Widespread air pollution from early 20th Century copper works found in Arctic ice

Researchers traced heavy-metal pollution preserved in Arctic ice to copper production at Montana’s Anaconda mine, finding that arsenic and other toxins rose about 15-fold between 1886 and 1918. The Desert Research Institute team analysed 10 ice cores from Greenland, the Russian Arctic and northern Canada. Winds carried the pollutants across the continent, exposing more than half of Americans to years of pollution linked to health risks.