Arctic chlorinated hydrocarbons

Data gathered from several sites near Niigata, Japan, between April 1989 and March 1992 showed elevated levels of trichloroethylene and other volatile chlorinated hydrocarbons in the winter (Kawata and Fujieda 1993). A rural site in this study had armual mean concentrations between 0.17 and 0.32 ppb, while four industrial sites had mean concentrations between 0.029 and 4.8 ppb. The average trichloroethylene level detected in samples collected from ambient air in the Norwegian Arctic between 1982 and 1983 was 0.007 ppb (Hov et al. 1984). Average concentrations of trichloroethylene in Alaskan Arctic haze between 1980 and 1982 were 0.036 ppb in winter and 0.007 ppb in summer (Khalil and Rasmussen 1983). 

Becker PR. 2000. Concentration of chlorinated hydrocarbons and heavy metals in Alaska arctic marine mammals. Mar PoUut Bull 40 819-829. 

Norstrom, R.J., S.E. Belikov, E.W. Born, G.W. Garner, B. Malone, S. Olpinski, M.A. Ramsay, S. Schliebe, I. Stirling, M.S. Stishov, M.K. Taylor, and O. Wiig. 1998. Chlorinated hydrocarbon contaminants in polar bears from eastern Russia, North America, Greenland, and Svalbard biomonitoring of Arctic pollution. Arch. Environ. Contam. Toxicol. 35 354-367. 

Hargrave, B.T., W.P. Vass, P.E. Erickson, and B.R. Fowler. 1989. Distribution of Chlorinated Hydrocarbon Pesticides and PCBs in the Arctic Ocean. Canad. Tech. Rep. Fish. Aquat. Sci. No. 1644. Dept. Fisheries and Oceans, Dartmouth, Nova Scotia. Ill pp. 

Klobes, U. Vetter, W. Glotz, D. Luckas, B. Skirnisson, K. Hersteinsson, P, Levels and enantiomeric ratios of chlorinated hydrocarbons in livers of Arctic fox (Alopex lagopus) and adipose tissue and liver of a polar bear (Ursus maritimus) sampled in Iceland Intern. J. Environ. Anal. Chem. 1998, 69, 67-81. 

The presence of halogen-containing radicals can play a substantial role in chemical processes in the atmosphere. Chlorine atoms react much faster with alkanes than OH, the effect of which has been clearly observed in the Arctic troposphere in connection with the sunrise ODEs (Ramacher et al., 1997 Ariya et al., 1997 Song and Carmichael, 1999). The high reactivity of chlorine with hydrocarbons may explain the relatively high CH2O volume mixing ratios of... 

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