(NaturalNews) Researchers from the Institute of Environmental Assessment and Water Research in Spain, the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research in Germany, and the University of Concepcion in Chile have identified the presence of high levels of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) on mountain ranges all over North and South America. Banned worldwide since 2001, PCBs are being found at the highest levels in many of the tallest mountain ranges.

Published in the journal Environmental Chemistry Letters, the discovery coincides with a similar study conducted by Swiss scientists that found other pollutants in Alpine glacial lakes that affect drinking water supplies. The PCBs found on mountaintops may eventually make their way down the mountains and pollute fields, crops, and water supplies. Some scientists fear that such contamination is already taking place in certain areas.

Up until the 1980s, PCBs were widely used as coolants and insulating fluids for transformers and capacitors. They were also heavily used in paints, cements, coatings, and pesticides. Once it was discovered that these compounds cause liver damage, male infertility, hair loss, acne, and other serious problems, they were banned globally under the Stockholm Convention.

Many scientists fear that climate change is causing glacial melt and there is worry that high concentrations of PCBs will begin to flow more readily into places where they may cause significant harm. Since high concentrations of PCBs have already been released into the atmosphere from prior to when they were banned, their potential for wreaking havoc in the near future is of significant concern.

Comments by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger

Are alarm bells going off for anyone else reading this? How did PCBs get on top of all the mountains? It appears that humankind has poisoned the entire planet, from the tallest mountains to the deepest seas.

This finding is more than a little concerning, because it indicates just how widespread chemical contamination has become across our planet. It also means that generations to come will have to deal with the runoff consequences of the chemical pollution we've dumped on this Earth.

It could even mean our future civilization will be forced to deal with a coming wave of infertility and birth defects caused by the chemical contamination our present generations have unleashed upon the world.

The corporations -- food, agriculture, medicine, consumer products, etc. -- have intoxicated not just the people in our world, but the very world itself. And the consequences for this shortsighted chemical catastrophe may threaten the very existence of our civilization.

This finding of PCBs blanketing the mountains should serve as a wake-up call to humankind. It's a rude reminder that if we continue on our present course -- polluting the planet at every turn -- we will eventually wake up to find ourselves steeped in a toxic stew from which no future human life can be sustained.

Sources for this story include:
http://www.ufz.de/index.php?en=19134