Decadal accumulation of display materials in pristine soils of the Three Poles

Identifying synthetic chemicals with long-range transport potential is central to chemical screening under the Stockholm Convention. The rapid global expansion of consumer electronics has spurred massive manufacturing of liquid crystal monomers and organic light-emitting materials. Although computational models predict persistent and semi-volatile behaviors for these compounds, field evidence documenting their multi-year presence in remote cryospheric sinks remains absent. Here we show that modern display materials have systematically infiltrated surface soils across Earth’s three polar regions—the Qinghai–Xizang Plateau, the Arctic, and the Antarctic. Across 55 soils collected between 2010 and 2022, we detected 42 target analogs at cumulative concentrations up to 3,130 pg g -1 dry weight (dw), reaching levels comparable to legacy persistent organic pollutants. Thirty-three analogs exhibited upward calculated annualized growth, yielding higher total concentrations in recent campaigns (26.8–3,130 pg g -1 dw) than earlier baselines (11.6–2,090 pg g -1 dw), predominantly driven by persistent fluorinated and cyano-substituted congeners. Spatial distributions reflect compound-specific air–soil partitioning may relate to volatility and soil organic carbon, while screening assessments reveal ecological risk quotients up to two orders of magnitude higher on the Qinghai–Xizang Plateau than in polar sites. These empirical findings indicate the environmental persistence and long-range transport of contemporary display chemicals, demonstrating a critical need to evaluate high-production optoelectronic materials under international regulatory frameworks.