Abstract
In 1997, the Polychlorinated dibenzo-para-dioxin (PCDD)/Polychlorinated dibenzofuran (PCDF) concentrations in dairy products in Germany and other European countries increased. The PCDD/PCDF source was contaminated lime used in Brazilian citrus pulp pellets. The contaminated lime was mined from an industrial dump site. However, the detailed origin of the PCDD/PCDFs in the lime was not revealed. This paper investigates the contamination origin and describes the link between lime milk from the dumpsite of a chlorine/organochlorine industry and the contaminated lime. The contaminated lime stem from mining at the corporate landfill of Solvay Indupa in Sao Paulo. The landfill was used for 40 years for deposition of production residues and closed in 1996. The factory operated/operates at least two processes with potentially high PCDD/PCDFs releases namely the oxychlorination process for production of ethylene dichloride (EDC) and the chlor-alkali process. The main landfilled waste was lime milk (1.4 million tons) from the vinyl chloride monomer production (via the acetylene process) along with residues from other processes. The PCDD/PCDF fingerprint revealed that most samples from the chemical landfill showed an EDC PCDD/PCDF pattern with a characteristic octachlorodibenzofuran dominance. The PCDD/PCDF pattern of a Rio Grande sediment samples downstream the facility showed a chlor-alkali pattern with a minor impact of the EDC pattern. The case highlights that PCDD/PCDF- and persistent organic pollutants-contaminated sites need to be identified in a comprehensive manner as required by the Stockholm Convention (article 6) and controlled for their impact on the environment and human health. Landfill mining and reuse of materials from contaminated deposits should be prohibited.
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Notes
Possibly waste EDC catalysts are deposited when they have partly lost chlorination activity reflected also in lower degree of chlorination of the PCDD/PCDF compared to the pattern they generate during their “active” time.
This indicates that the EDC and the “chlorine” pattern do not stem from the same process but were rather mixed on the landfill or during transport.
Which is currently assessed as POPs by the POPs Reviewing Committee (Stockholm Convention 2012)
Both patterns have the 1,2,3,4,7,8-HxCDF in average as the dominant congener for 2,3,7,8-HexaCDF. For PentaCDF the 1,2,3,7,8-PeCDF is in the chloralkali process higher compared to the 2,3,4,7,8-PeCDF as detected in the sediment while for the EDC pattern in average the 2,3,4,7,8-PeCDF is higher compared to the 1,2,3,7,8-PeCDF (SI Table 1).
Furthermore, the contemporary case of 12,000 tons of HCB excavated and imported to an EU country for destruction revealed that now the waste is stored in the open at the shore of the Baltic sea (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EtyDuS44B0M). This case highlights that also for the excavation of such a landfill, an environmental sound management approach need to be controlled and assured by the competent authority, and that even for an EU country having the regulatory frame in place for managing such wastes, the practical implementation can fail if competent authorities and companies fail to comply with this frame.
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Acknowledgments
The authors are indebted to Conselho Nacional de Pesquisas (CNPq), Fundação Carlos Chagas Filho de Amparo a Pesquisa (FAPERJ), and Coordenação de Apoio a Formação de Pessoal do Ministério da Educação (CAPES/MEC) for their ongoing support of the scientific activities of the Eduardo Penna Franca Radioisotopes Laboratory of the Carlos Chagas Filho Institute of Biophysics of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro.
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Responsible editor: Hongwen Sun
This article belongs to the series “Dioxin and POP Contaminated Sites” (Weber et al. 2008a, b).
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Torres, J.P.M., Leite, C., Krauss, T. et al. Landfill mining from a deposit of the chlorine/organochlorine industry as source of dioxin contamination of animal feed and assessment of the responsible processes. Environ Sci Pollut Res 20, 1958–1965 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-012-1073-z
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-012-1073-z