Listen to this article
Approximately 4 minutes
The audio version of this article was created using text-to-speech, an artificial intelligence-based technology.
A new study has found that sea otters living along the southern coast of British Columbia and Vancouver Island have high levels of toxic “forever chemicals” present in their bodies.
Researchers found elevated levels of chemicals commonly found in food packaging, cosmetics, electronics and other consumer products in samples of 11 dead sea otters collected between 2016 and 2021.
University of British Columbia master's candidate Dana Price led the study, published this week in the journal Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry.
“I think the big takeaway here is that we did find these contaminants in sea otters. That gives us a baseline against which we can compare things in the future,” she said, noting this is the first study of its kind in the province.
A new UBC study shows so-called forever chemicals are making their way into sea otters off the coast of Vancouver Island, despite Canadian government regulations. As CBC's Claire Palmer reports, researchers say this is bad news for the marine ecosystem as a whole.
However, Price said she was not surprised to find contaminants in sea otters that are broadly classified as polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAs), since researchers in California, Washington and Alaska have found the same thing.
PFAs are known as “forever chemicals” because they typically do not break down when released into the environment and pose health risks including organ damage, cancer and a weakened immune system, she said.
And while it is not believed that any of the otters in her study died due to PFA, the fact that the chemicals were present in every one of the samples collected has implications for the long-term health of marine ecosystems, she said.
However, she noted that levels in British Columbia sea otters are lower than some of their American counterparts, which she believes is due to a combination of Canadian regulations and the relatively smaller populations where the otters live.
On the coast6:47'Forever' chemicals found in British Columbia sea otters
UBC researchers found that otters near cities carry three times the toxic load of PFA chemicals compared to distant animals. Dana Price, lead author of the study, joins us to share her team's findings.
“Where [the otters] Life matters,” she said, with those closer to cities having higher levels of PFA than those living in rural areas.
Unlike other marine mammals, sea otters do not tend to migrate, but instead live their entire lives in one location, making it easier to determine how local factors may affect their overall health, she said.
Growing body of research
This study is just the latest in a growing body of research examining the dangers associated with the presence of PFA.
Federal government report says human exposure to these “forever chemicals” can be harmful to the body, including the liver, kidneys, immune system, reproductive system and nervous system, and Health Canada has set benchmarks limiting acceptable levels of the chemicals in drinking water.
” [otter] The study adds to the body of knowledge that Ottawa needs to decide whether or not to act on this class of chemicals,” said Peter Ross, senior scientist at the Raincoast Conservation Foundation. He said debate over how to approach the topic has been a “hot topic” in Ottawa for several years.
And while the Department of Fisheries and Oceans has put some regulations in place, agency staffer Lisa Lucero said that with more than 15,000 different PFAs on the market, it can be difficult to keep up with them all.
“We see that sometimes some of these timeless chemicals, or styles or types, are banned, but then new ones come onto the market,” she said.
“And so there is a constant chase between scientists and producers.”
Price said the study did not identify a source of persistent chemical contamination because it is present in many different products that can end up in the ecosystem.
“It's hard to say exactly where they came from,” she said. “They just come at a price.”
