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Characterization and risk assessment of polychlorinated biphenyls in soils and rice tissues in a suburban paddy field of the Pearl River Delta, South China

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Abstract

We investigated the concentration and composition of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in paddy soils and rice tissues and the associated potential health risks in the urban agricultural areas of the Pearl River Delta (PRD), South China. The results indicated that highly chlorinated PCBs were more prominent in soil when the concentrations of low-molecular-weight PCBs were relatively high in rice plants. There was a trend of decreasing PCB concentrations with soil depth and a significant correlation between PCBs and the total organic carbon or total nitrogen concentration in section soils. The PCB concentrations followed the order of root > leaf > stem > grain. Although the dioxin toxicity equivalency values and estimated daily intake levels (based direct and indirect consumption) were lower than in other seriously contaminated regions, there is still a need to monitor PCB pollution in urban agriculture because of the PCB emissions from capacitor storage following the rapid urbanization experienced in the PRD.

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Acknowledgments

This study was supported by the Joint Fund of the National Natural Science Foundation of China and the Research Grants Council of the Hong Kong SAR Government (No. 41161160561), the Joint Fund of the National Natural Science Foundation of China and the Natural Science Foundation of Guangdong Province, China (No. U1133004), and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 21307133).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory for Yellow River and Huai River Water Environmental and Pollution Control, Ministry of Education, Henan Key Laboratory for Environmental Pollution Control, School of Environment, Henan Normal University, Xinxiang, 453007, China

    Qilu Li

  2. Key Laboratory of Industrial Ecology and Environmental Engineering (MOE), School of Environmental Science and Technology, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian, 116024, China

    Yan Wang

  3. State Key Laboratory of Organic Geochemistry, Guangzhou Institute of Geochemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou, 510640, China

    Chunling Luo, Jun Li & Gan Zhang

Authors
  1. Qilu Li
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  2. Yan Wang
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  3. Chunling Luo
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  4. Jun Li
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  5. Gan Zhang
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Correspondence to Chunling Luo.

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Responsible editor: Zhihong Xu

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Li, Q., Wang, Y., Luo, C. et al. Characterization and risk assessment of polychlorinated biphenyls in soils and rice tissues in a suburban paddy field of the Pearl River Delta, South China. Environ Sci Pollut Res 22, 11626–11633 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-015-4321-1

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