Chemicals of emerging concern in Antarctica

The wide-scope target and non-target screening of biota samples is becoming an important issue in NORMAN activities, since pollutants present in biota are highly probably bio-accumulative (B) and persistent (P), and thus fulfilling two out of three PBT criteria considered under REACH legislation. As a means of prioritising the most ubiquitous pollutants at the global scale there is a need to look at their occurrence in remote areas, including the Arctic region and Antarctica. NORMAN members have access to samples from these regions. It is expected that with the global warming the polar areas will become more accessible and, thus, more polluted from anthropogenic activities.

Two batches of samples (Tier I and Tier II) from Antarctica region were collected and analyzed, including different biota species. Tier I, included four biota samples that were delivered to EI’s laboratory in December 2019, whereas the delivery of Tier II samples (ten samples) was realized in December 2020.

In total, 14 samples were analysed and included:
1 Sea star (muscles)
1 Sea urchin (muscles)
1 Macrophytes
1 Fish (muscles)
2 Weddell seal (placenta)
2 Gentoo penguin (muscles)
2 Crabeater seal (muscles)
2 Adelie penguin (eggs)
2 Gentoo penguin (eggs)