Petroleum hydrocarbons from effluents: detection in marine environment

The marine environment has become the primary disposa ground for an increasing quantity of petroleum wastes. Mushrooming demands for petroleum products and the lack of economic incentive to recycle waste oil will increase the concentrations of detrimental petroleum hydrocarbons in the marine environment

Although a continuous, low-level discharge of waste petroleum hydrocarbons into the marine environment may not be as dramatic as a major oil spill, the consequences could be more devastating over an extended period. As noted by Blumer, earlier interpretations of the environmental effects of oil must not be reevaluated in the light of recent evidence of its effects on marine organisms an its environmental persistence, which resembles that of DDT, PCBs, and other syntehtic materials.