Oil spills and industrial waste in rivers and coasts put marine life and human health at risk
oil spills
and
industrial waste
are making rivers and coastal waters toxic for
marine life
.
What lurks beneath the surface after an oil spill? A study by scientists in Chennai peeled back the layers and found how chemicals from oil spills — petroleum hydrocarbons (PHs) — are harming aquatic life in India's rivers and coastal waters.
The researchers found that even in trace amounts, these chemicals can be toxic to species such as crabs, shrimp, fish, and molluscs. Crustaceans, in particular, are at high risk and are most vulnerable to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) in PH. The findings are important because oil spills and industrial waste regularly release PHs into the water, but the full effects on marine life have remained unclear.
It's not just marine life that is at risk.
Experts say when crustaceans absorb toxic petroleum hydrocarbons from polluted waters, they can make their way onto plates, and if consumed, contaminated seafood can cause serious health threats, including cancer and hormone disruption.
The study looked at 320 different PH chemicals found in common fuels such as diesel and crude oil. This includes 16 PAH, which were categorised as hazardous pollutants. Fluorathene, a component in dyes and pharmaceuticals, naphthalene used in insecticides and some plastics, and phenanthrene used for synthesising bile acids, cholesterol, and steroids were among the PAHs.
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Instead of just measuring overall pollution, the researchers studied each chemical individually.
They used large toxicology databases and built digital maps using computer software and tried to establish thresholds for regulatory purposes after assessing how different species of an ecosystem are affected.
"We identify the concentration levels at which PHs in the environment start harming organisms, the species most at risk, and the biological processes through which these pollutants cause harm," says Shreyes Rajan Madgaonkar of the computational biology group at the Institute of Mathematical Sciences (IMSc), which did the study in collaboration with the National Centre for Coastal Research (NCCR).
The study team was led by Prof Areejit Samal of IMSc.
The study linked 75 PHs to 177 chains of harmful effects inside the bodies of aquatic species or toxic biological pathways. The researchers also mapped out which species in crabs, fish, and shellfish are most affected and how the chemicals build up in animals over time. They also used pollution data from Indian rivers and coasts to calculate risk levels for these PHs and found that four of the eight sites were at high risk with one of the 16 priority PHs analysed.
This includes areas such as Veraval Harbour in Gujarat, Gomti River in Uttar Pradesh, Mithi River in Mumbai, and Mahanadi River in Odisha. One of the PAHs, benzo(a)pyrene, harms many important body processes of animals, and its effects can be passed down to subsequent generations.
The researchers say it is possible to create a tool to track the risk of PHs across India's water bodies, provided more environmental concentration data on PHs in Indian waters becomes available.
The team said the findings will help policymakers and regulators set better safety limits. "It will assist with test method development in view of targets in adverse outcome pathways and help define safe levels to protect marine life," says K Venkatarama Sharma, group head of marine ecotoxicology at NCCR.
Meenakshi Bajaj, Dietitian at the Government Multi Super Specialty Hospital in Chennai, says PAHs are carcinogenic and mutagenic. "Eating seafood contaminated with it can lead to oxidative stress and liver toxicity. PAHs are also potent endocrine disruptors and can harm the foetus if pregnant women consume such seafood over the long term," she says, adding that frying, steaming, or even boiling cannot remove PAHs from food.
"Vulnerable groups (children, pregnant women, elderly) must avoid seafood contaminated with chemically polluted waters," she says.
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