6PPD quinone: The environmental contaminant killing Coho salmon
6-PPD is a chemical widely used to protect car tires from ozone. However, when rainwater washes it into freshwater, 6PPD degrades into 6-PPD quinone, a contaminant that a recent study has linked to the mass deaths of Coho salmon in the Pacific Northwest of the US. Researchers from Northeastern University and the University of Washington found that even small doses of 6PPDq were lethal for the salmon. … According to the California Water Board, Coho populations today are probably less than 6% of what they were in the 1940s, and there has been ‘at least’ a 70% decline since the 1960s.