||| FROM CTV NEWS |||
Conservation groups have written to the federal environment minister requesting a review of a chemical used in tires that they say has been linked to the “mass deaths” of coho salmon.
Peter Ross, senior scientist at Raincoast Conservation Foundation, says the mystery of coho dying in urban waterways had persisted for years, until a 2020 study uncovered the role of a particular chemical used in tire rubber.
Ross says the study published in Science, a top academic journal, found a chemical known as 6PPD produces a breakdown product that’s acutely toxic for coho.
He says the study showed toxic concentrations of 6PPD-quinone after rain events in Seattle-region watersheds, suggesting it was flowing off roads and into streams.
Raincoast, the Watershed Watch Salmon Society and Pacific Salmon Foundation, all based in British Columbia, are asking Ottawa for an assessment of the chemical under the Canadian Environmental Protection Act.
A letter to Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault this week says the federal government evaluated 6PPD in 2018, finding it posed a “moderate hazard with high exposure,” but the screening did not account for the breakdown of the product.
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