As a result, the ecology of the peninsula suffered major ecological damage, including contamination by military nuclear waste and nickel smelting.
Dr. J. Lindsay Oaks, an assistant professor of veterinary medicine at Washington State University who was the primary author of the report, said the devastation of vulture populations was the first clear case of major ecological damage caused by a pharmaceutical product.
"This discovery is significant in that it is the first known case of a pharmaceutical causing major ecological damage over a huge geographic area," says lead author J. Lindsay Oaks, a veterinary microbiologist at Washington State University, Pullman.
In real life, it's more likely to be a cause of deleterious mutations than a shortcut to enhanced abilities, as shown by major ecological damage in nuclear meltdown fallout zones, like Chernobyl and Fukushima.
But it was clear weeks ago, and has become more clear by the day, that if oil keeps flowing no volume of dispersants and no amount of burning can keep it from doing major ecological damage.
The Kola Peninsula as a whole suffered major ecological damage, mostly as a result of pollution from the military (particularly naval) production, industrial mining of apatite, and military nuclear waste.
