URI_Research_Magazine_Momentum_Spring_2018_Melissa-McCarthy

“It’s been interesting to find that the concentration of some pollutants in Antarctica haven’t decreased as much as we would have expected, which is probably because the melting glaciers are releasing pollutants from the 1970s and ‘80s back into the water.”

- Rainer Lohmann

Rainer Lohmann Professor Oceanography

While little has improved in the regulation of chemicals released by U.S. industries since he made his first public plea, that hasn’t stopped Lohmann from continuing to advocate for better legislation and improved monitoring. His wide-ranging research continues unabated as well, and he continues to find chemical pollutants everywhere he turns. For instance, he has traveled back and forth across the Atlantic from the U.S. to Africa and found low concentrations of pollutants in even the most remote locations. In the Southern Ocean he found pollutants accumulating in the tissues of animals up and down the food web, including seals, killer whales, and plankton. In the Arctic he discovered mammals from polar bears to humans exposed to harmful chemicals at fairly high levels. Lohmann also made several unexpected observations. “In some cases, because the atmosphere has become cleaner – thanks to efforts to reduce some of the worst emission sources – we see that the oceans are releasing pollutants back into the atmosphere,” he says. “It’s been

interesting to find that the concentration of some pollutants in Antarctica haven’t decreased as much as we would have expected, which is probably because the melting glaciers are releasing pollutants from the 1970s and ‘80s back into the water.” Last year, Lohmann launched a major new project with an $8 million grant from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) to establish a URI-based research center on chemical pollutants in drinking water. The five-year program is part of a national network of Superfund Research Program (SRP) centers designed to generate new insights into specific chemical pollutants. Lohmann is leading an interdisciplinary team of URI researchers, including Geoffrey Bothun, professor of chemical engineering; Bongsup Cho, professor of biomedical sciences; Alyson McCann, water quality coordinator at the Cooperative Extension; Martha McConnell, project coordinator; Angela Slitt, associate

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