During the last 50 years, millions of pounds of chemicals have dispersed into the environment in a multitude of forms: industrial wastes, abandoned chemical weapons, fertilizers, pesticides, cleaners, furniture treatments, and the list goes on. Now, a small cadre of environmental researchers in Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States is working to develop a sophisticated means to identify chemical lifestyles--where they go, how they get there, and what they do--and determine the potential impact on human health and local and global ecosystems.
Over the years, environmental scientists have gathered a mountain of evidence that a number of these chemicals--particularly the ones known as persistent organic pollutants (POPs)--cycle the globe, contaminating fields, watersheds, air, and biota.1-4 In an increasing number of areas, contaminated sites pose an unknown threat to human health and are endangering clean water resources. At the same time, a growing body of data is linking some ...
