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Occurrence and health risk assessment of organotins in waterworks and the source water of the Three Gorges Reservoir Region, China

Environmental Science and Pollution Research volume 25, pages 15019–15028 (2018)Cite this article

Abstract

The occurrence and health risks of organotins (OTs) in the waterworks and source water in the Three Gorges Reservoir Region (TGRR), China were assessed in this study. Water samples were collected at four waterworks (A, B, C, and D) in March and July 2012 to analyze butyltins (BTs) and phenyltins (PTs) using a gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) system. Our results showed that both the waterworks and their nearby water sources were polluted by OTs, with PTs being the most dominant species. Monobutyltin (MBT), monophenyltin (MPT), diphenyltin (DPT), and triphenyltin (TPT) were detected in most of the analyzed water samples. The highest concentrations of OTs in influents, effluents, and source water in March were 52.81, 17.93, and 55.32 ng Sn L−1, respectively. Furthermore, significant seasonal changes in OTs pollution were observed in all samples, showing pollution worse in spring compared with summer. The removal of OTs by the conventional treatment processes was not stable among the waterworks. The removal efficiency of OTs in July reached 100% at plant B, while that at plant C was only 38.8%. The source water and influents shared similar composition profiles, concentrations, and seasonal change of OTs, which indicated that OTs in the waterworks were derived from the source water. A health risk assessment indicated that the presence of OTs in the waterworks would not pose a significant health risk to the population, yet their presence should not be ignored.

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Acknowledgments

We are grateful to Dr. Fen Jin from Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences for help in OTs analysis.

Funding

This study was financially supported by the Natural Science Foundation Project of CQ CSTC (cstc2017jcyjAX0025, cstc2015jcyjA1271), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (21107147), and Research Project of Graduate Students in Chongqing (2017, CYS17004).

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Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of the Three Gorges Reservoir Region’s Eco-Environment, Ministry of Education, Chongqing University, Chongqing, 400045, China

    Ting Deng, Lei Wu, Jun-Min Gao, Bin Zhou, Ya-Li Zhang, Wen-Nan Wu, Zhuo-Heng Tang & Wen-Chao Jiang

  2. National Centre for International Research of Low-carbon and Green Buildings, Chongqing University, Chongqing, 400045, China

    Jun-Min Gao

  3. Department of Environmental Sciences, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ, 08901-8551, USA

    Wei-Lin Huang

Authors
  1. Ting Deng
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  2. Lei Wu
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  3. Jun-Min Gao
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  4. Bin Zhou
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  5. Ya-Li Zhang
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  6. Wen-Nan Wu
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  7. Zhuo-Heng Tang
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  8. Wen-Chao Jiang
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Correspondence to Jun-Min Gao or Wei-Lin Huang.

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Responsible editor: Philippe Garrigues

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Deng, T., Wu, L., Gao, JM. et al. Occurrence and health risk assessment of organotins in waterworks and the source water of the Three Gorges Reservoir Region, China. Environ Sci Pollut Res 25, 15019–15028 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-018-1704-0

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Keywords

  • Organotins
  • Three Gorges Reservoir Region
  • Waterworks
  • Source water
  • Health risk assessment