Persistent Chemicals and Ecosystem Preservation

Abstract
Persistent chemicals pose a serious risk, not only to human health but also to ecosystems. In Japan, the regulation of manufactured chemicals based on evaluations using aquatic organisms assay promotes the preservation of ecosystems.
However, looking at this issue from an environmental point of view, contamination from the spread of persistent chemicals has now reached global scale. Many surveys have reported on the adverse effects of these chemicals on the health of various creatures, especially marine mammals. Effects of persistent chemicals appear to be caused by a wide variety of factors, including bioaccumulation, transfer to newborns through the mother's milk, and additional or synergistic toxicity of plural chemicals. Due to such great variation in these factors the data gathered by experimentation regarding the toxic implications to wildlife is limited.
Comprehensive monitoring surveys in the biota of individual trophic levels would provide the best information in predicting the eco-toxicological impacts of persistent chemicals.

Key words: ecotoxicology, persistent chemicals, global contamination, aquatic organisms, bioaccumulation