# Presentation: 644268

## Education in the International Polar Year (IPY)

**Toxic chemicals in local fish**
**An international global school campaign**

**Version 1. August 2006**

**Karl T. Hetland, GLOBE Norway**
**Geir Endregard, NILU Norway**

## Background

## A support system for Education for Sustainable Development

## More than 150 activities

- Biodiversity
- Climate and air quality
- Consumption and production patterns
- Conflicts of interest
- Cultural heritage
- Energy
- Health, indoor climate and school environment
- Land management
- Outdoor life and nature experiences
- Participation and democracy
- Waste and toxic chemicals
- Water resources

**The system:**
-  Covers “enough” SD thematic issues
-  Good field and classrom combination
-  Utilises different executing and teaching methodologies
-  Gives a good mixture of outdoor and at school field work
-  Ensures that data gathered by the students are of value to the wider society – schools becomes a resource (quality is ensured)
- State of the art web toolbox

## Yearly national campaigns

**Investigation of CO****2**** in Norwegian classrooms**

## The Arctic POPs project2001-2004

## The Arctic POPs project

*Investigate* the distribution and level of selected POPs in the Arctic region
*Increase the knowledge* of POPs and general environmental science in the involved schools

*Contribute to the documentation* of new POPs in the Arctic, needed  for international political processes

## Protocol developed

- Part I: Sampling
- Part II: Chemical analysis
- Part III: Evaluating results
- Part IV: Writing report

## 15 schools were in the project

**15 schools were in the project**

- Sweden 2 schools

- Norway 3 schools

- Finland 1 school

- Iceland 2 schools

- USA 2 schools

- Russia 2 schools

- Canada 3 schools

## PBDE47 Cod liver

- ng/g lw

**57**

**40**

**18**

**4**

**Brominated flame retardant**
**(PBDE 47= 2,2’,4,4’**
**tetrabromdiphenylether)**
**PCBs as reference group**

## The students made scientific reports

## Details on planned project

## Project execution outline 1

- Schools take flesh sample of local fish
- Schools sends sample to NILU laboratory
- NILU analyses all samples for dioxin related pollutants – bioassay measurement technique
- Schools retrieves raw data result
- Schools retrieves relevant findings from Arctic and Antarctic observations of similar compounds

## Project execution outline 2

- Schools evaluate their levels with global averages, max, min, other areas, fish types etc. Comparison with Polar levels
- Schools can, if they like, make a report on their findings
- NILU makes common report from all results

## Sign up and communication

- All registration on project web pages
- Communication through e-mail and bulletins
- PR in cooperation with GLOBE
- Up to 10 schools per country can participate (due to cost of lab analysis)

*New web solution to be built, building on solution developed for previous project*

## The sampling and sending

- Schools receives a package with sampling kit and detailed instructions
- Schools catches fish in local lake/sea
- Selected metadata about the fish is registered on sampling sheet to be sent together with the fish sample
- 100 g of flesh from below dorsal fin to be packed in accordance with instructions and sent in provided packing material in stamped envelope provided.

- with sterile scalpel

## Bioassays analysis at NILU

*Bioassay methods are based on the cellular mechanism of dioxin toxicity. Dioxin-like compounds bind to a cytosolic protein, the aryl-hydrocarbon (Ah) receptor, then the receptor–chemical complex migrates to the cell’s nucleus and binds with the Ah-receptor nuclear translocator protein (Arnt). This Ah receptor–Arnt complex interacts with specific DNA sequences and alters gene expression of regulated genes. One of the most studied of the family of regulated proteins is the cytochrome P450 gene product CYP1A1.*

- ENVIRONMENTAL BIOANALYSIS OF DIOXIN, Marcus Cooke, George C. Clark, Leo Goeyens, and Willy Baeyens, Today’s Chemist at work, Volume 9, No. 7, 15, 16, 19.

**http://www.biodetectionsystems.com**

## With those analysis:

- Samples tested for effect on AH receptor – in other words, a health related effect
- Dioxin and dioxin like compounds – being the most toxic environmental pollutants – are tested for.
- This technique is very suitable for screening of many samples
- The technique is relative new and very suitable for educational purposes since it measures an actual health effect.

## School evaluations

**School evaluations**

- What are levels in the local fish from our school?
- What are the levels from the Arctic and Antarctic results provided?
- Our schools compared to the Polar findings?
- What are the differences in our results compared to average results, max, min etc?
- Why is it likely we have the results we have?

**Trough an interactive report generator on the web pages the schools can make their own scientific report with graphs, pictures and evaluations**

## Funding

- Hopefully Norwegian funding for all core work
- Ensuring in process
- Free for up to 10 schools per country
- Might be extended if more funding is gathered
- Countries can provide support funding for extra schools for their country (or several countries)
- National add-on activities must be funded nationally

## Schedule 1,5 year project

- Planned start-up:
- International environmental day June 5 ́th 2007
- Sampling:
- First sampling - October 2007
- Second sampling - May 2008
- Sign up:
- From June 2007 up to March 2008.
- Overall project report and scientific articles:
- Autumn 2008 - Jan 2009

**Start**

**Second sampling**

**Final Reporting**

**First sampling**

**Intermediate Reporting**

**2007**

**2008**

## Possible GLOBE involvement in planned project

## Possible GLOBE collaboration 

- PR for participation
- Making project known
- Channel to invite schools
- PR for GLOBE
- Schools which are not GLOBE schools, gets invitation to join GLOBE
- GLOBE CC is a national coordinator

## Contact person:

- E-mail: _[karlth@online.](mailto:karlth@online.no)__[no](mailto:karlth@online.no)_,
- : +47 35 07 91 31
- : +47 91 30 15 68 (mobile)

**Contact person:**