Ambient air levels and atmospheric long-range transport of persistent organochlorines to Signy Island, Antarctica

The Air−Sea Equilibrium and Time Trend of Hexachlorocyclohexanes in the Atlantic Ocean between the Arctic and Antarctica

“…Between 75°N-80°N (A1-A5) average concentrations of 16.3 ( 3.5 pg/m 3 (range 12-21) and 5.2 ( 1.7 pg/m 3 (range 3-7) were measured for R-HCH and γ-HCH, respectively. These are lower by a factor of 4.8 (R-HCH) and 2.6 (γ-HCH) than the concentrations determined during a year-round measurement campaign at Svalbard in 1993 (25) (28). Neumayer Station is influenced to a minor extent by such long-range transport episodes, because the station is located in the inner part of the polar vortex.…”

Organochlorine Pollutants in Western Antarctic Peninsula Sediments and Benthic Deposit Feeders

“…North Atlantic Deep Water from 47°N to 30°S is about 150 years (25 ~ 300 years) and another 95 years (25 ~ 422 years) from 30°S to the Southern Ocean (13,14) Since the first detection of PCBs and organochlorine pesticides (OCPs) in the Antarctic five decades ago (15,16) , there have been dozens of investigations on the occurrence, distribution of POPs in Antarctic air (17)(18)(19)(20) , water (8,21) , soil (2,4) , sediments (22,23) , and biota (24)(25)(26)(27)(28)(29)(30)(31)(32)(33) . Most of the studies were conducted at the tip of the Western Antarctic Peninsula (WAP) and Ross Sea area (2,6) .…”

Remote Zones Air Quality. Persistent Organic Pollutants: Sources, Sampling and Analysis

“…The possibility of atmospheric long-range transport episodes from South America to Signy Island was pointed out by Kallenborn in 1998 which measured POPs such as polychlorinated biphenyls and pesticides in ambient air at Signy Island (Antarctica), a subAntarctic sampling station, over a period of 17 weeks in the austral summer of 1994. Mean concentrations for single polychlorinated biphenyls (0.02-17 pg m -3 ), for chlordanes (0.04-0.8 pg m -3 ), DDT compounds (0.07-0.40 pg m -3 ) and -hexachlorocyclohexane (22 pg m -3 ), were comparable to those in Arctic air (Kallenborn et al, 1998). Previous studies realized in by Tanabe et al (1983), Weber & Montone (1990) and Larsson et al (1992) provided further evidence of atmospheric transport of PCBs and organo-chlorine pesticides in the Antarctic environment.…”

“…For POP determination, the PUF is Soxhelt-extracted with organic solvents for several hours. After concentration and clean-up, the extracts are analysed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) (Gambaro et al, 2005;Kallenborn et al, 1998) or by gas chromatography-electron capture detection (GC-ECD) (Montone et al, 2003). In order to minimize the interfering substances contamination and to provide acceptable blanks, prior the sampling the PUF plugs have to be cleaned by a long Soxhlet extraction, then the cleaned PUF plugs are dried in a dessicator, packed in glass flasks and sealed in plastic bags until sampling (Montone et al, 2003).…”