Chronological trends of emission, environmental level and human exposure of POPs over the last 10 years (1999-2010) in Korea: implication to science and policy.

Despite the first comprehensive reviewing on POPs status in Korea, a previous review chapter (Departments in Environmental Science, Volume 7, Chapter 2) could not discuss and evaluate the temporal trends and the effect of the efforts and policies invested in POPs control and management, since most data were based on individual research results of academic groups in which POPs could not be systematically monitored in terms of time and space. Recently, we have collected monitoring data long enough in time (over 10 years) and wide enough in space (covering various land-use patterns and the Korean peninsula), which were produced at national monitoring stations under the governmental programs. This study aimed to elucidate the temporal trends of POPs emissions, concentrations in multiple compartments (air, water, soil, sediment, organisms, and marine products), and human exposure. The chronological data available for all the subjects investigated were present only for PCDDs/DFs and coPCBs. Their emission reduction with half-lives of ~2 years was followed by contemporaneous decrease of contamination levels in inland compartments, while a considerably slow or slight reduction occurred in human exposure and its related compartments (fishes and shellfishes as foodstuffs consumed, and marine compartments). The findings prove that a lag-time is present for the efforts of emission reduction to be so much effective as to be reflected directly in human exposure, and such a lag-time can be related with the fates connecting inland and marine environments. PCBs showed faster reduction in human exposure than dioxin-like compounds. As for other POPs, chronological trends and half-lives could not be determined owing to low detection frequencies of PCBs and OCPs in environmental compartments, the absence of monitoring data for OCPs in human exposure, and data limitation for emerging POPs present in recent a few years. Monitoring strategies are also recommended based on this meta-analysis.