Records of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in sediments of four remote Chilean Andean Lakes

TEMPORAL TRENDS OF POLYCYCLIC AROMATIC HYDROCARBONS (PAHs) IN A DATED SEDIMENT CORE OF A HIGH ATITUDE MOUNTAIN LAKE: CHUNGARA LAKE- NORTHERN CHILE (18° S)

“…This evidence has been demonstrated by analyzing the isotopic composition of rain in Northern Chile highland areas 13 . And, second, local sources related to anthropogenic activities mainly from vehicular traffic or road maintenance (road= Carretera Arica la Paz -Ruta 11) located closely to the lake ~100 m. Organic carbon (%) ranged from ~17 to 24 (21±3) in sediments of Chungará Lake (Pozo et al, 2007) …”

“…), is the second in South America after Titicaca Lake. The lake has a surface of 13 km 2 and a watershed of about 260 km 2 with a maximum depth of 34 m [6][7] . Chungará Lake is considered a tropical highland lake, volcanic, polymictic with a high radiation and low temperatures and saline characteristics.…”

“…In the Southern Hemisphere, particularly in Chile, there is little information on the contemporary levels of these pollutants at remote sites. For instance, few studies have been conducted to estimate temporal trends of some PCBs 6,7 . In particular, Quiroz et al, 8 have reported levels of PAHs at Laja Lake in central Chile.…”

“…Sediment cores may provide insights into local and global time trends of past and present use of released chemicals [2][3] . For instance, investigations of contaminated sediment allow us to make useful comparisons of both global patterns and temporal trends [4][5][6] . In estimating human disturbance, the 137 Cs and 210 Pb isotopes are commonly used in sediment analysis to obtain temporal scales (geochronology) and sedimentation rates.…”

Increasing and decreasing trends of the atmospheric deposition of organochlorine compounds in European remote areas during the last decade

“…However, there is evidence that even these areas receive impacts of long-range atmospheric transported pollutants such as POPs (Blais et al, 1998;Wang et al, 2009;Estellano et al, 2008;Fernández and Grimalt, 2003;Fernández et al, 1999;Daly and Wania, 2005). As observed in the polar regions (Cabrerizo et al, 2012;Halsall, 2004), field studies in Europe , western Canada (Davidson et al, 2003), South America (Grimalt et al, 2004a;Pozo et al, 2007) and the Tibetan Plateau among others, have shown that mountains can act as cold-traps for POPs or even organic compounds with limited atmospheric transport, e.g. currently used pesticides (Hageman et al, 2006).…”