Hazardous substances

The sea is the ultimate recipient, via rivers, the atmosphere or direct discharges, of pollutants from activities carried out by man on land, even hundred of kilometres from coasts. At least 80 % of marine pollution comes from these land-based activities.

The environment contains a huge variety of substances originating from industry, transport, households, agriculture, etc. There are tens of thousands of such substances and some of them, such as DDTs, dioxins, PCBs, arsenic, copper, etc., prove extremely hazardous. The term 'hazardous' means that these substances are toxic, decompose only very slowly and accumulate in the tissue of marine organisms.

The pollution caused by these chemical substances cannot be seen with the naked eye but can affect not only marine species and the functioning of the ecosystem, but also man, chiefly through his food.

A set of graphs displaying the evolution between 1990 and 2000 of the dischages into the North Sea via de Scheldt of 5 chemical substances (Cadmium, Copper, Lead, Mercury and Zinc) is available; the averaged Scheldt flowrate is also presented.

The list of discharges and emissions has been drawn up on a coordinated basis in the comprehensive study programme on river and direct input (RID) and the comprehensive atmosphere monitoring programme (CAMP) defined by OSPAR. The synopsis of the results of these programmes is described in the OSPAR Quality Status Report 2000 (QSR2000), Region II Greater North Sea.

In the context of these international conferences on the protection of the North Sea, commitments have been made aimed at reducing the input of substances into the North Sea by 50 % from the reference year of 1985. MUMM coordinated the estimation and evaluation of these reductions. Many of the targets have been met but there is still work to be done as regards pesticides.

In 1998, OSPAR defined its strategy on hazardous substances, the ultimate aim of which is to achieve levels in the marine environment that are close to the ambient levels for substances present in the natural state and close to zero for those of synthetic substances. To give effect to this strategy, a selection of about 400 substances of possible concern for the marine environment was made, out of the thousands of known chemicals, on the basis of their properties (Persistence, Toxicity and Bioaccumulation), their known use or other properties like endocrine disruption. OSPAR then picked up the most problemetic of these 400 substances. This «short- list» constitutes the list of substances for priority action. This list is regularly updated by OSPAR. Substances selected for priority action are carefully examined on the basis of background documents established by lead countries in order to identify which actions are necessary in order to fulfill the objectives of the hazardous substances strategy. Background documents also identify the most appropriate bodies with regard to the proposed actions.

 Nutrients

 Radioactive substances