Historical alpha-HCH budget in the Arctic Ocean: the Arctic Mass Balance Box Model (AMBBM).
Sci Total Environ
; 324(1-3): 115-39, 2004 May 25.
Article
in En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-15081701
ABSTRACT
An Arctic Mass Balance Box Model (AMBBM) has been developed to calculate a sequential historical alpha-hexachlorocyclohexane (alpha-HCH) budget in the Arctic Ocean from its introduction in the 1940s up to the present. The AMBBM is created in the context of the Arctic as a receptor, and has three major components the air concentration module, the loading from Arctic river module and the transport/transformation module. The results of the model provide a more complete depiction of the behavior of alpha-HCH within the Arctic Ocean. Model output includes annual concentrations in Arctic air and water, annual alpha-HCH loading to, removal from the Arctic Ocean and annual cumulative burden of alpha-HCH in the Arctic waters from 1945 to 2000. Our model results compare well with published data in the 1980s and 1990s and show that the alpha-HCH burden in the Arctic Ocean started to accumulate in the early 1940s and reached the highest value of 6670 t in 1982, 1 year before China banned the use of technical HCH. Since then the burden of alpha-HCH in Arctic waters has decreased quickly by an average annual rate of approximately 270 ty(-1) during the 1990s, decreasing from 4220 t in 1990 to 1550 t in 2000. The complete elimination of alpha-HCH from Arctic waters would require another two decades. The total loading between 1945 and 2000 was 27700 t accounting for approximately 0.6% of total global alpha-HCH emission from agricultural land to the atmosphere. Differences in loadings of alpha-HCH to the North American Arctic Ocean and Eurasian Arctic Ocean are also discussed.
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Collection:
01-internacional
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Water Pollution
/
Hexachlorocyclohexane
/
Carcinogens
/
Models, Theoretical
Type of study:
Health_economic_evaluation
/
Prognostic_studies
Limits:
Humans
Language:
En
Journal:
Sci Total Environ
Year:
2004
Document type:
Article