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Ambient air concentrations of PCDD/Fs, coplanar PCBs, PBDD/Fs, and PBDEs and their impacts on vegetation and soil

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Abstract

The impact of persistent organic pollutant (POP) concentration in ambient air on vegetation and soil is investigated in the present study. Ambient air, vegetation, and soil samples were collected from the vicinity of an industrial complex. For each collected sample, the polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins/dibenzofurans (PCDD/Fs), coplanar polychlorinated biphenyls (coplanar PCBs), brominated dibenzo-p-dioxins/dibenzofurans (PBDD/Fs), and polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) concentrations were analyzed. Principal component analysis (PCA) was adopted to explore the relationships between the concentration of each POP type in ambient air with those in soil and vegetation. Results show that particle-phase PCDD/Fs, PBDD/Fs, and PBDEs, respectively, account for 60.6, 98.3, and 75.7 % of the total concentration in the air, which are much higher than that of coplanar PCB (5.2 %). Results obtained by PCA suggest that PCDD/Fs in vegetation are contributed by atmospheric gas-phase PCDD/Fs, whereas in soil they are contributed by particle-phase PCDD/Fs. Coplanar PCBs concentrations in both vegetation and soil are contributed by atmospheric gas-phase coplanar PCBs. PBDD/Fs concentrations are both contributed by particle phase. PBDEs in vegetation are contributed by both gas- and particle-phase PBDEs, while soil PBDEs are contributed mainly by the particle phase. In confirmation of these results, the researchers found that the above results are consistent with those obtained from theoretical calculations and previous studies. Therefore, it is concluded that the results obtained from the present study would provide useful information for assessing the fate of ambient air POP concentration.

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Acknowledgments

The contribution of the co-author, L.-C. Wang, is equally important as the corresponding author in this research work.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Environmental and Occupational Health, Medical College, National Cheng Kung University, 138 Sheng-Li Road, Tainan, 704, Taiwan

    Y.-C. Kuo, M.-Y. Lin & P.-J. Tsai

  2. Division of Environmental Health and Occupational Medicine, National Health Research Institutes, 35 Keyan Road, Zhunan Town, 350, Miaoli County, Taiwan

    S.-H. Liou

  3. National Environmental Health Research Center, National Health Research Institutes, 35 Keyan Road, Zhunan Town, 350, Miaoli County, Taiwan

    Y.-C. Chen

  4. Department of Occupational Safety and Health, College of Public Health, China Medical University and Hospital, 91 Hsueh-Shih Road, Taichung, 40402, Taiwan

    L.-H. Young, T.-N. Wu & P.-J. Tsai

  5. Department of Health Risk Management, College of Public Health, China Medical University and Hospital, 91 Hsueh-Shih Road, Taichung, 40402, Taiwan

    H.-T. Hsu

  6. Super Micro Mass Research and Technology Center, Cheng Shiu University, 840 Chengching Road, Kaohsiung, 833, Taiwan

    L.-C. Wang

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  1. Y.-C. Kuo
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  9. P.-J. Tsai
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Correspondence to P.-J. Tsai.

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13762_2014_692_MOESM1_ESM.docx

Detailed QA/QC information, calculation of the soil/air fugacity quotients (f S/f A) of individual PCB congeners, and the contributions of gas- and particle-phase deposition of PBDEs to vegetation are available in Supplementary Material (DOCX 58 kb)

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Kuo, YC., Chen, YC., Lin, MY. et al. Ambient air concentrations of PCDD/Fs, coplanar PCBs, PBDD/Fs, and PBDEs and their impacts on vegetation and soil. Int. J. Environ. Sci. Technol. 12, 2997–3008 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13762-014-0692-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13762-014-0692-y

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