Science / Medicine : Pine Needles Used in Tests

A team of scientists at the University of Stockholm said last week that they have discovered that pine needles may be a valuable tool in measuring certain pollutants, including the insecticide DDT and polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs. In a study published in the journal Nature, the Swedish researchers said pollutants like DDT that tend to accumulate in the fatty tissues of animals are also concentrated in the waxy coverings of pine needles. What makes pine needles especially attractive for monitoring atmospheric pollution in the Northern Hemisphere is the “widespread distribution of the pine” across the region, researchers said.

In addition, the scientists said the relatively long life of the pine “potentially permits sampling from the same individual (tree) over periods as long as 100 years.” The Stockholm team also reported that by using the new technique, they turned up evidence of the continued use of DDT in East Germany. The researchers found that pine needles collected from southwestern Poland, near the German border in 1985 and 1986, had six to eight times as much DDT as needles collected from other European sites. DDT has been restricted or banned in most of the United States and Europe since the 1970s.