New Study Shows Fires Spread Environmental Toxins in the Arctic
02.06.2010 - Atmosphere & Space, Flora & Fauna, Arctic
According to new research conducted under the FLEXPOP project, forest fires and straw and stubble burning in North America and Eastern Europe are producing concentrations of polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) in the Arctic. The study is the first to show a connection between burning of biomass and PCB concentrations in the atmosphere far away.
Over the past few decades, persistent organic pollutants (POPs) such as PCB have been found in large concentrations in the Arctic. Much of this pollution came from man-made production in the past. Whenever biomass (trees, dead grass, etc.) catches fire, it releases PCB and other environmental toxins. When fires ravaged the Arctic areas of North America and Eastern Europe in 2004 and 2006, researchers found record-high values of PCB in the atmosphere above Svalbard few weeks later.
With a changing climate in the Arctic, the extent and frequency of such fires is likely to increase, and fires' contribution to PCB levels will likely become more significant now that anthropogenic PCP production has subsided. This could represent an increasing environmental problem in the Arctic. PCB makes its way up the food chain, as it is stored in fatty tissues. High up in the food chain, fatty fish, humans and other carnivores can accumulate so much of the toxin it can poison them.
Using new methods, researchers have been able to 'backdate' emissions in the atmosphere and find out where and why the pollution originated. Thanks to the development of a new atmospheric dispersion model called FLEXPART, researchers have been able to simulate the transportation of POPs via the atmosphere. The model also takes account of new knowledge about global emissions of PCB and new data about the chemical composition of different technical blends that were produced previously.
