Chemical munitions in the Baltic Sea – growing evidence of environmental impact

<p>Over 38000 tons of chemical munitions were dumped in the Baltic Sea after World War II. They rest on the bottom of the Gotland and Bornholm Deeps. Studies performed between 2011 and 2019 show that those munitions are largely corroded, and chemical warfare agents (CWA) are released to the environment. Biomarker studies indicate, that they adversely affect marine biota from the dumpsites. Hydrodynamic models suggest that they can be transported with currents to adjacent areas. CWAs are transformed in the environment producing a variety of different degradation products, some of them characterized by higher toxicity than the parent compounds. An effort was undertaken to summarize the studies performed in three EU Interreg and one NATO SPS projects focusing on this problem.</p>