EVEN Europe’s remotest mountain lakes are chronically polluted, say
researchers in Spain and Britain. “Our results show that there’s no pristine
ecosystem left in the northern hemisphere,” says Pilar Fernández of the
Institute of Chemical and Environmental Research in Barcelona.
When the researchers looked at sediments that had been laid down after 1830
in 10 remote lakes around Europe, they found significant concentrations of
polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). These chemicals are formed by burning
wood and fossil fuels and some of them are carcinogenic.
The findings echo studies of sediment in northern American lakes.
Fernández says that the…
