Application of sewage sludge to arable land–soil concentrations of polybrominated diphenyl ethers and polychorinated dibenzo‐p‐dioxins, dibenzofurans, and biphenyls, and their accumulation in earthworms

Abstract

Soils from five agricultural sites, three research sites, and two privately owned farms were analyzed for polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins (PCDDs), polychlorinated dibenzofurans (PCDFs), polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), and polybronimated diphenylethers (PBDEs). In soils that had not been treated with sludge (reference soils), the international toxic equivalents (I-TEQs) were 0.6 to 1.5 pg/g dry matter (D.M) for the PCDD/Fs. which are low compared to generally reported background soil levels in Europe. The concentrations of sum of six penta- and hexa-PCBs were 450 to 1,400 pg/g DM. The PBDEs 47 and 99 dominated among the tri- to hepta-PBDEs analyzed (8-80 pg/g DM). The impact of adding 1 to 3 tonnes of sludge (DM) per hectare per year on the concentrations was studied at the three research sites by calculating ratios of the compounds in sludge-treated soil to reference soil (S/R ratio). The concentrations of I-TEQs did not increase in the sludge-treated soil, whereas the S/R ratios for PBDEs were greater than one. Also, although the PCB contents were higher in the sludge-treated soils, the background sources were more important for the concentrations of PCBs than of PBDEs. The largest increase in the S/R ratios was found at a private farm where large amounts of sludge had been used in the past. Accumulation of the compounds in earthworms from the sites also was investigated. The biota-soil accumulation factors (BSAFs) of the tested compounds declined in the following order: ortho-PCBs approximately PBDEs > non-ortho-PCBs > 2.3,7,8-substituted PCDD/Fs. The average BSAF for ortho-PCBs was five (organic matter/lipids), and the lowest BSAFs (0.1-0.8) found were for octachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin. To our knowledge, accumulation of PBDEs in earthworms has not been published previously.

Uptake and bioaccumulation of PCDD/Fs in earthworms after in situ and in vitro exposure to soil from a contaminated sawmill site

“…Smaller molecular size is considered to be an important factor affecting bioaccumulation. This correlates with other studies where the accumulation of 2,3,7,8-substituted tetra-and penta-chlorinated PCDD/Fs are generally two to three times higher than OCDD/F (Matscheko et al, 2002a(Matscheko et al, , 2002b.…”

“…Since soils are heterogeneous environmental matrices with varying spatial and temporal distribution of organic carbon, pH, humidity, particle size distribution, the measured PCDD/Fs concentration in the soil is not the same as the environmentally bioavailable concentration, which is also dependent on the duration of contact between compound and soil (aging) and physicochemical properties of the compounds. Therefore knowledge of the site specific uptake and bioaccumulation is necessary for adequate assessment of environmental and human health risks associated with a contaminated site (Belfroid et al, 1995;Matscheko et al, 2002aMatscheko et al, , 2002bLanno et al, 2004). A good supplement to chemical analysis of soil in a site specific risk assessment is investigation of the amount of PCDD/Fs which are bioavailable to earthworms.…”

“…Thus earthworms represent a potential transfer route from soil into the food web. In addition, their limited mobility (2.5-14 m yr − 1 ) (Emmerling and Strunk, 2012) makes them an appropriate species for monitoring the potential impact of local organic contaminants in soil, (Reinecke and Nash, 1984;Kitunen et al, 1987;Knuutinen et al, 1990;Laine et al, 1995;Matscheko et al, 2002aMatscheko et al, , 2002bJager et al, 2005).…”

Bioaccumulation of PCDD/Fs, PCBs and PBDEs by earthworms in field soils of an E-waste dismantling area in China

“…On the other hand, few results are available concerning uptake and elimination kinetics of PCDD/Fs in earthworm, while some polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) with planar structures showed declining uptake rate by worms with increasing contaminant concentration in sediment, and sediment avoidance was observed at high dose of contaminants (Kukkonen and Landrum, 1994;Landrum et al, 2002). Another important consideration is that general lower BSAFs (b1) were obtained for PCDD/Fs in many previous studies (Fagervold et al, 2010;Matscheko et al, 2002;Nakamura et al, 2007), which suggested bioaccumulation of PCDD/Fs may be restricted by some factors such as saturation of the compounds within lipids, bioavailability, as well as the soil characteristics.…”

Evaluation of soil intake by growing Creole young bulls in common grazing systems in humid tropical conditions

“…However, grazing also enhances soil intake by herbivores (soil particles on vegetation, root intake, Abrahams and Steigmajer, 2003) resulting in an increased exposure to gastrointestinal parasites (Stromberg, 1997) and environmental contaminants (Laurent et al, 2005). Although ingested soil may be a source of mineral nutrients for animals (Thornton and Abrahams, 1983), several studies pointed out soil as being one of the main matrices for pollutants transfer to outside-reared animals (Beresford and Howard, 1991;Fries, 1995;Matscheko et al, 2002). Lipophilic properties of the persistent organic pollutants are responsible for their adsorption on soil components, which enables soil to retain and accumulate pollutants in the horizon surface longer than the other matrices (also called memory effect) (Jones et al, 1989;Duarte-Davidson and Jones, 1996).…”