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Perfluorinated compounds and organochlorine pesticides in soils around Huaihe River: a heavily contaminated watershed in Central China

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Abstract

Perfluorinated compounds (PFCs) and organochlorine pesticides (OCPs) were analyzed in surface soils along the Huaihe River. Sixteen target PFCs and nine OCPs were quantified in soils from a region of intensive industrial and agricultural development. Concentrations of PFCs and OCPs ranged from less than the limit of detection (LOD) to 1.22 ng/g and 3.63 to 227 ng/g, respectively. Contamination by OCPs was more serious than that of PFCs, which was consistent with the fact that OCPs were widely used in agriculture of the district while there was no known production or application of PFCs in the study area. The predominant PFCs in soils were PFOA and PFOS with concentrations that ranged from <LOD to 0.20 ng/g and <LOD to 0.21 ng/g, respectively. Among the three groups of OCPs, average concentrations of HCHs, DDTs, and HCB were 4.7, 23.7, and 1.4 ng/g, respectively. Results of principal component analysis revealed relatively weak associations between concentrations of PFCs and those of OCPs, while concentrations of OCPs exhibited similar patterns of distributions. Among the mainstream and five tributaries, the highest concentrations of PFCs were observed along the Pihe River, while the highest concentrations of OCPs occurred along the Xifeihe River. In general, concentrations of PFCs were evenly distributed, while those of OCPs exhibited relatively greater spatial differences.

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Acknowledgments

This study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China under grant nos. 41171394 and 41071355, and the International Scientific Cooperation Program with grant no. 2012DFA91150. Portions of the research were supported by a Discovery Grant from the National Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada (project no. 326415–07) and a grant from the Western Economic Diversification Canada (project nos. 6971 and 6807). Finally, we thank the editors and reviewers for their valuable comments and suggestions.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Lab of Urban and Regional Ecology, Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100085, People’s Republic of China

    Jing Meng, Tieyu Wang, Pei Wang & Yonglong Lu

  2. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, People’s Republic of China

    Jing Meng & Pei Wang

  3. Toxicology Centre and Department of Veterinary Biomedical Sciences, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, SK, Canada

    John P. Giesy

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  1. Jing Meng
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  2. Tieyu Wang
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  3. Pei Wang
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  4. John P. Giesy
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  5. Yonglong Lu
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Correspondence to Tieyu Wang.

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Responsible editor: Leif Kronberg

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Meng, J., Wang, T., Wang, P. et al. Perfluorinated compounds and organochlorine pesticides in soils around Huaihe River: a heavily contaminated watershed in Central China. Environ Sci Pollut Res 20, 3965–3974 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-012-1338-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-012-1338-6

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