PT05 Atmospheric Transport and Fate
Exhibit Hall
8:00 AM - Tuesday
(PT075) Measurements of Polybrominated Diphenyl Ethers (PBDEs) in the air and water of NY/NJ Harbor Estuary.
Zarnadze, Archil1, Totten, Lisa1, Eisenreich, Steven1, 1 Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ, USA
ABSTRACT- The objective of the presentation is to give a preliminary assessment of the fate of 7 important PBDE congeners in the air and water of the NY/NJ Harbor Estuary. Most of the data is based on the quantification of archived samples taken as part of the New Jersey Atmospheric Deposition Network (NJADN). Samples were analyzed for PBDEs using Gas Chromatography/Mass Spectrometry (GC/MS) in negative chemical ionization (NCI) mode. There is no seasonal trend in aerosol-phase concentrations of PBDEs. In contrast, concentrations of most PBDEs in the gas phase increase during summer and decrease in winter. This type of behavior is typically exhibited by banned chemicals such as DDT and PCBs, which enter the atmosphere through passive volatilization from historically contaminated media such as soil or water. Since PBDEs are currently in use, it may suggest that PBDEs enter the atmosphere primarily via volatilization from PBDE-containing products such as foam and textiles, and that industrial releases of PBDEs are less important. Gas-phase PCB concentrations in the same samples are mostly higher than PBDE concentrations. For example, in Jersey City, NJ, SPBDEs (gas+particle) average about 22 pg/m3, whereas SPCBs average about 1200 pg/m3. However, the PBDE levels in NJADN atmospheric samples are as much as four times higher than those measured at remote sites around the Great Lakes. This suggests that PBDEs may be significant and worrisome contaminants in the NY/NJ Harbor Estuary.
Key words: New Jersey, PBDE, deposition, Atmosphere