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Hazardous substances in indoor dust emitted from waste TV recycling facility

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Abstract

Various hazardous substances contained in waste TV sets might be released into environment via dust during recycling activities. Two brominated flame retardants (BFRs), polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs), and tetrabromobisphenol A (TBBPA), and five kinds of heavy metals (Cu, Pb, Cd, Cr, and Ni) were detected in indoor dust collected from two workshops (TV dismantling workshop and subsequent recycling workshop). PBDEs concentrations in dust from waste wires recycling line (722,000 ng/g) were the highest among the studied sites, followed by those in manual dismantling–sorting line (117,000 ng/g), whereas TBBPA concentrations were the highest in manual dismantling–sorting line (557 ng/g) and printed circuit board (PCB) recycling line (428 ng/g). For heavy metals, Cu and Pb were the most enriched metals in all dust samples. The highest concentration of Pb (22,900 mg/kg) was found in TV dismantling workshop-floor dust. Meanwhile, Cu was the predominant metal in dust from the PCB recycling line, especially in dust collected from electrostatic separation area (42,700 mg/kg). Occupational exposure assessment results showed that workers were the most exposed to BDE-209 among the four PBDE congeners (BDE-47, BDE-99, BDE-153, and BDE-209) in both workshops. The hazard quotient (HQ) indicated that noncancerous effects were unlikely for both BFRs and heavy metals (HQ < 1), and carcinogenic risks for Cd, Cr, and Ni (risk < 10−6) on workers in two workshops were relatively low.

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Acknowledgments

This work was financially supported by the National Environmental Protection Public Welfare Science and Technology Research Program of China (201309047), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (40901148, 21307030), Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (WB1114060), and China Postdoctoral Science Special Foundation (2012T50402). We also appreciate the anonymous referees for their helpful comments on this paper.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Environmental Protection Key Laboratory of Environmental Risk Assessment and Control on Chemical Process, East China University of Science and Technology, Shanghai, 200237, People’s Republic of China

    Jingjing Deng, Jie Guo, Xiaoyu Zhou, Peng Zhou, Xiaoxu Fu, Wei Zhang & Kuangfei Lin

  2. Shanghai Key Laboratory of Functional Materials Chemistry, East China University of Science and Technology, Shanghai, 200237, People’s Republic of China

    Kuangfei Lin

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  1. Jingjing Deng
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  2. Jie Guo
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  3. Xiaoyu Zhou
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Correspondence to Kuangfei Lin.

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Deng, J., Guo, J., Zhou, X. et al. Hazardous substances in indoor dust emitted from waste TV recycling facility. Environ Sci Pollut Res 21, 7656–7667 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-014-2662-9

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