Ecological impacts of palm stearin spill to the coastal ecosystem
Friday, December 20, 2019 - 12:20
in Earth & Climate
In August 2017, a marine accident occurred in the Pearl River Estuary where a cargo vessel accidentally released about 1,000 tonnes of palm stearin into the sea. Over 200 tonnes of palm stearin reached the southwest coasts of Hong Kong. The general public and green groups expressed concerns that such palm oil pollution could adversely affect the marine life and marine ecosystem, yet there was a lack of scientific information on the toxicity of the palm stearin toward marine organisms in the scientific literature, making it impossible to accurately evaluate its ecological risk.