The extent of human pollution has reached Antarctica, with different types of pharmaceuticals found in fish, clams and sea urchins in waters close to Antarctica.

 

According to a report in The Guardian, traces of personal care products and steroid hormones have reached the icy waters of Antarctica. This comes from samples tested by New Zealand researchers.

 

The scientists have been monitoring the trace amounts of various pharmaceuticals and personal care products around New Zealand’s Scott Base and close to the U.S. facility McMurdo Station. By developing a map, the researchers estimate that the pollutants extend up to 25 kilometers from waste discharge pipes that are linked to the stations. There is no treatment of the chemicals released from the two bases. Most of the detected chemicals relate to soaps, shower gels, and shaving products.

 

How far the impact of the pollutants will extend through the food chain is uncertain (for example, what would the impact be of seals that consume contaminated fish?) Pollution, by definition, is something introduced into the environment that harmfully disrupts it.

 

Although the research charts the first case of personal care products reaching the waters of the continent, other pollutants have been detected long-before. For example, a research report published in the journal Nature showed that lead pollution from Australia reached Antarctica in 1889 – long before the frozen continent’s golden age of exploration – and has remained there ever since.

 

The research paper is titled "Antarctic-wide array of high-resolution ice core records reveals pervasive lead pollution began in 1889 and persists today."

 

 

PHOTO CREDIT: Georges Nijs from Diepenbeek, Belgium.