Trends of legacy and new persistent organic pollutants in the circumpolar arctic: Overview, conclusions, and recommendations

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2009.11.032

Science of The Total Environment

Volume 408, Issue 15, 1 July 2010, Pages 3044-3051

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2009.11.032 Get rights and content

Abstract

This article provides an overview of key findings in the reviews in this special issue on the assessment of persistent organic pollutants (POPs) under the Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Program (AMAP), identifies knowledge gaps, and presents conclusions and recommendations for future work. The articles in this special issue summarize the peer reviewed literature and selected technical reports on trends of concentrations and possible biological effects of POPs in the Arctic published up to early 2009.

Introduction

Previous assessments of persistent organic pollutants (POPs) (De March et al., 1998, de Wit et al., 2004) by the Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Program (AMAP) made recommendations and identified information gaps based on the information up to early 2003. The series of articles in this special issue has extended this to peer reviewed literature and selected technical reports published up to early 2009. A distinctive aspect of the literature reviewed in this special issue is the broad range of persistent halogenated compounds measured including most of the substances banned or phased out by the Stockholm Convention, at least 10 current use pesticides, chlorinated naphthalenes, perfluorinated carboxylates (PFCAs) and perfluorinated alkyl sulfonates (PFSAs), polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) plus at least 6 other brominated flame retardants (BFRs). One characteristic of the majority of these chemicals is that they, or precursors, have been at one time, high production volume chemicals i.e. >454 t/y in USA or >1000 t/y globally. Another is that they have molecular structures which convey sufficient stability and physical–chemical properties for transport to remote areas. Previous assessments of POPs have emphasized the semi-volatile characteristics and relatively high Henry's law constants which give rise to global fractionation and multi-hopping. However, recent results suggest that many non-volatile but highly stable compounds such as decabromodiphenyl ether (decaBDE), and other highly brominated compounds, as well the PFCAs and PFSAs are present in the Arctic. Their presence is either due to atmospheric transport on particles (particularly decaBDE) or to degradation of volatile precursors (particularly perfluoro-alkyl and -sulfonamide alcohols). The potential for ocean transport has also been studied in more detail recently, particularly for PFCAs.

Here we review the highlights of the reviews in this special issue, identify knowledge gaps, and present conclusions and recommendations for future work.

Section snippets

Legacy POPs

Time series are available for 8 groups of legacy POPs in Arctic biota, α-, β- and γ-hexachlorocyclohexane (HCH); total chlorobenzenes (ΣCBz = sum of tetra- penta- and hexachlorobenzene) and hexachlorobenzene (HCB); total chlordanes (ΣCHL = sum of trans-nonachlor, cis-nonachlor, trans-chlordane, cis-chlordane and oxychlordane) as well as trans-nonachlor and heptachlor epoxide; total DDTs (ΣDDT = sum of p,p′-DDD, p,p′-DDE, p,p′-DDT) and p,p′-DDE; sum of 10 PCB congeners (Σ10PCB = sum of congeners 28, 31,

Screening for new or potential POPs

An interesting development in the assessment of potential POPs in the Arctic has been recent screening of chemicals in commerce using models, which indicates that many current-use organic compounds have chemical characteristics that make them similar to POPs and thus with potential to transport to the Arctic. Brown and Wania (2008) used a data set of more than 100,000 distinct industrial chemicals, subjected it to their screening system of models and identified 120 high production volume

Brominated flame retardants (BFRs)

In this special issue, de Wit et al. (in press) review the recent literature on the presence of BFRs in Arctic media. PBDEs have been reported in Arctic biota and in passive and high-volume air samples since the early to mid 2000s (de Wit et al., 2004, de Wit et al., 2006). However, new observations of BFRs continue to be made. Perhaps the most surprising is the predominance of decabromodiphenyl ether (decaBDE, BDE-209) in Arctic air samples. First observations of decaBDE in air particles were

Biological effects

The past 5 years has seen a dramatic increase in the number of publications studying possible biological effects of organohalogen compounds in Arctic biota. In previous assessments, the approach for assessing effects was to use various effects thresholds for some POPs derived mainly from laboratory or captive animal exposures and compare these to current body concentrations of the same POPs (de Wit et al., 2004). In their review, Letcher et al. (2010-this issue), point out that there are now

Continued measurements of legacy POPs

Firm conclusions about the impact of policy decisions on environmental levels will require continued monitoring of ‘legacy POPs’ in both abiotic environments and in key biota. AMAP information on temporal trends in the Arctic has contributed to the initial evaluations of the ‘effectiveness and sufficiency’ of the UN ECE LRTAP Convention Protocol on POPs, and the Stockholm Convention, and are expected to continue to do so in the future.

Measurements of new POPs and related compounds

Data for spatial and temporal trends in the Arctic were

Acknowledgement

We thank Craig Butt, Crispin Halsall, Lisa Hoferkamp, Rob Letcher, Frank Rigét and Simon Wilson, for their comments on the manuscript.

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^☆: This paper is a contribution to the AMAP POPs assessment.

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ReviewTrends of legacy and new persistent organic pollutants in the circumpolar arctic: Overview, conclusions, and recommendations☆

Abstract

Introduction

Section snippets

Legacy POPs

Screening for new or potential POPs

Brominated flame retardants (BFRs)

Biological effects

Continued measurements of legacy POPs

Measurements of new POPs and related compounds

Acknowledgement

Sci Total Environ

Sci Total Environ

Sci Total Environ

Chemosphere

Sci Total Environ

Sci Total Environ

Sci Total Environ

J Chromatogr A

Sci Total Environ

Sci Total Environ

Sci Total Environ

Sci Total Environ

Atmos Environ

Sci Total Environ

Chemosphere

AMAP Assessment 2009: Human Health in the Arctic

Potential interference of PBDEs in the determination of PCBs and other organochlorine contaminants using electron capture detection

J Sep Sci

Changing sources and environmental factors reduce the rates of decline of organochlorine pesticides in the Arctic atmosphere

Atmos Chem Phys Discuss

Recent temporal trend monitoring of mercury in Arctic biota — how powerful are the existing data sets?

J Environ Monit

Empirical and Modeling Evidence of the Long-Range Atmospheric Transport of Decabromodiphenyl Ether

Environ Sci Technol

Review
Trends of legacy and new persistent organic pollutants in the circumpolar arctic: Overview, conclusions, and recommendations☆