Aerosol-Mediated Transport and Deposition of Brominated Diphenyl Ethers to Antarctica

Abstract

Brominated diphenyl ethers were measured in air, snow and sea ice throughout western Antarctica between 2001 and 2007. BDEs in Antarctic air were predominantly associated with aerosols and were low compared to remote regions of the northern hemisphere, except in Marguerite Bay following the fire at Rothera research station in Sept. 2001, indicating that this event was a local source of BDE209 to the Antarctic environment. Aerosol BDE47/100 reflects a mixture of commercial pentaBDE products; however, BDE99/100 is suggestive of photodegradation of BDE99 during long range atmospheric transport (LRAT) in the austral summer. BDEs in snow were lower than predicted based on snow scavenging of aerosols indicating that atmospheric deposition events may be episodic. BDE47, -99, and -100 significantly declined in Antarctic sea ice between 2001 and 2007; however, BDE209 did not decline in Antarctic sea ice over the same time period. Significant losses of BDE99 and -100 from sea ice were recorded over a 19 day period in spring 2001 demonstrating that seasonal ice processes result in the preferential loss of some BDEs. BDE47/100 and BDE99/100 in sea ice samples reflect commercial pentaBDE products, suggesting that photodegradation of BDE99 is minimal during LRAT in the austral winter.

Fragrances in the seawater of Terra Nova Bay, Antarctica

“…Sea ice was also expected to act as a sink and source of PCPs in Erebus bay (Emnet et al, 2015). The melting of snow and ice is known to be a source of Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) in the Antarctic marine environment (Dickhut et al, 2012;Geisz et al, 2008;Vecchiato et al, 2015b). This process was highlighted also for per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances (Cai et al, 2012) and volatile methyl siloxanes (VMS) (Sanchís et al, 2015), and is consistent with snow depositional inputs.…”

Atmospheric deposition of polybromodiphenyl ethers in remote mountain regions of Europe

“…Photooxidation during long-range transport may modify the composition of these mixtures. The observed photodegradation half-lives of the main congeners are as follows: BDE100 > BDE47 > BDE99 (Dickhut et al, 2012). Accordingly, high BDE47 / BDE99 and low BDE99 / BDE100 ratios are indicative of photolytic debromination.…”

PCDD/Fs, PBDD/Fs, and PBDEs in the air of an e-waste recycling area (Taizhou) in China: current levels, composition profiles, and potential cancer risks

“…Nevertheless, there were obviously elevated contributions of BDE47 and decreased contributions of BDE99 (two major congeners in technical products) at the background and suburban sites, which could be due to the preferred atmospheric transport of BDE47 or the photodegradation of BDE99 into BDE47 during transport, which have both been observed previously. 43,44 By comparison, the profiles in winter for the lower brominated PBDEs varied spatially, in contrast to the results for the PCDD/F homologue profiles. A possible interpretation is the different sources of these two classes of compounds.…”