Bermuda Biological Station for Research (BBSR).

Professor Thomas Church of the College of Marine Sciences at the University of Delaware says contaminants are arriving in Bermuda from natural and man-made sources that surround the North Atlantic.

Professor Church's work with Bermuda goes back 20 years and his studies helped identify the long-range transport of acid rain which was being caused by the burning of coal for power and fuel for motor vehicles in North America and Europe.

Other sources of contaminants which affect Bermuda's air, soil and water are as far-reaching as forest fires in Central America, desert dust from the Sahara and acids and metals from gasoline and incineration of municipal wastes.

For the past 20 years, Professor Church and his colleagues at BBSR have been gathering air samples at the Tudor Hill atmospheric tower and seawater at the Bermuda Atlantic Time Series (BATS) Program, 80 kilometres southeast of the Island.

These measurements have produced a long-term record of contaminants in part to help determine the effectiveness of air pollution controls in the US and Europe.

Professor Church's lecture "How Pollutants from Around the World Affect Bermuda's Air and Water'' is at 6.30 p.m. tomorrow at BBSR.

Tickets are $10, available on the door although donors may enter for free.

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