NA - Airborne Current Use Pesticides

Long-range transport of environmental pollutants has become a prime area of interest during the last decade. Most of the interest has been coupled to persistent organic pollutants (POPs). In contrast to the POPs, very little data exist on "current use pes ticides" (CUPs), i.e., the pesticides that are used in society today. So much confidence has been given to bureaucratic follow up of CUPs that little effort has been put in actually studying them in the environment. Recent data from Canada, Sweden, and th e Arctic indicate that more of these compounds can be found in pristine areas than is usually surmised from laboratory data on degradation rates. This proposal is to establish a network to collaborate in studies on CUPs in ?remote? areas. Comparisons of methods of sampling and analysis will be made. The goal in the long run will be to standardise methods sufficiently to get comparable results from different laboratories, and to establish and operate an international network of sampling stations. The results from the efforts of the network will be useful in society for environmental monitoring and development of national and international policies on CUPs.