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home / 世界杯决赛2022

ubc researchers find toxic chemicals from toilet paper, soap in endangered orca whales

a study found the chemical 4-nonylphenol or 4np, which is used in manufacturing, was found in 46 per cent of the samples.

by tiffany crawford

jan 13 2023
read time 3 minute read
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file photo of an orca whale. elaine thompson / the associated press
ubc researchers have found toxic chemicals used to make products like toilet paper and soap are prevalent in b.c.’s orcas, including the endangered southern resident killer whales.
scientists analyzed tissue samples from six southern resident killer whales and six bigg’s whales found dead along the coast of the province from 2006 to 2018.

in a study, published in the journal environmental science and technology, the researchers, at the university of b.c.’s institute for the ocean and fisheries, say 4-nonylphenol or 4np, which is used in manufacturing as emulsifiers in pulp and paper processing, as well as soap and other detergents, was found in 46 per cent of the samples.

lead author kiah lee, an undergraduate at ubc, said this study is the first to find 4np in killer whales. she added that 4np can leak into the ocean by industrial run-off, waste water and treatment plants. the chemical is then consumed by the organisms that whales eat.
“the main point here is that killer whales off the coast of b.c. are contaminated with chemicals that we are releasing into the water,” said lee, who was reached thursday in oslo, where she is working on her master’s degree on killer whales.

while previous studies have identified 4np as an endocrine-disrupting chemical that can contribute to poor reproductive health , lee said they don’t yet know how it impacts the whales’ health.

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the department of fisheries and oceans provided ubc with samples from the necropsies that were done on the whales found dead along the coast. the ubc scientists then analyzed the samples for contaminants.
“this is a really interesting study because we don’t know a lot about how 4np behaves in killer whales. and this is a clear representation of how human activities are contributing to pollution in the environment,” said lee.
while the amount of 4np found in the sample was significant, lee said they don’t yet know if it’s considered a high or low amount because there are no studies to compare it with.
“we don’t have toxic threshold levels that some of the well-known contaminants like pcbs have just because they’re so well-studied,” she said, adding that she hopes future studies will shed some light on whether this chemical is contributing to orca mortality.

another pollutant of concern the researchers found in the whale samples was 7:3-fluorotelomer carboxylic acid, or 7:3 ftca, which is legal in canada but on a list of toxic substances proposed to be recognized as a persistent organic pollutant by the european chemical agency.

“this one is known as forever contaminants or forever chemicals because they don’t degrade in the environment,” said lee. “so they are persistent and therefore can bioaccumulate throughout this food web fairly easily. though we really don’t know a lot about where this contaminant comes from and how it behaves in these killer whales.”
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the study’s co-author, dr. juan josé alava, said this research is a wake-up call.
“southern residents are an endangered population and it could be that contaminants are contributing to their population decline. we can’t wait to protect this species,” he said in a statement released by ubc.
the researchers were also the first to look at the transfer of pollutants from mother to fetus in one southern resident pair. they found that all the pollutants identified were transferred in the womb, and 95 per cent of 4np transferred from mother to fetus, according to ubc.
this research was funded from the department of fisheries, the ubc student undergraduate research experience and the nippon foundation, according to ubc.
ticrawford@postmedia.com
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