Polluters Everywhere: From Goierri to the Ice of Greenland!!

In our day-to-day lives, we are exposed to chemical substances inherent to our food, consumption or lifestyles. The list includes sweeteners, plasticisers, medicines and personal hygiene products, along with classic pollutants such as heavy metals, hydrocarbons and pesticides. That same scenario is to be found in all ecosystems and affects all living beings.

Many of those compounds are often considered safe for our health, although less so for ecosystems. It is true that there is no clear evidence of its long-term effects in the majority of cases. Furthermore, many of the compounds found come from the transformation of disposed or used original compounds, which increases the uncertainty about their potential effects. The paradigm of the ‘chemical exposure’ of each person (or organism) throughout their life is therefore currently changing.

Lifelong exposure to numerous compounds is a complex and dynamic process that can increase vulnerability to certain illnesses and affect the balance of many ecosystems. Furthermore, the high use profile of many of them, such as caffeine, nicotine and perfluorinated products, mean that these substances released in urban areas have not only a large regional but also global distribution.

Studies by the IBeA (Ikerkuntza eta Berrikuntza Analitikoa) research group at the University of the Basque Country (EHU) have found the presence of those contaminants of emerging concern both locally and globally. In the Basque Country, projects have been conducted to assess the quality of treated and drinking water, as well as in several river basins and along our coasts. They have allowed many of those contaminants to be identified and quantified. Moreover, projects with Basque population cohorts – such as the case of children from Goierri – are now confirming the presence of perfluorinated compounds in human sample and trying to identify their potential impact on health. Globally, international collaborations of the group have included studies in such remote areas as the Amazon River, Antarctica and Greenland. They have shown that those supposedly pristine areas are not free from the presence of such contaminants. Therefore, an assessment of the risks that they may mean for the population, as well as for the environment, is fundamental.

This paper will highlight some of those studies and will seek to provide the public with information and raise awareness of the impact of the chemical substances that we use in our everyday lives; the aim is for a healthier Basque society and planet.