Pollution in Greenland was higher 100 years ago than today
Washington, August 20 : A new research has found that pollution in southern Greenland
was higher 100 years ago than today.
The study, titled "Coal Burning Leaves Toxic Heavy Metal Legacy in the Arctic," was
conducted by the Desert Research Institute (DRI), Reno, Nevada, and partially funded by
the National Science Foundation.
Detailed measurements from a Greenland ice core showed pollutants from burning coal -
the toxic heavy metals cadmium, thallium and lead - were much higher than expected.
The catch, however, was the pollutants weren't higher at the times when researchers
expected peaks.
"Conventional wisdom held that toxic heavy metals were higher in the 1960s and '70s,
the peak of industrial activity in Europe and North America and certainly before
implementation of Clean Air Act controls in the early 1970s," said Joe McConnell, lead
researcher and director of DRI's Ultra-Trace Chemistry Laboratory.
"But it turns out pollution in southern Greenland was higher 100 years ago when North
American and European economies ran on coal, before the advent of cleaner, more efficient
coal burning technologies and the switch to oil and gas-based economies," he added.
In fact, the research showed pollutants were two to five times higher at the beginning
of the previous century than today. Pollution levels in the early 1900s also represented a
10-fold increase from pre-industrial levels.
Continuous, monthly and annually averaged pollution records taken from the Greenland
ice core dating from 1772-2003 produced the results.
Although data showed heavy-metal pollution in the North Atlantic sector of the Arctic
is substantially lower today than a century ago, McConnell and his research partner, Ross
Edwards, an associate research professor at DRI, said there is still cause for
concern.
"Contamination of other sectors may be increasing because of the rapid coal-driven
growth of Asian economies," they wrote in the report.
They argued the consequence may be greater risk to the food chain as toxic heavy metals
from industrial activities in Asian nations are transported through the atmosphere and
deposited in the polar regions.
Food chain contamination through toxic metal absorption from both the environment and
from consumption of contaminated food sources could make its way to humans, who feed on
long-lived land and marine animals such as caribou, seals and whale.
Though impacts on human health in the Arctic region haven't been determined, McConnell
suggests that cleaner burning coal technologies, or better yet reduced reliance on coal
burning, may head off the potential problem.
--ANI
