polar bears ill from accumulated environmental toxins

POLLUTION

New doctoral thesis documents that industrial chemicals are transported from the industrialised world to the Arctic via air and sea currents. Here, the cocktail of environmental toxins is absorbed by the sea’s food chains which are so rich in fats and of which the polar bear is the top predator.

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"The accumulated industrial chemicals cause diseases in the polar bears which do not lead to their immediate deaths. On the other hand, the toxins damage the bones and organs of the polar bears, their immune systems and not least their reproductive systems. However, the harm suffered by the population of polar bears in eastern Greenland is not yet fully understood," says Christian Sonne.

Together with researchers from LIFE – the Faculty of Life Sciences and Aarhus University, Christian Sonne has undertaken the first meta study of ten years of research conducted up until 2010 into the effects of contaminants on the health of the species. At the same time, he has analysed tissue and bone samples from about 100 east Greenlandic polar bears.

Arctic foxes and sled dogs also harmed

Christian Sonne and his colleagues from LIFE – the Faculty of Life Sciences have previously conducted controlled experiments on the effects of environmental toxins on Arctic foxes and Greenlandic sled dogs. Both species top the Arctic food chain and are genetically and developmentally closely related to the polar bear.

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[aquart]

1. Which is why it's so great that BP is going for Arctic oil.

[AdHocSolver]

2. K and R. The "Global" Economy at work. n/t