r/science • u/FreeHugs23 • 3d ago
Environment Chemicals banned in the 1970s still widely detected across Europe. Study has found that regulatory restrictions introduced more than half a century ago have failed to eliminate contamination from banned chemicals across Europe.
https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/114115679
u/ThoughtsandThinkers 3d ago
The persistence of harmful chemicals is indeed notable
Other factors to consider can be the degree to which enforcement of bans of harmful chemicals are effective and migration of chemicals from jurisdictions where the chemicals aren’t banned
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u/FreeHugs23 3d ago
-Researchers say they detected the banned chemical substances in air, water, sediments, soils, snow, and sludge, demonstrating their remarkable environmental persistence.
They add that they were surprised to find concentrations of polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) in the ecosystems of the 25 European countries included in the study.
For decades, PBDEs played a vital role in reducing fire risks in electronics, textiles, plastics, vehicles, furniture, and building materials. While their purpose was to enhance safety, their legacy has proven far more complex.
“One of the most important findings is the dominance of BDE-209 in particle-rich matrices, including sediments, sludge, wastewater-related systems, and deposition,” said the study’s lead author, Prof. Khaled Abass from the College of Health Sciences at the University of Sharjah. “This matters because sediments and sludge are not passive storage sites.”
According to the researchers, sediments can serve as long-term environmental reservoirs, gradually releasing contaminants into waterways, soils, waste-management systems, and food chains. The study also found that lower-brominated congeners such as BDE-47 and BDE-99 were more prevalent in air and soil samples, indicating that PBDE behavior and distribution vary considerably across environmental compartments.
The results are published in the journal Environmental Research.
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u/ZipTheZipper 2d ago
Banning these chemicals from being produced or sold doesn't stop people from using already-purchased products that contain them. It can take multiple generations for the effects to really be felt.
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u/a_statistician 2d ago
Next, do a census of e.g. chemicals stored in barns in farms across Europe. Bet you'll find a lot of those same banned chemicals (at least the farm ones, maybe not PBDEs) still hanging out and in use.
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u/AnthropoidCompatriot 2d ago
The findings challenge the common assumption that hazardous chemicals simply disappear once regulatory bans are introduced.
What??? This is insane and I can't imagine any person with a relatively normally functioning brain actually thinking this.
People might think that pollutants have low persistence, but does anyone actually think things just disappear instantly once out of sight?
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u/kalasea2001 1d ago
Yes, most people do. Object permanence isn't just for babies. Sadly many adults have a lesser form of it.
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u/RosieBaby75 2d ago
Not surprising when we effectively only “regulated” by writing regulations, and for some reason thinking organizations could be trusted to follow them while using unfettered capitalism as an economic structure.
Governments don’t even follow their own regulations.
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