On behalf of the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency, IVL SwedishEnvironmental Research Institute led in 2015 a project aiming to examine theconcentrations of persistent organic pollutants (POPs) in mosses.Samples of red-stemmed feathermoss (Pleurozium schreberi) and glittering wood moss(Hylocomium splendens) were collected at 83 rural sampling sites. Of these, 20samples were analysed for the following groups: polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons(PAHs), polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), selected organochlorine pesticides,polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs), hexabromocyclododecane (HBCD), dioxinsand furans (PCDD/PCDFs), dioxin-like PCBs and perfluorinated alkylated substances(PFAS).The sampling sites were selected to cover the whole of Sweden, in both the north-southgradient and in the east-west gradient. The sites were also chosen to represent botheventually elevated concentrations as well as low concentrations of POPs. Informationon locations of industrial activities, population density and monitoring stations fororganic substances in air and precipitation (Swedish national monitoring programme)were also used for the selection of sampling sites.Generally, the concentrations of the analysed substances were very low, often close toor below the quantification limits for the analyses.Significant correlation was found between the concentrations of PAHs, dioxin/furansand dioxin like PCBs in the mosses and the distance to the closest industry, and also tothe distance from the southernmost point in Sweden. p,p-DDE concentrations inmosses showed a correlation to the distance from the southernmost point in Sweden,with the highest concentrations in the south. No correlation was found between theconcentrations of p,p-DDE (one of the DDTs) in mosses and distance to the closestindustry.The concentrations of PAHs in mosses collected at sites located in the vicinity of threeair monitoring stations (Råö, Aspvreten and Pallas) were in agreement with theconcentrations of PAHs in air, with the highest concentrations in mosses and in airfound in the south and the lowest in the north. Comparison between the PAH profile inair and in mosses showed a higher percentage of heavier PAHs in the mosses. Thisindicates a larger proportion of particular bounded PAHs in mosses.HBCDD and PFAS were not detected in any of the analysed moss samples, which isconsistent with a similar study conducted in Norway