The polar regions receive contaminants, such as persistent organic pollutants (POPs), mercury, and radionuclides from far-away sources.
Many of these pollutants have no local sources and/or were never used in the Arctic or the Antarctic but are detected at levels high enough to risk the health of the environment and humans. This session will explore the current status of contaminants; their transport pathways; reaction, degradation, and multimedia partitioning processes; fate, trends, and impact on the polar environment, biota, and humans; and how current and predicted changes in climate would affect contaminant distribution and trends.

This session welcomes studies on all aspects of contaminants in the arctic and Antarctic atmosphere, hydrosphere, cryosphere, terrestrial and marine biota, and humans. Evaluations on the effects of a changing climate on polar contaminants are welcomed. Presentations are not limited to IPY activities but all research studies conducted within the timeframe of IPY, namely 2007-2009, and should include observations from field, laboratory, and modeling studies.

Organizers of session 1.8 request that anyone submitting an abstract to their session through the formal IPY-OSC process (available at: http://www.ipy-osc.no/section/1257865053.48) also send a copy to Hayley Hung (hayley.hung@ec.gc.ca) so that they can better track the interest in their session.

For further information, please go to:
http://www.ipy-osc.no/article/2010/1262940060.07.

Or contact:
Hayley Hung
Email: hayley.hung@ec.gc.ca