Banned chemicals are tainting tiny crustaceans that inhabit the deepest ocean, a study said Monday – the first evidence that humans are polluting even the farthest reaches of our planet. Even at depths of nearly 11 kilometres (seven miles) these scavengers could not escape “extraordinary” levels of contamination with chemicals used in coolants and insulating fluids, researchers said. The pollutants likely came from plastic waste and dead animals sinking to the ocean floor, they wrote in the journal Nature Ecology & Evolution.

Pollution ecen in earht's farthest reaches: ocean study. (2017, February 17-18). BusinessWorld, p. S3/4.