Protecting polar regions from particularly persistent pollutants: Researchers formulate "Berlin Statement"

19.04.2023

The polar regions are exposed to an increasing load of pollutants. Under the leadership of the Helmholtz-Zentrum Hereon and the Umweltbundesamt (UBA), experts from the European Commission, the Stockholm Convention, the Arctic Council and the Antarctic Treaty Conference, environmental sample banks, data centers and leading research institutions have now formulated the "Berlin Statement". The resulting recommendations for action were recently published in the journal Chemosphere.

Ecological crises have an impact even in the remotest corners of the earth. For example, the polar regions are heavily polluted by long-lived contaminants. These may be familiar chemicals, but more and more previously overlooked substances are being added. The authors of the Berlin Statement (Berlin statement on legacy and emerging contaminants in polar regions) emphasize as a result of their international workshop that countermeasures by different actors are necessary to effectively reduce the pollution caused.

Therefore, the researchers around Prof Ralf Ebinghaus, head of the Hereon Institute of Coastal Environmental Chemistry, developed ten recommendations for action and provided them with suggestions for concrete implementation. The Berlin Statement aims to promote screening, monitoring, risk assessment, research collaboration and open data exchange to better protect the polar environment. The consensus reached at the workshop can be summed up in two words: "Act now!"

Protecting polar regions from particularly persistent pollutants: Researchers formulate "Berlin Statement"

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