Abstract
The present study aimed to investigate the persistence and existence of chemical warfare agents (CWAs) and related dissipation products in the environment of Sardasht area, Iran. Three types of environmental samples including water, soil, and native local plant materials were collected and analyzed. Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry in the electron impact ionization mode has been developed for the separation, screening, identification, and qualification of chemicals after the sample preparation methods. The initial results revealed that no trace of related compounds or CWAs was detected in the soil and water samples. However, trace amounts of some degradation products of blistering agents like mustard gas (HD) and lewisite were found in a tree wood from a house subjected to chemical attack as well as in barley samples (a mixture of leaves and root) collected from an agricultural field in the area indicating chronic low exposure to the environment and people. In order to validate the applied extraction procedures, ethylene glycol was spiked to some of the samples including groundwater, surface soil, grape, and alfalfa plants. All the recoveries were in the range of 83.6–107.4% with the relative standard deviations varying from 4.9% to 12.4% (n = 3) successfully.
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Data Availability
The datasets generated and/or analyzed during the current study are not publicly available because these data are the results of the authors’ efforts and studies but are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
Abbreviations
- CWAs:
-
Chemical warfare agents
- EM:
-
Electron impact
- EG:
-
Ethylene glycol
- GC-MS:
-
Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry
- HD:
-
Mustard gas
- LLE:
-
Liquid–liquid extraction
- OPCW:
-
Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons
- TDG:
-
Thiodiglycol
- TGM:
-
Thioglycol acid methyl ester
- TMCS:
-
Trimethyl chlorosilane
- WWI:
-
World War I
- WWII:
-
World War II
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Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank the University of Tabriz for supporting of this research and the Central Laboratory of University of Zanjan for extraction and analysis of the samples.
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Abdorreza Vaezihir: Project administration and supervision, conceiving the original idea, methodology, review and editing of the manuscript
Asra Pirkhezranian: Data curation, fieldworks, investigation, conceptualization
Negar Sehati: Lab analysis and interpretation of data, writing of original draft, validation, methodology
Mohammad Reza Hosseinzadeh: Administration and supervision, investigation
Seyed Yahya Salehi-Lisar: Conceiving the original idea, fieldworks, review and editing of the manuscript
Hans Sanderson: Conceiving the original idea, methodology, review and editing of the manuscript
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Vaezihir, A., Pirkhezranian, A., Sehati, N. et al. Investigation of long-term hazards of chemical weapon agents in the environment of Sardasht area, Iran. Environ Sci Pollut Res 29, 498–508 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-021-15593-9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-021-15593-9