Polychlorinated naphthalenes and coplanar polychlorinated biphenyls in arctic air
- Univ. of Toronto, Ontario (Canada)
- Swedish Univ. of Agricultural Sciences, Uppsala (Sweden). Dept. of Environmental Assessment
- Atmospheric Environment Service, Downsview, Ontario (Canada)
- Lancaster Univ. (United Kingdom). Environmental Sciences Dept.
- Canada Center for Inland Waters, Burlington, Ontario (Canada)
- Connor Pacific, Toronto, Ontario (Canada)
Concentrations of polychlorinated naphthalenes (PCNs) are reported for the first time in arctic air. The data represent combined air samples from the Barents Sea, eastern Arctic Ocean, Norwegian Sea, and two land-based monitoring stations at Alert, Canada, and Dunai Island in eastern Siberia, Russia. Values for {Sigma}PCN were 6--49 for shipboard samples and 0.3--8 for land-based stations and were dominated by the 3-Cl and 4-Cl homologues, which accounted for 90--95% of the total mass. Average values for {Sigma}PCB for the shipboard samples were 126, 24, and 75 for the Barents Sea, eastern Arctic, and Norwegian Sea, respectively. Three-dimensional 5-day air parcel back-trajectories arriving at the ship at 850 and 925 hPa suggested that elevated PCB and PCN concentrations for shipboard samples originated in Europe. Concentrations (fg m{sup {minus}3}) of coplanar PCBs in arctic air were 3--40 (PCB 77) and 0.3--8 (PCB 126) -- about an order of magnitude lower than in urban air. Higher concentrations of PCB 77 and PCB 126, 347 and 5.0 (fg m{sup {minus}3}), respectively, were found in the Barents Sea for two samples with elevated {Sigma}PCBs.
- OSTI ID:
- 323744
- Journal Information:
- Environmental Science and Technology, Vol. 32, Issue 21; Other Information: PBD: 1 Nov 1998
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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