Contamination of soils with organochlorine pesticides in urban parks in Beijing, China

Abstract

Urban parks are an integral component of healthy urban living. Since they are frequently visited, an understanding of the environmental quality of these urban facilities is crucial. Here, a study was conducted on the contamination of soils in the parks of Beijing. Organochlorine pesticides (OCPs), which have the potential to cause endocrine disturbances, were considered study objectives. Hexachlorocyclohexanes (HCHs) were found at concentrations of 0.2490-197.0 ng g À1 and dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethanes (DDTs) were found at concentrations of 5.942-1039 ng g À1 in the soils investigated. The preliminary pollution assessment indicated that DDTs have caused high pollution levels in the soils of some parks. Analysis of the sources of contamination showed that HCHs in the soils were derived from an old mixed source of technical HCHs and lindane and that DDTs, which were suspected to have recent application to the soils at some sites, were derived mainly from a mixture of technical DDTs and dicofol containing DDT impurities. An independent sample t-test proved that pesticides containing DDTs had been used in large amounts in the soils of parks before 1983 (p < 0.05) and that the levels of DDTs in the soils of parks administered by the Beijing municipal government were significantly higher than the levels in those administered by the district government (p < 0.05). However, the main difference in this situation needs to be further studied. This study suggested that open spaces like urban parks were not as sound as was expected and that there was potential for exposure of visitors/ workers in the parks to organochlorine pesticides.

Organochlorine pesticides in soil, water and sediment along the Jinjiang River mainstream to Quanzhou Bay, southeast China

“…The high ratio of p,p 0 -(DDEþDDD)/ DDT (41) suggests aged DDT is the main source, whereas if less than 1, the main source is the input of fresh DDTs (Jaga and Dharmani, 2003). The ratio of o,p 0 -DDT/ p,p 0 -DDT can show the contamination from the usage of technical DDT or dicofol (Li et al, 2008). Generally, the ratio of o,p 0 -DDT/p,p 0 -DDT is in the range of 0.2-0.3 in technical DDT and higher than 1.3 in dicofol (Qiu et al, 2005).…”

Residues of organochlorine pesticides in surface soils from college school yards in Beijing, China

“…Soil contents of HCH reported elsewhere were listed in Table 2. Compared with previous study of Beijing, HCHs content in present study (2.25 ng/g) was found to be about 5 times lower than soils from 25 urban parks (10.54 ng/g) (Li et al, 2008) and soils from suburban areas of Beijing (10.35 ng/g) through systematic grid sampling. However, the median value (2.10 ng/g) was relatively higher than that in soil from Guanting Reservoir (0.56 ng/g) in exurb of Beijing .…”

“…Some of OCPs are even identified as endocrine disrupting pesticides by USEPA (1998). OCPs were well documented in urban and suburban soils of Beijing (Ma et al, 2003;Zhu et al, 2005Li et al, 2006Li et al, , 2008, but few researches have ever been conducted on soils in college school yards.…”

Profiles of Organochlorine Pesticides in Earthworms from Urban Leisure Areas of Beijing, China

“…For accuracy and precision of soil analysis, it was able to refer the method from the report by Li et al (2008). As far as the earthworms, the procedure is similar to that of soils and only the matrix blank was replaced by the edible corn oils.…”

“…In contrast to agricultural soils, urban park soils which had been detected out high level OCPs, which might have a direct influence on public health since pollutants in the soils can easily be transferred into humans via ingestion, inhalation, or dermal routes, etc. (Li et al 2008). Due to the important role of urban open spaces such as parks performing in the citizens, it's necessary further to explore the probable environmental effect of OCPs from soils.…”