FORURENS: Understanding Long-Range Atmospheric Transport Behaviour of Emerging Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs)

Circumstances have been described where concentrations of contaminants have been higher in remote regions of the globe than in source regions. Examples are elevated concentrations of persistent organic pollutants (POPs) in Arctic and high mountain regions . POPs are organic chemicals known to be persistent, bio-accumulative, toxic and and susceptible to long-range transport (LRT). Due to their potential harmful properties, international agreements are now coming into effect to reduce further environmental exposure of such substances in remote areas. Both agreements include provisions to add additional substances that have similar characteristics to the POPs lists (i.e. possible new POPs). In order to provide scientific support for these conventions in iden tifying new chemicals of potential concern, it is thus of uttermost importance to evaluate and improve current criteria that are used to identify chemicals with a potential for LRAT. The LRAT-feature of such compounds, which implies a potential create har mful effects in remote areas, such as the Arctic, is obviously of specific interest to the Nordic/Arctic region which could be a net receptor of many such compounds. A better understanding of these phenomena is essential for the development of sensible co ntrol strategies on a national and international basis in order to minimise possible harmful effects on humans and ecosystems. This project therefore aims to obtain a mechanistic and quantitative understanding of LRAT behaviour of emerging POPs through co mplementary field, laboratory and modelling studies. In this way, we aim to e.g. (a) identify potential limitations in current modelling strategies that are used to evaluate LRAT of new POP, (b) evaluate potential limitations in current monitoring strate gies, and (c) obtain an empirical knowledge of the LRAT behaviour and occurence of new POPs in the Norwegian and Arctic environment, and (d) assess the relative importance of local transport vs LRAT close to a city.