Baseline Levels of Polybrominated Diphenyl Ethers (PBDEs) in Water and Sediment from River Benue, North Central Nigeria

Levels of polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) in water and sediment from open city drains in Makurdi Metropolitan Area, North Central Nigeria

“…Such differences can be attributed to different rate of release of the pollutants into the environment, de-silting of drains, disturbance of water and the benthic of the drains causing variations in the distribution of the pollutants in the environment. Benue (Tongu et al, 2018). Since there are different weather conditions during the two seasons, it is possible to infer that the deposition of the two congeners in the sediment is favoured by the weather conditions prevailing during wet season.…”

“…Recent studies have confirmed the presence of PBDEs in different environmental matrices such as sewage, ashes, soils, vegetables, car and indoor dusts, sediment, and water (Shin et al, 2007;Oteng-Ababio et al, 2014;Olukunle et al, 2015a and b;Tongu et al, 2018). They have also been reported to be present in birds' eggs, aquatic mammals, fish, and some sentinel aquatic organisms (Chokwe, et al, 2015;Herzke et al, 2005;Stapleton et al, 2007).…”

“…Water samples were extracted by solid phase extraction (SPE), while sediment samples were extracted by Sohxlet method, followed by SPE clean-up of the extracts as described in the Method 1614 USEPA (2007) and Chokwe et al (2016) with some modifications as reported by Tongu et al (2018).…”

“…In general, brominated flame retardants (BFRs) are reactively or additively incorporated into a variety of commercial products such as electrical and electronic equipment, plastics, textiles, polymers, furniture, paints, polyurethane foams, construction materials, and many others to slow down or inhibit the initial phase of a developing fire in such products (Kowalski & Mazur, 2014;Olukunle et al, 2012;Xu et al, 2009). BFRs were once rated as the largest market group of flame retardants (FRs) because of their highperformance efficiency and low cost and prior to the ban on PBDEs they were the most commonly used BFRs (Tongu et al, 2018).…”

“…Based on differences in composition of BDE congeners, there are three major commercial formulations of PBDEs: the penta-BDE, octa-BDE, and deca-BDE (USEPA, 2010; Wang et al, 2013). PBDEs have been recognised as persistent organic pollutants (POPs) (UNEP, 2009) and are also among chemicals classified as endocrine-disrupting compounds (EDCs) which interfere with the endocrine system and disrupt the physiological function of hormones (Tongu et al, 2018;USEPA, 2014).…”