The answer seems to be PCBs and the phenomena of bio-accumulation in the top predators. I work on the railways and take my responsibilites regarding PCBs very seriously. Even though PCBs have been banned for decades, they remain prevalent on railway environments. We have tight procedures for ensuring they do not seep out into the wider environment and as an environmentalist I do my best to ensure that at least the PCBs and related chemicals under my influence, are properly dealt with.
The sad thing is though, things weren't always this way, and for 30 or 40 years these chemicals leaked out - literally leaked out of most of the capacitors we have on the london Underground, years before there were any proper legal controls.
Through natural process most of the PCBs seem to have found their way to the Arctic, much of it trapped in ice (which, ominously is melting) but also absorbed into sea creatures, feeding up through the food net gradually accumulating in the bigher preditors.
It' heartbreaking, it really is.
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