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Levels, Distribution and Ecological Risk Assessment of PBDEs in Soils and Plants Around the Engineering Plastics Factory

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Abstract

This study systematically investigated the pollution levels and migration trends of PBDEs in soils and plants around engineering plastics factory, and identified the ecological risks of PBDEs in the environment around typical pollution sources.The results showed that 13 kinds of PBDEs were widely detected in the surrounding areas, and the concentration level was higher than the general environmental pollution level. The total PBDE concentrations (∑13PBDEs) in soils ranged from 14.6 to 278.4 ng/g dry weight (dw), and in plants ranged from 11.5 to 176 ng/g dw. Both soil and plant samples showed that BDE-209 was the most important congener, the pollution level in soil and plant was similar, and the composition of PBDEs congener was similar. In the soil column (50 cm), the radial migration of PBDEs was mainly concentrated in the 0–30 cm section. Except for BDE-66, which was mainly located in the 20–30 cm soil layer, the concentration of PBDEs was the highest in the 0–10 cm region. Furthermore, the environmental risks of PBDEs in soil and plants were evaluated by hazard quotient method, and the HQ values were all < 1, which did not exhibit any ecological risk. The evaluation results also showed that the ecological risk of PBDEs in soil was higher than that of plants, especially penta-BDE, which should be paid more attention.

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Acknowledgements

This study was supported by National R&D Project (NO. 2023YFC3706803), the Special Fund for Public Welfare Industry of National Environmental Protection (No.201009026) and Postgraduate Research & Practice Innovation Program of Jiangsu Province (KYCX23_1378).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology, Nanjing, 210044, China

    Jing Xu & Xiaoyu Cai

  2. Ministry of Ecology Environment, Nanjing Institute of Environmental Sciences, Nanjing, 210042, China

    Jing Xu, Feng Ge, Jia Yu, Juying Li, Yezhi Dou, Didi Shan, Xiaoyu Cai & Deyang Kong

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  1. Jing Xu
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  2. Feng Ge
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  3. Jia Yu
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  7. Xiaoyu Cai
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Correspondence to Deyang Kong.

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Xu, J., Ge, F., Yu, J. et al. Levels, Distribution and Ecological Risk Assessment of PBDEs in Soils and Plants Around the Engineering Plastics Factory. Bull Environ Contam Toxicol 112, 75 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00128-024-03891-0

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