Distribution of Chlorinated Hydrocarbon Pesticides and PCBs in the ...

ABSTRACT
Hargrave, B.T., W.P. Vass, P.E. Erickson, and B.R. Fowler. 1989.
Distribution of chlorinated hydrocarbon pesticides and
PCBs in the Arctic Ocean. Can. Tech. Rep. Fish. Aquat.
Sci. 1644: ix + 224 p.
Organochlorine pesticides and PCBs were analyzed in air,
snow, ice, seawater, sediment, plankton and benthic amphipods
collected north of Axel Heiberg Island (81'~). Sampling was
carried out through first year ice adjacent to an ice island on
which the polar Continental Shelf project has established a
permanent camp. Samples were collected in May and late August,
early September 1986 and again in June 1987.
Although present at concentrations that are among the lowest
reported anywhere in the world, organochlorine pesticides were
detectable and quantifiable in most samples. The most abundant
compounds in air, snow, ice and seawater were alpha and gamma
hexachlorocyclohexanes (HCH). Total HCH levels ranged from 500
pg/m3 in air to 5000 pg/L in surface (0-50 m) seawater.
Hexachlorobenzene (HCB) was the next most abundant compound in
air (100 pg/m3) but because of its low solubility, was much less
abundant in ice or water ((20 pg/L). Cyclodiene pesticides
(chlordane, dieldrin, a endosulfan, heptachlor 1 'IDT, DDE,
methoxychlor and PCBs were present at trace levels in air and
water (