Animals also produce contaminating substances
2005/04/01 Elhuyar Zientzia Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria
Pollution is spreading to all corners. Substances produced by industry, for example, have also appeared in the whale organs. Perhaps today that is not very surprising. It is usual. But perhaps the source is not always what we think: American oceanographers have shown that some of the substances that produce these animals are very similar to pollutants.
It is true that fireproof substances, pesticides and many other products lead to the sea through industrial waste water. In the sea, the animals internalize and accumulate, especially the sponges, mussels and water filtering to feed. These, those who eat them and those who eat them also accumulate artificial products. That is why there are contaminants everywhere.
But it is not always so. Some animals actually produce artificial compounds. How can one know where a substance that appears in a marine animal comes from? Is it a natural product or consequence of human pollution?
A Massachusetts oceanographer proposed a technique to differentiate it, the carbon test 14. The human being synthesizes polluting products from oil, so they have lost a high carbon content 14, as well as fossils. However, if it is animal substances, it is newly produced substances that have a high proportion of carbon 14. Therefore, this test can be the explanation.
The tests they have done are very representative: many of these products seem to be natural.
