Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics Spatial variability of POPs in European background air

Abstract. Passive air samplers (PAS) were deployed at 86 European background sites during summer 2006 in order (i) to gain further insight into spatial patterns of persistent or-ganic pollutants (POPs) in European background air and, (ii) to evaluate PAS as an alternative sampling technique under EMEP (Co-operative programme for monitoring and evalua-tion of the long-range transmissions of air pollutants in Eu-rope). The samples were analyzed for selected PCBs, HCHs, DDTs, HCB, PAHs and chlordanes, and air concentrations were calculated on the basis of losses of performance refer-ence compounds. Air concentrations of PCBs were generally lowest in more remote areas of northern Europe with elevated levels in more densely populated areas. γ-HCH was found at elevated levels in more central parts of Europe, whereas α-HCH, β-HCH and DDTs showed higher concentrations i