Atmospheric concentrations of chlordane at Mould Bay,N.W.T., Canada

Chlordane and nonachlors isomers in the range 0.1 – 1.8 pg/m³ were measured in the Canadian Arctic in June-July 1984. Implications regarding input to Arctic biota are discussed.Long range transport of air pollution to the remotest parts of the globe is no longer surprising to most atmospheric scientists. Pollution from mid-latitudes has been detected in the Arctic for a number of years¹. The detection of chlorinated pesticides and hydrocarbons in Arctic fauna² and Antarctic fauna³ naturally prompted suspicions of long-range transport of airborne pollutants as a possible source. In this paper, we will report the detection of gas phase chlordane isomers at Mould Bay, Northwest Territories, Canada during the summer of 1984.Mould Bay is a isolated 12 person meteorological outpost on Melville Island (76.5°N, 118°W). Arctic haze has been monitored at this site since 1979^{4 5}. It is believed that Mould Bay is quite representative of the Canadian Arctic archepelago in general, as little difference in air concentrations of sulphate aerosol is seen between Mould Bay, Alert and Igloolik, N.W.T.⁵ This wide spatial homogeneity of the Arctic air mass prompted the Atmospheric Environment Service (AES) to decommission two air monitoring stations, Mould Bay and Igloolik, in 1984. At the decommissioning of the Mould Bay sampler, we converted the high-volume sampler for a short study of organics using glass fibre filters and polyurethane foam plugs⁶.