Investigating snow deposition of cyclic siloxanes in an Arctic environment

cVMS are high production volume chemicals that are used for a wide range of industrial and domestic applications. Given the high volatility of cVMS, emissions occur mainly to the atmosphere, and cVMS are present in the Arctic atmosphere, e.g. at the Zeppelin Observatory near Ny Ålesund, Svalbard, suggesting potential for long-range atmospheric transport. A study to investigate whether cVMS have the potential to deposit to surface media, and thereby represent a potential risk to the terrestrial or marine environment in polar and Arctic regions was carried out. Overall, cVMS levels in samples of vegetation, soil, sediment and marine biota were low. D4 was detected in most samples at concentrations above LOD, but below LOQ, while D5 and D6 were generally not detected. The low cVMS concentrations in soil, vegetation, sediments, and fish are in line with most current research on cVMS in remote regions, which together suggest that input of cVMS from atmospheric deposition and snow melt is likely not a major contributing source.