• Email Us: [email protected]
  • Contact Us: +1 718 874 1545
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Medical Market Report

  • Home
  • All Reports
  • About Us
  • Contact Us

Stinky Balls Washed Up On Australian Beaches Contain Human Feces And Drugs, Chemical Analysis Shows

November 8, 2024 by Deborah Bloomfield

Many grim-looking (and smelling) balls washed up on the beaches of Sydney, Australia in October. First believed to be balls of tar, further analysis and chemical tests have revealed them to be far more disgusting than that.

Last month, eight beaches in Sydney, including the famous Bondi Beach, had to be closed in order to clean up the mystery globs and for authorities to investigate their source. 

Advertisement



The initial analysis made for pretty grim reading.

“Based on advice from the Environment Protection Authority, we can now confirm the balls are made up of fatty acids, chemicals consistent with those found in cleaning and cosmetic products, mixed with some fuel oil,” New South Wales Maritime Executive Director Mark Hutchings told the BBC as the beaches reopened in mid-October.

Waste from an oil spill was suspected as the ultimate cause. However, further analysis of the globs of miscellaneous waste – including carbon-14 dating, mass spectrometry, elemental analysis, and microscopy techniques – has determined they contain traces of cooking oil, soap scum, hair, human fecal matter, veterinary drugs, blood pressure medication, PFAS (aka “forever chemicals”), and the psychoactive substances THC and methamphetamine. 

Advertisement

“They smell absolutely disgusting, they smell worse than anything you’ve ever smelt,” Analytical Chemist Professor William Alexander Donald told 9News. “I wouldn’t want to be swimming with them,” 

The balls’ composition suggests they likely came from sewage or some other kind of urban effluent, though the exact source is still unknown. If you should happen upon one though, it’s probably best not to touch it.

Deborah Bloomfield
Deborah Bloomfield

Related posts:

  1. China Evergrande shares slide 6% in early trade
  2. Indonesia’s new carbon tax signals higher power costs amid calls for clarity
  3. Cancer Is Spreading In Shellfish, And Has Been For Hundreds Of Years
  4. 380-Million-Year-Old Fanged Fish Found In One Of The World’s Oldest Lakes

Source Link: Stinky Balls Washed Up On Australian Beaches Contain Human Feces And Drugs, Chemical Analysis Shows

Filed Under: News

Primary Sidebar

  • Mammals Have Evolved Into Ant Eaters 12 Times Since The Dinosaurs Went Extinct
  • Thieving Pulsar Spinning 592 Times A Second Reveals New Understanding Of Where Its X-Rays Come From
  • The Rise And Fall (And Lamentable Rise) Of The “Alpha Male” Myth
  • IFLScience The Big Questions: How Do Black Holes Shape The Universe?
  • North America’s Smallest Turtle Is The Cutest Thing You’ll Find In A Bog
  • “Unambiguous Signal” To Curb Emissions Now: Long-Lost Aerial Photos Reveal Evolution Of Antarctic Ice Shelf Collapse
  • 8 Children Have Been Born With 3 Biological Parents Each After Mitochondrial Transfer
  • First Known Observations Of Matter-Antimatter Asymmetry In Special Particle Decay
  • In 1973, NASA Sent Two Spiders Into Space To See If They Can Spin Webs – And They Learnt A Lot
  • Meet The Many Species Of Freaky Looking “Assassin Spiders” That Only Eat Other Spiders
  • Your Dog’s TV Preferences Might Reveal Their Personality
  • Some Human Gut Bacteria Can Absorb Harmful Toxic “Forever Chemicals” So They Can Be Pooped Out
  • You Could Float Through 10 Countries Before The World’s Most International River Spat You Out
  • Enormous Coronal Hole And Beast-Like Crawling Prominences Dazzle On The Active Sun
  • Dramatic Drone Footage Of Iceland’s Latest Volcanic Eruption Shows An Epic Scene From Hell
  • A Shrimp That Lives In A Tree? Indonesia’s Cyclops Mountains Are Home To Some Seriously Strange Wildlife
  • Is NASA’s Claim That Saturn Could Float On Water Really True?
  • Pangea Proxima: This Is What Planet Earth May Look Like 250 Million Years In The Future
  • The Story Of Dogxim, The Fox-Dog Hybrid That Shouldn’t Have Existed
  • Neanderthal Butchers From Different Caves Had Their Own Specialities
  • Business
  • Health
  • News
  • Science
  • Technology
  • +1 718 874 1545
  • +91 78878 22626
  • [email protected]
Office Address
Prudour Pvt. Ltd. 420 Lexington Avenue Suite 300 New York City, NY 10170.

Powered by Prudour Network

Copyrights © 2025 · Medical Market Report. All Rights Reserved.

Go to mobile version