Passive air monitoring of PCBs and PCNs across East Asia: A comprehensive congener evaluation for source characterization

Levels and spatial distribution of gaseous polychlorinated biphenyls and polychlorinated naphthalenes in the air over the northern South China Sea

“…Tri-CNs (PCN 19 and 24) were the dominant congeners at most sampling sites, which accounted for 12.8e78.8% of the SPCNs in the atmosphere, followed by tetra-CNs (PCN 33/34/ 37,47,36/45,28/43,27/30,38/40,and 46) and penta-CNs (PCN 52/ 60, 61, 50, 57, and 49), with 15.7e45.0% and 5.47e51.8%, respectively. This phenomenon was also found in air samples of some regions, like Venice Lagoon (Manodori et al, 2006), Lake Ontario (Helm et al, 2003) and East Asia (Hogarh et al, 2012). A widely accepted explanation is that the preferential volatilization of the lower molecular weight congeners made them more prone to atmospheric transport or that there were differences in the source signature.…”

Atmospheric polychlorinated naphthalenes (PCNs) in India and Pakistan

“…Based on atmospheric emission, South Asia presumably harbors some potential sources. The historical application of a technical mixture in extensive industrial activities, combustion processes such as incineration and metal refining, coal and wood burning and PCB-associated (polychlorinated biphenyls) application can release PCNs into the atmosphere (Harner and Bidleman, 1997;Lee et al, 2007;Hogarh et al, 2012). In South Asia, the industrial sector contributes approximately 26.4% and 25.4% to the overall GDP in India and Pakistan, respectively (http:// en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_India and http://en.wikipedia.…”

Polychlorinated naphthalenes in the air over the equatorial Indian Ocean: Occurrence, potential sources, and toxicity

“…As the use of technical PCN products has been phased out since the 1970s or 1980s (Hogarh et al, 2012), release of PCNs from historical residues and industrial thermal processes, such as municipal waste incineration, smelting, or coking, was reported to be their main source in the environment (Harner et al, 2006;Li et al, 2012;Wang et al, 2012;Liu et al, 2014). Previous studies suggested that the fraction of combustion-related congeners (e.g., PCN17/25,36/45,27/30,39,45,52/60,50,51,54,and 66/67) in ∑PCNs could be used to identify the importance of combustion source, because these congeners were minor or absent in Halowax and PCB technical formulations compared with incineration or other industrial thermal processes (Helm and Bidleman, 2003;Lee et al, 2007;Wang et al, 2012;Xu et al, 2014).…”

“…PCN congeners are ubiquitous in various environmental media and biota (Bidleman et al, 2010). Technical PCN products had been widely used as insulators, lubricants, flame retardants, paint additives, and so on, until the 1970s/1980s (Falandysz, 1998;Hogarh et al, 2012). Evaporation from the historical residue has been a major pathway of PCNs in air (Harner and Bidleman, 1997).…”