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l San Francisco, CA (San Francisco Co.) Examiner-Chronicle (Cir. S. 667,335) PCB-ARCH-EXT0376128 by Bayard Webster ; ' oceans was decreasing., "That's because of the greater risk to human health through the conrestrictions on the, amount of leaded gas that's used v.lsumption of contaminated seafood. WSBhe world's oceans, believed by many to bet. now," he said, pointing out that many of the toxic Y;-: But even in semi-enclosed bodies of. water, : . H in danger of becoming sinks for mah'spol-y da liitants, are -able to assimilate.'the toxic.:." substances in most areas and remain in relativelyt stable condition, an extensive1 international scien-t : ; metals such, as mercury, lead, copper,.cadmium f' .such as the Mediterranean, Baltic and North Seas and -zinc, albngwith'chemical' pollutants, were': and the Gulf of Mexico, all of which receive subtransferred from the air; to the oceans. Acid ..rain S&atantial amounts of pollutants, the studies found also plays, a part by dropping sulfur and.nitrogen.Y;-that , inThe open areas the toxic substances had tific study has determined.' . " Y . oxides into the seas, he added. y-rZ -V. .-. ' V been assimilated or degraded enough to be ren- : Although many shore, areas are heavily pollut-l' ed and are still a health problem. the study'found;!; that the levels of most toxic substances in suchcoastal waters, as well as in the less polluted opensea, have decreased in the last decade. . . - "But since the Northern Hemisphere has ;v dered harmless. , ..... . . . ... . . begun an. effort to clean up the air and water "Y'.' vf Keckes noted that while much pollution- was somewhat," he said; "the results are beginning to.fYdirebtly pumped or dumped into the coastal seas, a show in the oceans. And, oddly enough, the : surprising amount entered in unexpected ways. He concern is now in the Southern Hemisphere." j said these must be Studied further so they could be The decrease, the study indicated, is a result of' environmental laws of industrialized countries that now restrict the production and distribution of many toxic substances, such as DDT and poly The reason, he said, is that the poisonous; :i controlled. He said that about half the oil entering chemicals many industrial nations have stopped v the Mediterranean came from the land, and that using are now being used in the underdeveloped "most of it is motor oil that was dumped some countries. - '* ..." j'y ... . . . ; where and entered the sewage system." chlorinated biphenyls (known as PCBs), as well as In a statement from Geneva accompanying the y Although the problem of oil pollution on the other chlorinated hydrocarbons and harmful met 108-page U.N. report, Dr. Stjepan Keckes, head of yi, seas is a major one, the survey said that its impact ! als. the United Nations' Regional Seas Program, said ;'/ depended on the type of oil and on a variety of i The four-year survey, released early in Novem ber, was mandated by the United Nations Confer-; ence on the Human Environment in Stockholm in ; physical, chemical and biological processes operat- j ing at the time of release. The survey found that oil j There was no evidence that spill effects on animal and plant communities in j 1972, which found a need for research on how man made pollutants were affecting the oceans. The oil alone could threaten the ; the open seas were "rarely drastic, and recovery is f usually a question of weeks or months." * study, entitled "The Health of the Oceans," was : survival of bird species But in intertidal and subtidal areas, the impact conducted by the Regional Seas Program of the of oil could be severe. Recovery could take years or United Nations Environmental Program with the : decades, the report found, "particularly in the help of seven other international bodies and nearly . The study showed that the growing amount of shoreline communities where oil penetrates the 100 scientists from three dozen countries. / .waste.dumped into the oceans had still not had any / sediments." But the report said that although ?; "We all feel that the ocean is healthier in 1982 '' significant effect on the'healtlrof the high seas, the > birds were particularly at risk, there was no than it was in 1972," said Dr. George Harvey, a large ocean areas that are several hundred miles / evidence "that oil alone could threaten the survival chemical oceanographer with the National Oceanic from the nearest shore. of a species." . and Atmospheric Administration in Miami, who In their studies of ncores of Atlantic and While the 6tudy assessed that the world's conducted many marine research experiments for Pacific Ocean coastal areas, the researchers found . estimated 328 million cubic miles of ocean was not the study. . . that the effects of such effluents as sewage, food in jeopardy, it cited several general trends of "In the '70s we could easily measure concentra and. beverage processing wastes, pulp and paper increasing contamination that should serve as tions of PCBs in the open ocean, but now they're mill effluents, mine tailings and dredge spoils were warning signals. The study named carbon dioxide, PCB-ARCH-EXT0376129 barely measurable," he said in an interview. "It mostly local. ,... . heavy metals, sewage micro-organisms, radioactive seems the ocean is more resilient and able to The impact varied from one part of the coastal wastes and new chemicals. It also warned of the protect itself than we had thought." . ....... zone to another, depending on the type and volume environmental dangers of extensive deep-sea min Harvey noted that the amount of lead in the of wastes and the movement pattern of the water ing- along the shoreline. The report pointed out that The report urged the careful monitoring of sewage discharges presented a direct risk of infec such trends and the maintenance of programs Bayard Webster is a science reporter for The New York tion to humans on some beaches, and that dis regulating the entry of new contaminants into the Times. charges on or near shellfish beds presented a oceans. B B