MA7 Global Atmospheric Transport
201 Oregon Ballroom
8:00 AM - 12:00 PM, Monday
() Monitoring long term trends in the global distribution of POPs in air: A pilot study using passive air samplers.
Gouin, T1, Gallardo, K2, Harner, T3, 1 Trent University, Peterborough, ON, Canada2 University of Siena, Siena, Italy3 Environment Canada, Downsview, ON, Canada
ABSTRACT- An important component of the Stockholm Convention on persistent organic pollutants (POPs) is to create a Global Monitoring Programme (GMP), designed to gather data regarding the temporal and spatial distribution of POPs from locations which are representative of ambient conditions. Information obtained from the GMP could then be used to better understand the global and regional transport of various POPs, identify regions of possible concern, and help validate global atmospheric transport models. It has been suggested that passive air samplers (PAS) could be used to provide highly resolved spatial information on the distribution of POPs within regions and across the globe. Furthermore, PAS deployed over 3-month periods would provide quarterly resolution, which would help to resolve seasonal differences. In this study we report POP concentration data from a pilot study in which PAS have been deployed in various remote regions around the globe, including Tasmania, Chile, Bermuda and the Canadian Arctic. Data collected from this study are used to demonstrate the feasibility of using PAS by improving our understanding of their (1) quantitative interpretability, (2) their ability to work under different climatic conditions and (3) their ability to sample POPs in the gas-phase.
Key words: persistent organic pollutants, passive air samples, global distribution, long-range atmospheric transport