Organic pollutants in grassland soils

In the report “Organic pollutants in grassland soils — Part 3”, the Federal Environment Agency examined the exposure of hard-to-degradable organic pollutants (POPs) at ten other sites. The pollutant groups studied include perfluorinated surfactants, polybrominated diphenyl ethers and polybrominated biphenyls. The use of individual representatives of these groups of substances has been prohibited since 2009 under the Stockholm Convention. This expands the database for mandatory monitoring of POPs. Analyses of soil samples from Salzburg, Tyrol, Vorarlberg and Lower Austria show increased concentrations of one or more POPs for individual sites without obvious proximity to issuers. The spatial differences in concentration are considerable, perfluorinated surfactants and polybrominated diphenyl ethers are detected in all samples.