Current-Use Flame Retardants in the Water of Lake Michigan Tributaries

Abstract

In this study, we measured the concentrations of 65 flame retardants in water samples from five Lake Michigan tributaries. These flame retardants included organophosphate esters (OPEs), brominated flame retardants (BFRs), and Dechlorane-related compounds. A total of 59 samples, including both the particulate and the dissolved phases, were collected from the Grand, Kalamazoo, Saint Joseph, and Lower Fox rivers and from the Indiana Harbor and Ship Canal (IHSC) in 2015. OPEs were the most abundant among the targeted compounds with geometric mean concentrations ranging from 20 to 54 ng/L; OPE concentrations were comparable among the five tributaries. BFR concentrations were about 1 ng/L, and the most-abundant compounds were bis(2-ethylhexyl) tetrabromophthalate, 2-ethylhexyl 2,3,4,5-tetrabromobenzoate, and decabromodiphenyl ether. The highest BFR concentrations were measured in either the IHSC or the Saint Joseph River. The dechlorane-related compounds were detected at low concentrations (<1 pg/L). The fraction of target compounds in the particulate phase relative to the dissolved phase varied by chemical and tended to increase with their octanol-water partition coefficient. The chemical loading from all the five tributaries into Lake Michigan were <10 kg/year for the BFRs and about 500 kg/year for the OPEs.

Identifying Chemicals and Mixtures of Potential Biological Concern Detected in Passive Samplers from Great Lakes Tributaries Using High‐Throughput Data and Biological Pathways

“…Tris(1-chloro-2-propyl)phosphate (TCPP) and PBDE-47 (2,2′,4, 4′-tetrabromodiphenyl ether) were the most widely detected fire retardants, with mean concentrations of 360 and 0.46 ng/ L, respectively. A 2015 study observed a similar distribution of PBDEs and OPFRs in whole water samples collected in 5 tributaries of Lake Michigan (Guo et al 2017). Pharmaceutical compounds were detected with less frequency, with a mean of 8 out of 59 chemicals detected at any given site.…”

“…Polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) and the organophosphate-based alternative fire retardants (OPFRs) were widely distributed across the sites with detection of up to 7 of the 9 PBDEs and 5 of the 6 OPFRs.2',4, and tris(1-chloro-2-propyl)phosphate (TCPP) were the most widely detected fire retardants with mean concentrations of 0.46 ng/L and 360 ng/L, respectively. A 2015 study observed a similar distribution of PBDEs and OPFRs in whole water samples collected in five tributaries of Lake Michigan(Guo et al 2017).…”

Pollution Characteristics and Emissions of Typical Organophosphate Esters From a Wastewater Treatment Plant in Chengdu, China

“…OPEs has been detected in rivers and lakes in many countries, such as Taihu in China (Wang et al, 2018), Nanjing section of the Yangtze River, China (Li et al, 2019), Rhine River in Germany (Bollmann et al, 2012), tributaries of Lake Michigan in the United States (Guo et al, 2017), etc. The discharge of industrial and domestic sewage is considered as the major source of OPEs in surface water (Reemtsma et al, 2006).…”

Levels and Distribution of Organophosphate Esters (OPEs) in Typical Megacity Wetland Park Landscape Water Bodies in Southwest China

“…Some OPEs have been confirmed to have obvious neurotoxicity, reproductive toxicity, carcinogenicity and genotoxicity ( Van and Boer, 2012;Du et al 2015). At present, the occurrence of OPEs has been reported in the air (Takigami et al 2009;Stapleton et al 2009;Clark et al 2017;Yin et al 2020), wastewater and sludge (Bester et al 2005;Gao et al 2016), surface water (Reemtsma et al 2008;Regnery and Püttmann, 2010;Guo et al 2017a), sediments (Cao et al 2012;Cheng et al 2014;Giulivo et al 2017), soils (Mihajlovic et al 2011;Matsukami et al 2015;Wan et al 2016;Cui et al 2017;Deng et al 2019) and humans (Shah et al 2006;Schindler et al 2009), even in remote areas (McDonough et al 2018). OPEs have become recognized global organic pollutants.…”

“…OPEs have only anthropogenic sources as opposed to natural sources, so cities with large populations are potential highrisk areas for OPE pollution in which water bodies are an essential sink of OPEs. Previous studies have focused on the occurrence of OPEs in rivers and sediments (Bacaloni et al 2008;Rodil et al 2012;Giulivo et al 2017;Guo et al 2017a;Hou et al 2019;Wu et al 2019;Zeng et al 2021), but almost no attention has been paid to urban landscape water bodies. Compared with rivers, urban landscape water has a relatively low flow rate and long water exchange time.…”