You can help expand this article with text translated from the corresponding article in Portuguese. (March 2013) Click [show] for important translation instructions.
|
Part of a series on |
Pollution |
---|
Global distillation or the Grasshopper effect is the geochemical process by which certain chemicals, most notably persistent organic pollutants (POPs), are vaporized and transported from warmer to colder regions of the Earth, particularly the poles and mountain tops, where they condense. Other chemicals include acidifying acids (SOx) and heavy metals.[1] The first documented use of the term was in 1975 by E.D. Goldberg to describe the vaporization of synthetic halogenated hydrocarbons which is enhanced by the presence of water.[2] However, this effect was only believed to occur within a defined “pollution band” in the mid-latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere. Soon after, evidence of this effect was found in arctic food as well as its atmosphere.[3] Since then, relatively high concentrations of POPs have been found in the Arctic soil and water, as well as the bodies of animals and people who live there, even though most of the chemicals have not been used in the region in appreciable amounts.[4][5]