Researchers have pulled a half-century record of “forever chemical” contamination from Antarctic snow — and the readings are still climbing.

A team from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, working with the Polar Research Institute of China and Stockholm University, surveyed a roughly 1,200-kilometre transect from Zhongshan Station on the coast to Dome A deep in East Antarctica’s interior. Their findings, published in Science Advances, map per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) deposited across the continent’s most remote ice.

PFAS concentrations in surface snow rose along the entire inland route. The pattern points to atmospheric transport carrying the compounds thousands of kilometres from industrial sources, with levels inland shaped by snow accumulation rates and the breakdown of precursor chemicals in the atmosphere.

The researchers identified distinct seasonal cycles in coastal zones: sea-spray aerosols drive PFAS deposition in winter, while chemical degradation of airborne precursors dominates in summer.

At Dome A, the team reconstructed deposition histories for multiple PFAS compounds. The data show that global regulatory actions — including the Montreal Protocol and the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants — have demonstrably altered the mix of chemicals reaching Antarctica, evidence that international controls can work.

But not every trend is moving in the right direction. Concentrations of trifluoroacetic acid (TFA), an ultrashort-chain compound, have risen continuously since 1976. The researchers flag TFA as an emerging hazard demanding high-priority attention.

Earlier work by Lancaster University and the British Antarctic Survey, analysing compacted snow cores from Dronning Maud Land dating back to 1957, found a similar trajectory: perfluorobutanoic acid (PFBA) increased significantly from 2000 to 2017, with researchers linking the rise to chemicals introduced as CFC replacements under the Montreal Protocol itself.

The most remote continent on Earth, it turns out, is not remote enough.

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