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Energy, Climate change, Environment

Contaminant maps show the widespread, yet largely invisible, problem of contaminants in European seas

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The whole set of maps allow to display spatial data distribution and composition of contaminants based on data from 1970 to 2017. They focus on the following contaminants: Anthracene, Benzo(a)pyrene, Cadmium, Dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT), Fluoranthene, Hexachlorobenzene (HCB), Lead, Mercury, Naphthalene and Tributyltin (TBT). This product is envisioned to provide a comprehensive information tool for marine policy and wider society, by forming the basis to find, understand, and interpret data about the pollution crisis affecting us all.

For this product, EMODnet Chemistry has integrated contaminants data across Europe. They have tackled issues like comparability versus specificities of the different marine basins by cross-referencing with the available data on a European scale to provide a common framework for the planning of measures and contaminant maps.

The method used by EMODnet Chemistry is available here.

The products can be freely accessed through OceanBrowser in the Chemistry portal (http://ec.oceanbrowser.net/emodnet/) and the specific web services (WMS, WFS) can be accessed through the Sextant catalogue (https://www.emodnet-chemistry.eu/products/catalogue).

To find out more read the full press release and visit the EMODnet Chemistry portal (http://www.emodnet-chemistry.eu).