ABSTRACT
The north pole comprises landmasses above the 60°N latitude contributed by countries such as Russia, United States of America, Alaska, Norwich, Sweden, Finland, Greenland, Iceland, Canada and Norway. Resident indigenous peoples are enduring extreme conditions daily and are dependent on local produce for survival. Pollutants may be produced at the poles or travel over considerable distances through the atmosphere and oceans and get deposited in the Polar Regions. The prevalence of POPs in environmental matrices depends on their octanol: water partition coefficients, fugacity ratios, enantiomer fraction and photochemical oxidation, amongst other in situ factors. Active sampling is a convenient means by which air can be sampled, requiring a power source and constant maintenance. The GC/MS analyses for ice core trapped POPs were modified to trimethylsilyl esters and esters with bis (trimethylsilyl) trifluoroacetamide to retain 75% recovery in a lipid fraction prior to analyses.
