Variations of Persistent Organic Pollutants in Ambient Air of Jeju Island, Korea

Atmospheric concentrations of persistent organic pollutants (POPs) were measured at Gosan, Jeju, two times, in November 2001 and in March and April 2002, each time for two weeks. Gosan is a representative background site in Korea and was a super site during ACE-Asia. Purposes of this work were to monitor the background concentrations of POPs in Korea and to assess the effect of long-range transport of these substances. Primary target pollutants were twelve chemicals such as organochlorine pesticides, PCBs, and PCDD/Fs listed in the Stockholm Convention adopted in May 2001. However, PAHs were also measured in order to understand the overall characteristics of the POPs distribution since PAHs are most abundant POPs in our environment. Fine particles are usually an ideal carrier for long-range transport of POPs; size distribution and chemical composition of fine particles were analyzed in order to estimate the transport of POPs. Much higher concentrations of pollutants such as PAHs, PCDD/Fs, SO2 and fine particles, which were believed to be emitted from combustion sources, than other measurement data until that time, were observed in the latter part of the November 2001measurement period. Change of nitrate distribution from coarse to fine particles at that time indicates that higher concentrations could be resulted from emissions in the nearby area. Variations of organochlorine pesticides did not correlate with those of other pollutants; their concentrations were not consistently low even compared with those from contaminated areas in the world. March and April are the period of Yellow Sand in Northeast Asia. In the latter part of the spring 2002 measurement period, PM10 concentration went up to 320 ug/m3 because of heavy Yellow Sand. Characteristics of the variations of POPs in the two distinct measurement periods were compared and discussed. *This work was supported in part by the Korea Ministry of Environment as an Eco-technopia 21 project under grant 2001-44001-8 and in part by the Korea Institute of Science and Technology.