Polybrominated Diphenyl Ethers vs Alternate Brominated Flame Retardants and Dechloranes from East Asia to the Arctic

Abstract

Marine boundary layer air and seawater samples taken during a polar expedition cruise from East China Sea to the Arctic were analyzed in order to compare the occurrence, distribution, and fate of the banned polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) with their brominated alternatives as well as the chlorinated Dechloranes. The sum of PBDEs (∑10PBDEs) in the atmosphere ranged from 0.07 to 8.1 pg m–3 with BDE–209 being the dominating congener and from not detected (n.d.) to 0.6 pg L–1 in seawater. Alternate brominated flame retardants (BFRs), especially hexabromobenzene (HBB), (2,3–dibromopropyl–2,4,6–tribromophenyl ether (DPTE), pentabromotoluene (PBT), 2–ethylhexyl 2,3,4,5–tetrabromobenzoate (EHTBB), bis–(2–ethylhexyl)–tetrabromophthalate (TBPH), were detected in higher concentrations than PBDEs, even in the high Arctic (0.6 to 15.4 pg m–3 for sum of alternate BFRs), indicating the change of PBDEs toward alternate BFRs in the environmental predominance. In addition, Dechlorane Plus (DP) as well as Dechlorane 602, 603, and 604 were detected both in the atmosphere and in seawater. The highest concentrations as well as the highest compound variability were observed in East Asian samples suggesting the Asian continent as source of these compounds in the marine environment. The air–seawater exchange indicates strong deposition, especially of alternate BFRs, as well as dry particle–bound deposition of BDE–209 into the ocean.

The oceanic biological pump modulates the atmospheric transport of persistent organic pollutants to the Arctic

“…PUF was precleaned using soxhlet with Hexane/DCM (1:1) during 24 h, and QMA filters were precombusted for 4 h at 450 °C. Once the samples were taken, PUFs were packed using aluminium GD1 GD2 GD3 GD4 GD5 GD6 GD7 GD8 GD9 GD10 ) for PCBs, estimated from the gas-and dissolved-phase concentrations from this study and those reported in Gioia et al 11 and (b) air-to-water fugacity ratios (log(f A f W − 1 )) for other hydrophobic organic pollutants in high productivity regions from the north Atlantic and Arctic ocean [33][34][35] . For all these hydrophobic chemicals, there is a strong disequilibrium between air and water (high f A f W − 1 ) consistent with the role of the biological pump lowering water column concentrations of organic compounds.…”

Sources and environmental behaviors of Dechlorane Plus and related compounds — A review

“…However, as passive air samplers show many advantages to active air samplers, such as no electricity requirement, low cost and simple construction, they have also been used to collect airborne DP (Klánová et al, 2008;Ren et al, 2008;Yu et al, 2015). XAD-2 resin and polyurethane foam (PUF) have been individually used for DP monitoring at a regional and global scale (Baek et al, 2013;Hoh et al, 2006;Ma et al, 2011;Möller et al, 2010Möller et al, , 2011Peverly et al, 2015;Ren et al, 2008;Sverko et al, 2010a). A low sampling rate, commonly 0.5 m 3 d −1 was recommended for DP relative to POPs substances (3-5 m 3 d −1 , Shoeib and Harner, 2002) when using PUF disk sampling deployment since only the fine/ultrafine fraction can enter the sampling chamber and be collected on the PUF disk (Klánová et al, 2008;Ren et al, 2008;Sverko et al, 2010a).…”

“…SE and PLE (including ASE) were applied to solid samples, while LLE and SPE (e.g., C18) were used for liquid sample extraction . Mixed organic solvents, such as n-hexane/ acetone (v/v: 1/1) (Hoh et al, 2006;Ismail et al, 2009;Peverly et al, 2015;Ren et al, 2008;Salamova et al, 2014;Zhang et al, 2011a, b), n-hexane/dichloromethane (v/v: 1/1) (De la Möller et al, 2010Möller et al, , 2011Zhang et al, 2013), and the same mixtures with different proportions (Kang et al, 2010;Tomy et al, 2008;Wu et al, 2010;Xian et al, 2011), were commonly used for extraction.…”

“…The highest concentrations of DP could be up to several ng m −3 in ambient air and μg g −1 dw in soil close to the DP manufacturing facility in Huai'an City and μg g −1 dw in sediment from an e-waste recycling site in South China (Zhang et al, 2011b). On the other hand, more evidence from all over the world has led to the vision that DP is a worldwide contaminant (Feo et al, 2012;Möller et al, 2010Möller et al, , 2011Möller et al, , 2012aSverko et al, 2011a, Vorkamp andRigét, 2014;Wolschke et al, 2015). As reported by Möller et al (2010), DP was detected in the marine air boundary layer (sampling at 15 m above sea level) with concentration ranges from 0.05 to 4.2 pg m −3 in atmosphere and bMDL to 1.3 pg L − 1 in seawater from the East Greenland Sea to Antarctica.…”

Halogenated flame retardants in home-produced eggs from an electronic waste recycling region in South China: Levels, composition profiles, and human dietary exposure assessment

“…To meet the stringent fire safety regulations, several non-regulated HFRs, e.g., Dechlorane Plus (DP), decabromodiphenyl ethane (DBDPE), 1,2-bis(2,4,6-tribromophenoxy) ethane (BTBPE), 2,3,5,6-tetrabromo-p-xylene (PTBX), hexabromobenzene (HBB), pentabromoethylbenzene (PBEB), and pentabromotoluene (PBT), are considered to be the alternatives for the restricted or discontinued HFRs in some applications (Covaci et al, 2011;de Wit et al, 2010). Although studies on the environmental behavior of the alternative HFRs (AHFRs) are scarce, the limited information demonstrated that, analogous to the regulated HFRs, these AHFRs may also be toxic, persistent, bioaccumulative, and subject to long-range transport with global scale significance (de Wit et al, 2006;Möller et al, 2011;Wu et al, 2011).…”