Picture of hazardous chemicals in Finnish waters now ‘complete’

The Finnish government has completed a major study on the presence of hazardous chemicals in national waters, finding harmful amounts of mercury and flame retardants.The inaugural exercise, which was undertaken by the Finnish Environment Institute (Syke) with funds from the environment ministry, detected excessive levels of polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) and perfluorooctane sulfonic acid (PFOS).Environmental quality standards in water or fish have been set for a list of 45 priority substances or groups. In 2013, eleven new substances were introduced for monitoring, including dioxins and similar compounds, PFOS used in coatings and extinguishing foams, and hexabromocyclododecane (HBCDD).The environmental quality standard for PBDEs as a substance group is 0.0085 µg/kg tp. Use of PFOS is banned, but it is still leaking into the environment. Similar per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) are used in large numbers, some of which are substitutes for PFOS.PFOS levels in fish were found to exceed the environmental quality standard with levels of 9.1 µg / kg tp and different PFAS compounds were "commonly found" in rivers across the country.