ScienceDaily: Persistent Organic Pollutants in Large Concentrations in Arctic Areas: Fires Spread Environmental Toxins Over the Arctic Forest fires and straw and stubble burning in North America and Eastern Europe are leading to record-high concentrations of the environmental toxin PCB over Svalbard. As a result of climate change, airborne pollution is thus becoming an increasing problem in the Arctic. For the last decades, persistent organic pollutants (POPs) have been found in large …