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Bears build up what fish flush out

Overlooked pollutants might be having a bigger effect than we thought.

Efforts to control chemical pollution may overlook thousands of toxins that concentrate as they march up the food chain, say researchers. Compounds that do not accumulate in fish can still build up in marine birds and mammals — and possibly the people that eat them, they have found.

Read the story here.

Posted by Nicola Jones on July 12, 2007
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Nice story, but the lede mentions toxins...and there aren't any in this story. Nature should know better than to misappropriate the term to refer to generic synthetic chemicals such as pesticides and PCBs.

Toxins are poisons made by biological organisms--as in bee venom, snake venom, the damoic acid produced by some harmful algal blooms, or the blistering agents released by some insects. They are NEVER synthetic chemicals, such as pesticides, combustion byproducts, or flame retardants. They are NEVER natural inorganic chemicals or elements, such as lead, arsenic, or asbestos.

Consult any Webster's dictionary. Toxin is NOT synonymous with poison, although it is sloppily misused as such. There is a reason why the US Environmental Protection Agency refers to pesticides with the inelegant term "toxics"--it's in recognition that they are NOT toxins but ARE toxic. It's their short-hand for the more accurate but boring mouthful: toxic substances. If you want an alternative to toxics, and I would hope you do, consider using poisons. Just don't misappropriate toxins, please.


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Janet Raloff
Senior Editor
Science News

Posted by: Janet Raloff | July 16, 2007 12:18 PM

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