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Atmospheric monitoring of organochlorine pesticides across some West African countries

Environmental Science and Pollution Research volume 25, pages 31828–31835 (2018)Cite this article

Abstract

Most African countries have ratified the Stockholm Convention on persistent organic pollutants (POPs) and are expected to reduce emissions of POPs such as organochlorine pesticides (OCPs) to the atmosphere. Emerging evidence, however, suggests that there are contemporary sources of OCPs in African countries despite the global ban on these products. This study investigated the atmospheric contamination from OCPs in four West African countries—Togo, Benin, Nigeria, and Cameroon—to ascertain the emission levels of OCPs and the characteristic signatures of contamination. Polyurethane foam (PUF) disk passive air samplers (PAS) were deployed in each country for ca. 55 days in 2012 and analyzed for 25 OCPs. Hexachlorocyclohexanes (HCHs) and DDTs constituted the highest burden of atmospheric OCPs in the target countries, at average concentrations of 441 pg m−3 (range 23–2718) and 403 pg m−3 (range 91–1880), respectively. Mirex had the lowest concentration, ranged between 0.1 and 3.3 pg m−3. The concentration of OCPs in rainy season was higher than in dry season in Cameroon, and presupposed inputs from agriculture during the rainy season. The concentrations of ∑25 OCPs in each country were in the following order: Cameroon > Nigeria > Benin > Togo. There was significant evidence, based on chemical signatures of the contamination that DDT, aldrin, chlordane, and endosulfan were recently applied at certain sites in the respective countries.

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Acknowledgments

We are very much grateful to all the people that helped us with air sampling in Togo, Benin, Nigeria, and Cameroon. This study was partly supported by the “Leadership Program in Sustainable Living with Environmental Risk” with the aid of the Strategic Funds for the Promotion of Science and Technology from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, Japan, and by internal research funds of Yokohama National University and the National Institute for Agro-Environmental Sciences.

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Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Environment and Information Sciences, Yokohama National University, 79-7 Tokiwadai, Hodogaya-ku, Yokohama, 240-8501, Japan

    Nahomi Isogai & Shigeki Masunaga

  2. Department of Environmental Science, College of Science, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, Ghana

    Jonathan N. Hogarh

  3. National Institute for Agro-Environmental Sciences, 3-1-3 Kannondai, Tsukuba, 305-8604, Japan

    Nobuyasu Seike & Yuso Kobara

  4. Environmental Laboratories Limited, P. O. Box 15104, Ikeja G.P.O., Lagos, Nigeria

    Femi Oyediran

  5. Department of Chemistry, School of Science, Tokai University, Hiratsuka, 259-1211, Japan

    Mengnjo J. Wirmvem

  6. Department of Environmental Science, Faculty of Science, University of Buea, P. O. Box 63, Buea, Cameroon

    Samuel N. Ayonghe

  7. Department of Biological, Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences, School of Public Health, University of Ghana, Legon, Ghana

    Julius Fobil

Authors
  1. Nahomi Isogai
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  2. Jonathan N. Hogarh
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  3. Nobuyasu Seike
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  4. Yuso Kobara
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  5. Femi Oyediran
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  6. Mengnjo J. Wirmvem
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  7. Samuel N. Ayonghe
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  8. Julius Fobil
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  9. Shigeki Masunaga
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Correspondence to Jonathan N. Hogarh.

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Editorial Responsible: Constantini Samara

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Isogai, N., Hogarh, J.N., Seike, N. et al. Atmospheric monitoring of organochlorine pesticides across some West African countries. Environ Sci Pollut Res 25, 31828–31835 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-016-7284-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-016-7284-y

Keywords

  • Persistent organic pollutants (POPs)
  • Organochlorine pesticides (OCPs)
  • Passive air sampling
  • West Africa