Carrying on from the previous post on the marine chemical pollution report by Back to Blue, this blog post will look at what the chemicals of concern are, as well as the impacts they have on human health and marine life. The report identified 11 categories of marine chemical pollutants (with some overlapping chemicals), of which I have summarised 8 in the infographic below. The other 3 categories that I did not include are household and consumer chemicals, pseudo-persistent chemicals & other chemicals.
Summary of the key categories of chemicals and their associated impacts (adapted from ‘The Invisible Wave: Getting to zero chemical pollution in the ocean‘)
All the chemicals mentioned have very detrimental effects on human health, except nutrients, of which the impacts on humans stated in the report are more on the economic front. However, the toxins produced by algal blooms can also end up in humans through contaminated seafood, inhalation or direct contact with seawater, sometimes resulting in respiratory and gastrointestinal issues, and even death (Young et al., 2020). However, of course, that’s not to say that we should only be concerned about pollution when it has direct health effects on us, but also when it has adverse impacts on wildlife that have a right to exist.
I hope you have found the infographic useful in building your understanding of the range of chemicals plaguing our oceans. This sets the stage for the next post, where we will dive into recommendations for stakeholders, especially what you and I can do as consumers to tackle marine chemical pollution.
See you soon in the next post!
References
Carmichael, R. & Brown, J. (2022). The Invisible Wave: Getting to zero chemical pollution in the ocean. Back to Blue, Retrieved from https://backtoblueinitiative.com/marine-chemical-pollution-the-invisible-wave/ on 18 March 2022.
Young, N., Sharpe, R.A., Barciela, R., Nichols, G., Davidson, K., Berdalet, E. & Fleming, L.E. (2020). Marine harmful algal blooms and human health: A systematic scoping review. Harmful Algae 98: 101901.