Remote zones air quality. Persistent organic pollutants: sources, sampling and analysis

Concern about air quality has been rising since the Industrial Revolution and the so-called “Second Industrial Revolution” characterized by internal combustion engine, electrical technology and above all synthesis of new chemicals. Since then mankind has been facing the consequences of its thoughtless release of pollutants in atmosphere, consequences as reducing smog, acid rains and photochemical smog. Notwithstanding the seriousness of single episodes, these were local, or at most regional, phenomena. Nowadays, the variety of pollutants and the extent of pollution is greater than even in history, and air pollution problems are reaching up to global scale. In the last decades, it was established that manmade chemicals, such as polychlorinated biphenyls, chlorofluorocarbons and volatile chlorinated hydrocarbons, were present even in the remotest zones of the Earth, according to their volatility and half-life. This evidence stimulated the scientific community to monitor air quality of remote zones, areas considered a short time ago as uncontaminated. This chapter deals with different sampling and analysis techniques for persistent organic pollutants (POPs) in the atmosphere of remote zones. Features, sources and environmental fate of POPs are presented in the first section. The second section focuses on logistic and experimental difficulties connected to surveys in remote zones. The third section focuses on recent developments and improvements concerning sampling and analytical methods for POPs in air. The most significant findings on the presence of POPs in remote zones are shown in the last section.