Traces of sun creams and other personal care products have also been found at extreme latitudes, in the snow of the Arctic: a group of researchers led by the Ca’ Foscari University of Venice discovered them, thanks to a study conducted on five glaciers of the Svalbard archipelago in which the Institute of Polar Sciences of the National Research Council also participated.
The data collected, published in the journal Science of the Total Environment, will contribute to the protection of the local ecosystem: especially in view of the increasingly high melting of Arctic ice due to global warming, which will re-introduce these contaminating compounds into the environment which have already demonstrated adverse effects on aquatic organisms and are currently under investigation by the European Union.
The researchers led by Marianna D’Amico, thanks also to the collaboration with the Italian research station Dirigibile Italia in Ny Ålesund, collected many samples from Arctic glaciers between April and May 2021: the results revealed the presence of various compounds, such as fragrances and UV filters, due to contaminated air masses coming from Eurasia which reach the Arctic more easily at the end of winter.
“This is the first time that many of the contaminants analyzed, such as benzophenone-3, octocrylene, ethylhexyl methoxycinnamate and ethylhexyl salicylate, have been identified in Arctic snow,” comments D’Amico. “It will be fundamental to understand the transport and deposition phenomena of these contaminants in the polar areas, especially in relation to variations in local seasonal conditions”, adds Andrea Spolaor of Isp-Cnr, co-author of the study: “Conditions that are changing rapidly in response to climate change, which occurs four times faster in the Arctic than in the rest of the world.”
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