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Ambient air concentrations of PCDD/Fs, coplanar PCBs, PBDD/Fs, and PBDEs and their impacts on vegetation and soil
Kuo, Y.-C.; Chen, Y.-C.; Lin, M.-Y.; Young, L.-H.; Hsu, H.-T.; Liou, S.-H.; Wu, T.-N.; Wang, L.-C. & Tsai, P.-J.
Abstract
The impact of persistent organic pollutant (POP)
concentration in ambient air on vegetation and soil is
investigated in the present study. Ambient air, vegetation,
and soil samples were collected from the vicinity of an
industrial complex. For each collected sample, the polychlorinated
dibenzo-p-dioxins/dibenzofurans (PCDD/Fs),
coplanar polychlorinated biphenyls (coplanar PCBs), brominated
dibenzo-p-dioxins/dibenzofurans (PBDD/Fs), and
polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) concentrations
were analyzed. Principal component analysis (PCA) was
adopted to explore the relationships between the concentration
of each POP type in ambient air with those in soil and
vegetation. Results show that particle-phase PCDD/Fs,
PBDD/Fs, and PBDEs, respectively, account for 60.6, 98.3,
and 75.7 % of the total concentration in the air, which are
much higher than that of coplanar PCB (5.2 %). Results
obtained by PCA suggest that PCDD/Fs in vegetation are
contributed by atmospheric gas-phase PCDD/Fs, whereas in
soil they are contributed by particle-phase PCDD/Fs.
Coplanar PCBs concentrations in both vegetation and soil
are contributed by atmospheric gas-phase coplanar PCBs.
PBDD/Fs concentrations are both contributed by particle
phase. PBDEs in vegetation are contributed by both gas- and
particle-phase PBDEs, while soil PBDEs are contributed
mainly by the particle phase. In confirmation of these
results, the researchers found that the above results are
consistent with those obtained from theoretical calculations
and previous studies. Therefore, it is concluded that the
results obtained from the present study would provide useful
information for assessing the fate of ambient air POP
concentration.
Keywords
Ambient air; Vegetation; Soil; Persistent organic pollutants (POPs); Gas phase; Particle phase
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