French river data reveals widespread chemical pollution in protected areas
A research team from RPTU University Kaiserslautern-Landau analyzed French water measurements to show pollutants exist in nearly all rivers and streams.
Analysis covers vast chemical list
The study published in Water Research examined more than 180 million water measurements from the Naïades monitoring program. Researchers led by Danisa Lione and Jakob Wolfram evaluated concentrations of 1,731 different chemicals over two decades. This comprehensive dataset allows for a significantly more complete assessment of ecological risks compared to earlier limited studies.
Pollutants found everywhere including refuges
Organic pollutants were detected in nearly all water bodies studied regardless of their protection status. Protected areas showed an average of nine different chemicals per sample while unprotected areas averaged thirteen. Concentrations capable of causing ecological risks occurred regularly even within these ecologically valuable refuges due to current flow.
PFAS rise and plants suffer
Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances known as forever chemicals became the second most frequently detected group at about 60 percent of sites. Urban areas contained an average of six to eleven different PFAS compounds detected annually in water samples. Aquatic plants forming the basis of food webs were the most severely affected by these widespread chemical presences.
Reported by one outlet
Only one outlet has published this. Nothing here has been checked against a second report, so read it as that outlet's account and follow the link below for the original.
Reported by
1 independent outlet. Headline as published. Links open the original report.