Characterization of PBDEs in soils and vegetations near an e-waste recycling site in South China

The influence of land use on the concentration and vertical distribution of PBDEs in soils of an e-waste recycling region of South China

“…3). This is consistent with the fact that deca-BDE mixtures, of which BDE-209 is the major component, are the most widely PBDEs still being produced and used as commercial flame retardants (Wang et al, 2011b). A similar pattern was found in previous studies on soils and sediments near our study site in South China, in which BDE-209 was also the most dominant PBDE congener (Chen et al, 2006;Wang et al, 2011b).…”

“…The total PBDE concentrations in paddy and peanut surface soils (31.7e143 ng/g) were comparable to those from other studies conducted near our study sites: 45.1e102 ng/g (Wong et al, 2007), 28.1e122 ng/g (Zou et al, 2007), and 9.7e51.7 ng/g (Wang et al, 2011b); however, they were much higher than reference areas in Tibet 0e0.027 ng/g (Wang et al, 2012) or Europe 0.065e12 ng/g (Hassanin et al, 2004). This suggests that even several years following the ban on unregulated recycling activities, soils in this ewaste recycling region remain heavily polluted.…”

“…This study found a lower abundance of the less brominated PBDE congener (i.e., BDE-28, 47, 100, 99) and a higher abundance of the more brominated congener (i.e., BDE-183 and 209), compared to a study conducted in the same area 4 years ago by Wang et al (2011b). The differences between studies can be attributed to the high volatility associated with less brominated PBDEs, as they would have preferentially volatilized over the more brominated PBDEs, and the change in PBDEs over time indicates that levels of the less brominated PBDEs have been decreasing in topsoil since the banning of unregulated e-waste recycling in this area.…”

Could Uptake and Acropetal Translocation of PBDEs by Corn Be Enhanced Following Cu Exposure? Evidence from a Root Damage Experiment

“…The analytical details have been described previously. 25,26 Cu Analysis. Plant samples were acid digested using a mixture of HNO 3 and HClO 4 (4:1, v/v) and analyzed using inductively coupled plasma−atomic emission spectroscopy (ICP−AES).…”

The impact of polybrominated diphenyl ether prohibition: A case study on the atmospheric levels in China, Japan and South Korea

“…Only in 2002, there were approximately 261,000 tons of PBDEs dumped into Guangdong province with waste electrical and electronic equipment (Martin et al, 2004). Several numbers of previous research also found extremely high PBDE concentrations in the air, soil and sediment from a typical e-waste recycling operation zone (Deng et al, 2007;Leung et al, 2007;Li et al, 2011b;Luo et al, 2007;Wang et al, 2011).…”