Persistent Organic Pollutants and Heavy Metals (Including Mercury) - The Changing Arctic Environment: The Arctic Messenger - page 179

The Arctic atmospheric and wildlife levels of legacy POPs may be declining, but the
opposite is the case with a number of substances with the characteristics of POPs that
were not included in the original CLRTAP protocol and the Stockholm Convention. Brom-
inated flame retardants are a case in point. 2 They have been widely used by society in,
for example, upholstery, textiles, plastics, circuit boards and rubber. Circumpolar atmo-
spheric monitoring results consolidated by AMAP showed that a number of brominated
flame retardants are capable of reaching the Arctic from distances of several thousand kilo-
metres, but they can also be introduced into the atmosphere through the use and disposal
of products containing these substances within the Arctic, especially through uncontrolled
trash burning. Once deposited on the surface, brominated flame retardants enter the ter-
restrial, freshwater and marine food webs and biomagnify upward to higher trophic levels
injustthesamewayasorganochlorines.Levelsintoppredatorstendtobemuchlowerthan
has been observed for PCBs, but their spatial distribution is similar to that of PCBs, with
the highest Arctic concentrations being found from East Greenland to Svalbard. Levels
are lower in terrestrial animals and higher in upper-trophic-level marine predators, such as
some killer whale (orca) populations off Alaska and glaucous gulls from the Barents Sea.
After the first generation of brominated flame retardants was banned, their replacement
substances have begun to appear in biological and nonbiological media in the Arctic (such
as pentabromotoluene and pentabromoethylbenzene). The Arctic Messenger must have a
sense of déjà vu.
A class of substances that caught us all by surprise were polyfluoroalkyl substances
(PFAS). This is a new term that replaces the former term of poly- and perfluorinated com-
pounds (PFCs) 3 . They were heavily used as surfactants in firefighting foams and as stain
repellents in textiles, carpets and food packaging. In 2002, the main manufacturer in the
United States voluntarily phased out production due to PFAS being found in the blood of
workers involved in the manufacturing process.
PFAS are highly persistent in the environment. Derek Muir has told me that they have
been described as a molecular rebar - indestructible in water and soils under normal envir-
onmental conditions. You would think this would not lead to environmental complications