PCBs and selected organochlorine compounds in Italian mountain air: the influence of altitude and forest ecosystem type.

Passive air samplers (polyurethane foam disks) were deployed on an altitudinal transect in the rural Italian Alps to investigate the potential influence of forest cover on air concentrations. Samplers were exposed overtwo periods, each of several weeks, either in clearings or in forests. In the first period, there was high leaf coverage (high leaf area index, LAI); in the second, the LAI was low after the autumnal leaf fall.