Study of organochlorine pollutants in snow at North Pole and comparison to the snow at north, central and south Finland

Organic pollutants, especially polychlorinated hydrocarbons, phenols, guaiacols and catechols have been studied by analyses of snow samples from North Pole, May 1984. All of these pollutants were below the limit of determination which was estimated to be as fallout 0.1–0.05 μg/m² for individual compounds. For comparison, snow samples from Central Finland and South Finland 1983–1985 also showed non-detectable levels of chlorinated hydrocarbons but well measurable levels of chlorophenol compounds which were significantly higher at urban (heavy traffic) than rural and higher at South than Central Finnish places, respectively. One sample from Lapland, North Finland 1985, however, had no measurable amounts of chlorophenols like the North Pole sample.