This spreadsheet is the underlying data for the biodiversity indicator B5b, Marine pollution.
Pollution by hazardous heavy metals and pesticides can have adverse effects on the marine environment and biodiversity. Pollutants enter coastal waters either directly from point sources on UK coasts and estuaries or are carried via rivers.
One of the goals of the Convention for the Protection of the Marine Environment of the North-East Atlantic (the OSPAR Convention) is to implement the Hazardous Substances Strategy by making progressive endeavours, through appropriate actions and measures, to move towards the targets of the cessation of discharges, emissions and losses of hazardous substances by the year 2020.
The indicator shows changes in the relative input of six of the most hazardous substances to the UK marine environment; five heavy metals (cadmium, copper, lead, mercury, and zinc) and one organic compound, lindane (also known as gamma-hexachlorocyclohexane).
While many measures have already been put in place to prevent these persistent contaminants from entering the environment (e.g. bans on lead in petrol, marketing restrictions on the use of cadmium and mercury, a ban on the use of lindane), there are still reservoirs of these contaminants from legacy use in soils and sediments which are mobilised by various weather events.
This is one of a suite of 24 UK biodiversity indicators published by JNCC on behalf of Defra; the latest publication date was 19 January 2016 - for indicator B5b the latest data are for 2013. The supporting technical document details the methodology used to create the indicator.
