The “Dirty Dozen” chemicals, including the notoriously toxic DDT,
are being freed from Arctic sea ice and snow through global
warming, a study published on Sunday suggested.



The “Dirty Dozen” - formally known as persistent organic pollutants
(POPs) - were widely used as insecticides and pesticides before
being outlawed in 2001.



They are extremely tough molecules that take decades to break down
in nature. They also bio-accumulate, meaning that as they pass up
the food chain, concentrations rise, posing a fertility threat to
higher species.



In addition, they are insoluble in water and easily revolatilise,
so can swiftly transit from soil and water to the atmosphere in
response to higher temperatures.



The study, published in the scientific journal Nature Climate
Change, looked at atmospheric concentrations of three chemicals -
DDT, HCH and cis-chlordane - monitored between 1993 and 2009 at a
station in Norway’s Svalbard Islands and at another in the Canadian
Arctic.



The scientists indeed found a long-term downward trend in primary
emissions after the Stockholm Convention banned production and
trade in the “Dirty Dozen”.



But a more complex and disturbing picture emerged when the same
data was crunched through a simulation of the effect of global
warming on POP concentrations.



It found a slight rise in secondary emissions, from POPs that had
been locked in Arctic ice and snow but were now being gradually
released because of warming.



Grim news



“A wide range of POPs have been remobilised into the Arctic
atmosphere over the past two decades as a result of climate
change,” said the study, led by Jianmin Ma of the agency
Environment Canada in Toronto.



Arctic warming “could undermine global efforts to reduce
environmental and human exposure to these toxic chemicals”, it
warned.



Pollution specialist Jordi Dachs of the Institute of Environmental
Assessment and Water Research in Barcelona, Spain, said this news
was grim.



The Arctic has been hit two or three times harder than other parts
of the planet for warming, and thus could be the forerunner for POP
releases from other stores, including the soil and deep
ocean.



“It seems likely that persistent pollutants will affect the
environment on even longer time scales than currently assumed,”
said Dachs.



“The remobilisation of pollutants generated by our grandparents…
are unwanted witnesses to our environmental past that now seem to
be ‘coming in from the cold.’