Chemistry in New Zealand April 2009 The Origins of Organic Contaminants in Antarctica

• Main Authors: Jacob N. W. Howe, Kimberly J. Hageman
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Subjects: Antarctic; New Zealand; The Antarctic; Antarc*; Antarctica
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.626.2881; http://www.nzic.org.nz/CiNZ/articles/CiNZ_hageman.pdf

The continent of Antarctica is often described with words such as pristine and untouched due to its remote location and distance from the inhabited regions of earth. Environ-mental contaminants have, however, been detected1,2 in various Antarctic media since the 1960s. These early fi nd-ings provided impetus for further study, confi rming the ubiquity of contaminants in Antarctica but raising ques-tions about how these chemicals came to exist in such a secluded area.3,4 The isolation of the Antarctic continent has meant that it has endured very little contact with people through-out history, making it a rather unique case in the fi eld of contaminant study. Traditionally, human activities in this area have been involved with either exploratory or sci-entifi c endeavours.5 More recently, the tourism industry