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Aquatic bioaccumulation and trophic transfer of tetrabromobisphenol-A flame retardant introduced from a typical e-waste recycling site

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Abstract

While the flame retardant chemical, tetrabromobisphenol-A (TBBP-A), has been frequently detected in the environment, knowledge regarding its species-specific bioaccumulation and trophic transfer is limited, especially in the highly contaminated sites. In this study, the components of an aquatic food web, including two invertebrates, two prey fish, and one predator fish, collected from a natural pond at an electronic waste (e-waste) recycling site in South China were analyzed for TBBP-A, using liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry. The aquatic species had TBBP-A concentrations ranging from 350 to 1970 pg/g wet weight, with higher concentrations in the invertebrates relative to the fish species. Field-determined bioaccumulation factors of TBBP-A in the two aquatic invertebrates were nearly or greater than 5000, suggesting that TBBP-A is highly bioaccumulative in the two species. The lipid-normalized concentrations of TBBP-A in the aquatic species were negatively correlated with the trophic levels determined from stable nitrogen isotope (δ15N) (r = −0.82, p = 0.09), indicating that this compound experienced trophic dilution in the current food web.

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Acknowledgments

This work was financially supported by the National Basic Research Program of China (Project 2015CB453102), the Strategic Priority Research Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (Project XDB14020301), and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grants 41373105 and 41230639). This is contribution No. IS-2241 from GIGCAS.

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Correspondence to Jiang-Ping Wu.

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Responsible editor: Roland Kallenborn

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Tao, L., Wu, JP., Zhi, H. et al. Aquatic bioaccumulation and trophic transfer of tetrabromobisphenol-A flame retardant introduced from a typical e-waste recycling site. Environ Sci Pollut Res 23, 14663–14670 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-016-6940-6

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