RP1 Environmental Changes in Response to China's Economic Expansion
Thursday, 17 November 2005: 8:00 AM - 6:30 PM in Exhibit Hall

(BIX-1117-507825) Polybrominated Diphenyl Ethers(PBDEs) in Environment of the Pearl River Delta, South China.

Mai, Bixian¹, Chen, Shejun¹, Chen, Laiguo¹, Luo, Xiaojun¹, Sheng, Guoying¹, Fu, Jiamo¹, Zeng, Eddy. Y¹, ¹ State Key Laboratory of Organic Geochemistry, Guangzhou Institute of Geochemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China

ABSTRACT- The Pearl River Delta (PRD) of Southern China has became one of the "world's factories" for varied manufacturing industries and is subjected to a variety of suspected PBDE sources, such as electronic/electric equipment manufacturing, plastic and textile industry. Total 66 surface sediments collected from the PRD and its nearby South China Sea, two short sediment cores collected from Pearl River Estuary, and 32 air samples collected from Guangzhou were analyzed to determine the concentrations, spatial and temporal variation of 11 polybrominated diphenyl ethers,(BDEs 28, 47, 66, 100, 99, 85, 154, 153, 138, 183, and 209). The total 10PBDEs (except BDE209) and BDE 209 concentrations in surface sediments ranged from 0.04 to 94.7 ng/g dw and from 0.4 to 7340.8ng/g dw, respectively. The total 10PBDEs concentrations in most surface sediments are well within in the range of the world riverine and coastal sediments (<50ng/g), while the BDE209 concentrations in Zhujiang and Donjiang rivers were at the high end of the worldwide figures for BDE209 in sediments. Congener profiles were dominated by BDE209 followed by the congeners from the penta-BDE mixture and some octa-BDEs. The major sources of PBDEs include discharges from Guanzhou, Dongguan and Shenzhen, Differences in PBDE patterns among different locations were attributed to the decomposition of highly brominated congeners and/or redistribution between various sizes particles during atmosphere or fluvial transportation. The depth profiles of PBDEs in two short sediment cores indicated that the levels of BDE209 are rapidly increasing in the most recent layers of both two cores, coincident with the increasing of the electronic/electric manufacturing industry. The concentrations of total 10PBDEs in air samples (particle plus gas phases) collected from Guangzhou ranged from 88.8pg/m3 at a urban site to about 3672pg/m3 near an industrial area, while BDE 209 ranged from 263.8 pg/m3 to about 4200pg/m3. The PBDE congener profiles in air samples indicated that deca-BDE and penta-BDE were the main source mixtures consistent with the results from sediments. The gas-particle partitioning of PBDEs in the urban atmosphere was also discussed based on the KOA and Kp-POL model.

Key words: Polybrominated Diphenyl Ethers (PBDEs), Pearl River Delta, Sediment, Air