ASSOCIATED PRESS • December 13, 2021
The presence of PCBs on a lake in the shadow of the White Mountains demonstrates how these heat-resistant chemicals once used widely in electrical equipment and other industrial applications continue to pose a threat to wildlife more than four decades after being banned in the United States. At Squam Lake colleagues at the Loon Preservation Committee, which has been working since 1975 to protect New Hampshire’s loons, want to know why they are producing so few chicks. Researchers found PCBs and other contaminants were up to six times higher than eggs tested elsewhere in New Hampshire, Maine and New York.