The Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology announced that PCB = polychlorinated biphenyl, which is a harmful chemical substance, was detected for the first time in bivalves living in the deep sea, and points out that it is necessary to conduct a detailed investigation in the deep sea in the future.
PCB is a chemical that does not exist in nature and is difficult to decompose, and was once used in some industrial products, but it has been found to be harmful to living organisms and is now banned from production and use in most countries. It has been.
Two years ago, a research group of the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology collected and analyzed bivalves of the "Bathymodiolus" in the deep sea of 1300 meters in the North Pacific Ocean, and found that the amount was very small, about 40 nanograms per gram. It means that the PCB has been detected.
PCBs in the deep sea have been detected in fish that tend to concentrate chemicals through the food chain, but this is the first time PCBs have been detected in dipteran shells, so how contaminated they are in the deep sea. It is pointed out that detailed investigation is necessary in the future.
Tetsuro Ikuta, a researcher at the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology, said, "There is no safety problem for humans because it is a very small amount, but I was surprised that it was detected even in the deep sea. Is important. "