HP9 Environmental Assessment, Environmental Toxicology
D137-140
1:20 PM - 5:20 PM, Thursday
() Dioxins, furans, PCBs and brominated diphenyl ethers in ambient air from urban California locations.
Mongar, Kevin1, Hamilton, M. Coreen 2, 1 California Air Resources Board, Sacramento, California, USA2 Axys Analytical Services Ltd., Sidney, British Columbia, Canada
ABSTRACT- The California Air Resources Board (ARB) has established an air monitoring program to measure ambient concentrations of polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins (PCDDs), polychlorinated dibenzofurans (PCDFs), dioxin-like polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs). The California Ambient Dioxin Air Monitoring Program (CADAMP) is being conducted in two large urban regions of the state. Ambient measurements of PCDDs, PCDFs, PCBs, and PBDEs will be evaluated for the potential health impacts from exposure to the target compounds, the possible need for additional risk management strategies, and as the basis for identifying areas where additional study may be required. CADAMP is modeled, in part, after USEPA's National Dioxin Air Monitoring Network (NDAMN), using similar sampling and analytical protocols. CADAMP, however, has an urban focus while the NDAMN program focuses in rural areas to study pathways by which dioxins enter the food chain. Unique to CADAMP is the inclusion of ambient sampling for PBDEs, contaminants of emerging public concern. This paper will outline the protocols for collection of medium volume samples (20 days per sample at 0.24 cubic meters per minute), including field QA/QC measures, and will describe the procedures used to obtain reliable quantitative results with a high degree of sensitivity for the three categories of contaminants using a single ambient air sample. The focus of this paper will be the presentation of CADAMP results from monitoring conducted during 2002 and 2003. The data will be discussed in terms of overall concentrations as well as temporal, seasonal and geographical trends.
Key words: PCBs, Dioxins, brominated diphenyl ethers, air