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Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons and Phthalic Acid Esters in Vegetables from Nine Farms of the Pearl River Delta, South China

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Abstract

This study investigated the occurrence of 16 polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and 6 phthalic acid esters (PAEs) in 11 vegetable species collected from nine farms of the Pearl River Delta, South China. Twelve PAH compounds and all PAE compounds were detected by gas chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry (GC-MS) in vegetables. The total concentrations of PAHs (ΣPAHs) and PAEs (ΣPAEs) ranged from 7.0 to 5353 μg kg−1 dry weight (d.w.), with a mean value of 1173 μg kg−1 d.w., and from 0.073 to 11.2 mg kg−1 d.w., with a mean value of 3.2 mg kg−1 (d.w.), respectively. The highest levels of ΣPAHs and ΣPAEs were found in Brassica juncea and Brassica parachinensis, respectively. For the same vegetable, the bioconcentration factors (BCFs; the ratio of contaminant concentration in plant tissue to the soil concentration) of PAHs (between 0.0037 and 5.5) are generally higher than those of PAEs (between <0.0001 and 0.61). It was also noted that there were great variations of organic contaminant levels, BCFs, and benzo[a]pyrene equivalent concentrations, which depend on the various contaminants, sampling locations, and vegetable species. The occurrences of PAHs and PAEs in this study are compared with those in other studies and their sources are discussed.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 40773062, 30671208, 30600372, and 30471007), Key Scientific Research Project of the Ministry of Education of China (No. 02112), the Natural Science Foundation of Guangdong Province (Nos. 021011, 036716, 043005970, and 07117909), and projects of the Department of Science & Technology of Guangdong (Nos. 01C21202, 03A20504, and 03C34505, 06B20601003), and the Research Foundation of the State Key Laboratory of Organic Geochemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences. Thanks are also due to the personnel for supplying vegetable samples.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Environmental Engineering, Jinan University, Guangzhou, 510632, China

    Ce-Hui Mo

  2. College of Resources and Environment, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou, 510642, China

    Quan-Ying Cai, Qiao-Yun Zeng & Qi-Tang Wu

  3. Centre for Research in Ecotoxicology and Environmental Remediation, Institute of Agricultural Environmental Protection, Ministry of Agriculture, Tianjin, 300191, China

    Shi-Rong Tang

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  1. Ce-Hui Mo
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  2. Quan-Ying Cai
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Correspondence to Ce-Hui Mo.

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Mo, CH., Cai, QY., Tang, SR. et al. Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons and Phthalic Acid Esters in Vegetables from Nine Farms of the Pearl River Delta, South China. Arch Environ Contam Toxicol 56, 181–189 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00244-008-9177-7

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