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Pollution profiles and risk assessment of PBDEs and phenolic brominated flame retardants in water environments within a typical electronic waste dismantling region

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Abstract

The aim of this study was to assess the pollution profiles of various typical brominated flame retardants in water and surface sediment near a typical electronic waste dismantling region in southern China. We found that polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs), 2,4,6-tribromophenol (TBP), pentabromophenol (PeBP), tetrabromobisphenol A (TBBPA), and bisphenol A (BPA) were ubiquitous in the water and sediment samples collected in the study region. In water, Σ19PBDEs (sum of all 20 PBDE congeners studied except BDE-209, which was below the detection limit) levels ranged from 0.31 to 8.9 × 102 ng L−1. TBP, PeBP, TBBPA, and BPA concentrations in the water samples ranged from not being detectable (nd—under the detection limit) to 3.2 × 102 (TBP), from nd to 37 (PeBP), from nd to 9.2 × 102 (TBBPA) and from nd–8.6 × 102 ng L−1 (BPA). In sediment, Σ19PBDEs ranged from nd to 5.6 × 103 ng g−1, while BDE-209 was the predominant congener, with a range of nd to 3.5 × 103 ng g−1. Tri- to hepta-BDE concentrations were significantly (p < 0.01) correlated with each other, except for BDE-71 and BDE-183, and octa- to nona-BDEs concentrations were significantly (p < 0.05) correlated with each other, except for BDE-208. BDE-209 was not significantly correlated with tri- to nona-BDEs. Risk assessments indicated that the water and sediment across the sampling sites posed no estrogenic risk. However, different eco-toxicity risk degrees at three trophic levels did exist at most sampling sites.

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Acknowledgments

This is contribution No. 1971 from GIGCAS. The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support from NSFC (41373103 and U1201234) and Earmarked Fund of SKLOG (SKLOG2011A02). The authors also express their thanks to Yong Huang for his help in collecting samples.

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Correspondence to Guiying Li.

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Xiong, J., An, T., Zhang, C. et al. Pollution profiles and risk assessment of PBDEs and phenolic brominated flame retardants in water environments within a typical electronic waste dismantling region. Environ Geochem Health 37, 457–473 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10653-014-9658-8

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