The Arctic is being polluted by newer, hard-to-detect chemicals that are overtaking toxins that have been in the North for years, a Canadian researcher says.

Modern-day toxins have escaped detection by environmental monitoring systems, said Scott Mabury, an environmental chemist at the University of Toronto.

Mabury's research group has already measured the presence of perflourinated chemicals — which include compounds used to repel water and oil — finding that quantities of those chemicals equal or exceed the amounts of toxins that have existed in the North for decades.

"The amount of these particular pollutants, these fluorinated pollutants that are in the Arctic and certainly high up in the food chain, was a surprise because they now rival or exceed most of the other pollutants that have been around for decades," such as DDT and PCBs, Mabury told CBC News on Monday.

Perflourinated chemicals, which are often found in stain-resistant carpeting, water-resistant clothing, electronics and industrial goods, have been linked to cancer and other problems affecting the immune system.

In general, toxins migrate to the North via the atmosphere or water currents. In 2004, governments restricted the use of organic pollutants known as the "dirty dozen" — including DDT, PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls) and dioxins — under the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants.

Mabury's research team has found perfluorinated chemicals in the Devon ice cap, as well as in the water, air and wildlife in the North, and said those pollutants should also be restricted. They tend to stay in the environment for a long time and move up the food chain, he added.

In addition to perflourinated chemicals, Maybury said he believes there are other, newer chemical compounds — also found in consumer and industrial goods — that are drifting to the Arctic but have not been detected by standard screening methods.

He said researchers will have to find newer and better ways to detect such toxins in the environment.

"There are a number of compounds used in industrial and consumer goods that haven't acquired much attention, some of which we think could be highly persistent and potentially of environmental importance."

Birgit Braune, a research scientist with Environment Canada, agreed that newer pollutants now in the North need to be restricted under international agreements.

"I definitely feel that we should pursue this and it is being pursued even as we speak, so there is action being taken," she said.

Braune added there should also be tighter controls over chemicals in consumer and industrial goods before they go to market.