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 3130 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 (26.8-3130 pg g^-1 dw) than earlier baselines (11.6-2090 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.