LONDON: The world's most accurate and precise reconstruction of lead pollution over the Earth's southernmost continent has confirmed that dangerous industrial pollution reached the South Pole over two decades before man set foot on it.

Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen became the first man to reach the South Pole in December of 1911.

More than 100 years later, an international team of scientists led by Joe McConnell of Nevada's Desert Research Institute (DRI) and experts from the British Antarctic Survey have proven that air pollution from industrial activities arrived to the South Pole 22 years before.

Measurements indicate that approximately 660 tonnes (1.5 million pounds) of industrial lead have been deposited on the snow-covered surface of Antarctic during the past 130 years.

Using data from 16 ice cores collected from widely spaced locations around the Antarctic continent spanning a 410-year period from 1600 to 2010 AD, McConnell said "Our new record shows the dramatic impact of industrial activities such as smelting, mining and fossil fuel burning on even the most remote parts of the world".

"It is very clear that industrial lead contamination was pervasive throughout Antarctica by the late 19th century, more than two decades before the first explorers made it to the South Pole," he added.

"The idea that Amundsen and Scott were traveling over snow that clearly was contaminated by lead from smelting and mining in Australia, and that lead pollution at that time was nearly as high as any time ever since, is surprising to say the least".

"Lead is a toxic heavy metal with strong potential to harm ecosystems," said co-author Paul Vallelonga of the University of Copenhagen. "While concentrations measured in Antarctic ice cores are very low, the records show that atmospheric concentrations and deposition rates increased approximately six-fold in the late 1880's, coincident with the start of mining at Broken Hill in southern Australia and smelting at nearby Port Pirie".

Data from the new ice core array illustrates that Antarctic lead concentrations reached a peak in 1900 and remained high until the late 1920's, with brief declines during the Great Depression and the end of World War II. Concentrations then increased rapidly until 1975 and remained elevated until the 1990's.

Concentrations across the Antarctic continent have since declined, but still are about four-fold higher than before industrialization, despite the phase out of leaded gasoline and other mitigation efforts in many countries in the southern hemisphere.