Pesticides Arctic contamination

Impact of Transformation Products on Spatial Range and Arctic Contamination Potential of Legacy Pesticides... 

The data in Table 4.4 show the result of global pesticide contamination. These pesticides were never used in the Arctic nevertheless, they were found in humans. It is notable that pesticide concentrations in human blood were several times higher (and in the case of befa-HCH, 17 times higher) in Russia than in Sweden and Norway. 

POPs are pervasive in our environment. They are present virtually everywhere in the world including the Arctic environsFood is the primary source of human exposure to POPs. As discussed in Chapter 9, they are taken up in plants grown in contaminated soil. I2 For example, alpha-endosulfan, beta-endosulfan, and endosulfan sulfate were absorbed by lettuce growing in soil contaminated with these pesticides J3 ... 

Rain may also wash some of the spray off the leaves. Most pesticides are not compounds with high molecular weights. They can evaporate in the heat of the sun. Once airborne, they can travel to remote parts of the world, where rain can bring them to the surface again.52 This long-range aerial transport explains how remote lakes in the Arctic and remote islands in the oceans have become contaminated. The preemergence herbicide, acetochlor (11.12),... 

In the perpetual confrontation between bad and good, the seen and unseen, pesticides have their own fate. They were created to help man, but currently pesticides are global contaminants, which can be found in air, rainfall, snow, soil, ground and surface water, fog and even in ice from Arctic regions. 

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