Estimates of the present day tropospheric fallout fluxes of Pb, Cd, Cu, Zn and Ag in the central areas of Antarctica and Greenland are calculated from the measured concentrations of these elements in the deposited snow. The fluxes obtained are higher by one to two orders of magnitude in Greenland, probably largely because of the different geographical locations and meteorological regimes of Greenland and Antarctica. The variations of these fluxes during the last century suggest that the present day enrichments of these five metals in tropospheric aerosols in remote areas are not influenced significantly by human activity, but may be for a small part for Pb and Zn in the Northern Hemisphere, and are therefore linked to natural processes.