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Semi-volatile organic contaminants (SVOCs) are known for their tendency to evaporate from source regions and undergo atmospheric transport to distant areas. Cold condensation intensifies dry deposition, particle deposition, and scavenging by snow and rain, allowing SVOCs to move from the atmosphere into terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems in alpine and polar regions. However, no standardized methods exist for the sampling, laboratory processing, and instrumental analysis of persistent organic pollutants (POPs) in snow. The lack of reference methods makes these steps highly variable and prone to errors. This study critically reviews the existing literature to highlight the key challenges in the sampling phase, aiming to develop a reliable, consistent, and easily reproducible technique. The goal is to simplify this crucial step of the analysis, allowing data to be shared more effectively through standardized methods, minimizing errors. Additionally, an innovative method for laboratory processing is introduced, which uses activated carbon fibers (ACFs) as adsorbents, streamlining the analysis process. The extraction method is applied to analyze polychlorobiphenyls (PCBs) and chlorinated pesticides (α-HCH, γ-HCH, p,p′-DDE, o,p′-DDT, HCB, and PeCB). The entire procedure, from sampling to instrumental analysis, is subsequently tested on snow samples collected on the Svalbard Islands. To validate the efficiency of the new extraction system, quality control measures based on the EPA methods 1668B and 1699 for aqueous methods are employed. This study presents a new, reliable method that covers both sampling and lab analysis, tailored for detecting POPs in snow. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BACKGROUND: Previous studies have indicated that cytochrome P450s (CYPs) are involved in the metabolism of polybrominated diphenyl ether (PBDE) flame retardants in humans, resulting in the formation of hydroxylated PBDEs [...]

We propose a detailed investigation on the distribution patterns of the benthic foraminiferal assemblage and their predominant species in the highly contaminated marine sediments of the Naples harbour. Combined use of multivariate canonical, cluster and principal component analysis in a proper geostatistic framework provided an appropriate approach to explore the role played by a number of contaminants (heavy metals, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, volatile organic compounds, heavy hydrocarbons, PCBs) and different physical parameters (grain size, pH, redox potential, total organic carbon) on the spatial distribution of the benthic foraminiferal assemblage and its single species. Obtained results provide evidence for a high and systematic non-linear response of the biota to the effects of contamination of the different classes of pollutants. The reduced number of specimens per sample, their small dimensions and low diversity, testify the negative effects of a highly contaminated environment. For this reason, it appears very difficult to clearly identify a differential sensitivity of different benthic species to single classes of contaminants. In particular, in addition to a number of case studies which invoked a key role of the heavy metals in the control of the distribution patterns of the benthic foraminifera in the marine environment, the results presented here underline an important effect of some classes of organic compounds (particularly the volatile organic compounds) on the distribution patterns of the benthic assemblage. However, the obtained results demonstrate that any kind of oversimplification would unquestionably cancel the strong complexity of the biotic response to combined effects of different coexisting contaminants.