Occurrence and environmental risk assessment of PAEs in Weihe River near Xi'an City, China

Abstract

The occurrence and distribution of phthalate acid esters (PAEs) in surface water of the Weihe River basin (eight mainstream sampling points and 15 tributary sampling points) in the Shaanxi section were investigated during the dry season, level period (spring), wet season and level period (autumn). The PAEs tested for were diethyl phthalate (DEP), di-n-butyl phthalate (DBP), dicyclohexyl phthalate (DCHP) and di-(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP). The testing proceeded by millipore filtration, then solid phase extraction and then gas chromatography-mass spectrometry determination for all examined PAEs. The monitoring results indicated that, in terms of seasonal changes, concentration of the PAEs in the mainstream is: Dry season > Level period (spring) > Wet season ≈ Level period (autumn). An environmental risk assessment was then performed on PAE pollution levels of the Weihe River basin. This paper employed a risk assessment methodology to evaluate the potential adverse health effects of the individual PAE compounds according to their carcinogenicities. For DEP, DBP and DEHP, a low Risk Index (all of them were lower than the specified level of 1.0) reveals that small non-carcinogenic risks exist resulting from the presence of trace concentrations in the surface water of the Weihe River basin.

Association between Phthalate Metabolites in Cord Blood and Preterm Birth, a Nested Case-Control Study in Tianjin, China

“…Compared to their result, MBP level in current study was detectable in both control and case infants with a higher concentration. For MEHP level in cord blood, the result in this study was much lower than 1.1mg/L in Zhang's study and 1.6 mg/L in another study of Zhang's team in Shanghai (Guo et al, 2013;Zhang et al, 2009), but was slightly higher than the result (median, 3.02 μg/L) in a study in Taiwan (Lin et al, 2011b). MEHP could be detectable in many types of samples and the detection rate is higher than other oxidized metabolites, and the concentration of MEHP in cord blood could be an indicator to DEHP exposure in utero (Hogberg et al, 2008).…”

Partition and Fate of Phthalate Acid Esters (PAEs) in a Full-Scale Horizontal Subsurface Flow Constructed Wetland Treating Polluted River Water

“…However, in these systems, the influent concentrations of PAEs were much higher than the normal PAEs contamination level in the natural aqueous system around the world. In Weihe River in China, the PAEs concentrations were found at low level (DEP, not detected (ND)-4.023 μg/L; DBP, ND-3.168 μg/L; DEHP, 0.079-8.341 μg/L) [37], as well as the concentrations in other rivers in China (DBP, DEP, and DEHP were 9-61 μg/L, ND-4 μg/L, and ND-32 μg/L, respectively) [38]. In some Korean rivers, DMP concentration was around 1.59 μg/L [4], and in French Seine Rivers, DBP (0.047-0.14 μg/L), DEP (ND-0.48 μg/L), and DEHP (0.107-0.636 μg/L) were found [39].…”

Landslide Hazard Assessment Combined with InSAR Deformation: A Case Study in the Zagunao River Basin, Sichuan Province, Southwestern China

“…The sign indicates the direction of the correlation, and the absolute value represents the strength. Generally, |r| < 0.3 suggests no correlation, |r| < 0.5 indicates a weak correlation, and |r| > 0.8 indicates a strong correlation [61]. Figure 6 displays the correlation coefficients among the factors.…”