Are ingested plastics a vector of PCB contamination in northern fulmars from coastal Newfoundland and Labrador?

Future Directions in Conservation Research on Petrels and Shearwaters

“…Intergenerational transfer of plastics among seabirds have been demonstrated in petrels, illustrating how seabirds may be affected by marine plastics (Ryan, 1988;Carey, 2011a;Rodríguez et al, 2012a). Plastic ingestion could damage or block the digestive tract, reduce stomach volume and transfer chemical compounds both endogenous or absorbed while plastic items drifts at sea (Tanaka et al, 2015;Provencher et al, 2018). Petrels are particularly at risk from plastic-related toxins because they retain plastics in their stomach for protracted periods, giving the chemicals sufficient time to transfer into the birds (Tanaka et al, 2015).…”

“…Blévin et al (2013) reported mercury contamination in all 21 species of sympatric breeding seabird species at Kerguelen, nine of which are procellarids with documented bio-magnification according to trophic position. Petrels can also be exposed to heavy metals and contaminants via plastic ingestion (Tanaka et al, 2015;Lavers and Bond, 2016;Provencher et al, 2018). Future research priorities include evaluating: (1) the use of petrels as bio-monitors of contaminant levels in marine systems and the role of regulations on contaminant loads; (2) the implications of variability in contaminant levels in tissues throughout their annual cycle; and (3) the impact of contaminants, including those leached from ingested plastic debris, on vital rates.…”

Transfer of Additive Chemicals From Marine Plastic Debris to the Stomach Oil of Northern Fulmars

“…The properties of a specific chemical will determine the partitioning between uptake or excretion in the feces (Tourinho et al, 2019;Ribeiro et al, 2019). For chemicals that are absorbed, some may undergo metabolization prior to or during storage and accumulation in specific tissues or removal from internal organs via kidney function or to feathers (Letcher et al, 2010;Provencher et al, 2018). It must be emphasized that leaching of chemicals to stomach oil in the current study was observed to occur in stomach oil that was already contaminated with chemicals from food and plastics ingested by the fulmar chicks during the 7-week nestling period.…”

“…It has even been implied that during gut passage plastics could act as passive samplers for pollutants already present in the organisms, thereby reducing contaminant concentrations in the body. Seabird studies by Herzke et al (2016), Provencher et al (2018), and Provencher et al (2020) tend to be seen as support for such models because no correlation could be demonstrated of selected pollutants on plastics in the stomachs of individual birds and the concentration of such substances in their tissues. As such, the models and seabird studies represent a quite different process to that of the leaching of a wide range of plastic additives embedded in the polymer matrix, and results should not be compared.…”

Photocatalytic Degradation of Dielectric Mineral Oil with PCBs Content Coupled with Algae Treatment

“…For this reason, policies and actions have been developed aimed at preventing the generation and final disposal of used oils, to conserve the natural resources and to guarantee the health of the population. However, it is presumed that, due to ignorance of technical procedures, lack of regulations and consumption standards, and the black market existing with these products, the handling given to a large quantity of used oils is inadequate, which inevitably translates into adverse effects on human health and unfavorable impacts on the environment [ 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 ].…”