Chemical pollutants in Finnish and Karelian snow

Abstract

Snow samples were collected in March 2001 in 10 sites in the vicinity of the Kostomuksha factory in Karelia and in Finland longitudinally from the South to the North. GC-MS and ICP-MS allowed to identify and quantify 72 chemical elements and more than 200 individual organic compounds. A list of toxicants emitting with the factory exhausts, a list of priority pollutants for Kostomuksha and a list of pollutants of concern for Finland were proposed. High level of phthalates in the sample collected at the most northern site maybe treated as an example of the “cold finger effect”.