PARENT SESSION
15 - Atmospheric Transport and Global Pollution
8:00 AM to 6:30 PM, Monday, 13 May 2002
Exhibition Area

(15-33) Persistent organic pollutants in the atmosphere of high mountain areas.

van Drooge, Barend^*,1, Grimalt, Joan¹, ¹ Department of Environmental Chemistry (ICER-CSIC), c/Jordi Girona 18-26, Barcelona, Spain

ABSTRACT- Polychlorinated biphenyls (19 individual congeners), organochlorine pesticides (pp-DDE, pp-DDT, -HCH, -HCH, and HCB) and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (15 parent PAHs) have been collected at 2367 m, 2240 m and 1778 m above sea level in the Island of Tenerife (Canary Islands), the Catalonian Pyrenees and the Slovakian Tatra mountains, respectively. These sites are located above the tree line and receive POPs by long range atmospheric transport. In the case of Tenerife the sampling site was situated above the mixing layer in the free troposphere. Backward air mass trajectories were determined to elucidate the origin of the sampled air masses. The composition of the POP compounds in these samples is compared with that reported in the atmosphere of other remote areas. The mean PCB levels are around 80 pg m^-3 and do not differ significantly between sites. In contrast, major differences are found for the organochlorine pesticides with a strong seasonality for the sites located on the continent. PAH show very high concentration (PAH = 3988 pg m^-3) in the Tatra mountains in comparison with the levels at Tenerife and the Pyrenees (113 pg m^-3 and 334 pg m^-3, respectively). The differences in composition between samples and sites are interpreted in terms of air mass origin and indirect photodegradation by OH radicals.

Key words: POPs, atmosphere, mountains