PARENT SESSION
3F Long-range transport of pesticides and other pollutants
9:00 AM to 7:00 PM, Monday, 07 May 2001

(M/EH095) European background ambient air levels of persistent organic pollutants.

Jones, Joanne¹, Sweetman, Andrew¹, Northcott, Grant¹, Lee, Robert¹, Jones, Kevin¹, ¹

ABSTRACT- Ambient air monitoring for background levels provides important data for regulators and environmental modellers alike. Mace Head is a clean sector site on the west coast of Ireland 53° 20'N, 9° 54'W. The origin of the air that passes over this site is mainly from the clean sectors of the Northern Atlantic/Arctic and the Atlantic. This remote site therefore gives data that can be used for European background levels. Samples were taken from the Atmospheric Research Station at Mace Head and analysed for a range of Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs), namely PCDD/Fs using HRGC-HRMS and PCNs, PAHs, HCHs, PCBS using GC-MS. This presentation will summarise the data for these classes of compounds, with particular emphasis on: 1. Differences between source sectors/air mass back trajectories; 2. Evidence of compound mixture weathering; 3. The relative importance of advective inputs and national inputs in contributing to the atmospheric burden of these POPs to the UK atmosphere.

Key words: pcdd/fs, pcbs, pahs, pcns