Pollution characteristics and potential health risk of polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins and dibenzofurans (PCDD/Fs) in soil/sediment from Baiyin City, North West, China

Abstract

In order to better understand the environmental behaviors of persistent organic pollutants, the characteristics of polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins and dibenzofurans (PCDD/Fs) were investigated in twenty-three soil/sediment samples from Baiying City, Northwest China, in 2008. The possible sources and potential health risk of PCDD/Fs were also discussed. The concentrations of PCDD/Fs in nineteen soil samples varied between 20.13 and 496.26 pg/g dry weight (dw.), with an average value of 125.59 pg/g dw. The highest International Toxic Equivalent (I-TEQ) of PCDD/Fs (8.34 pg/g dw.) in soil was found at sample S1 collected from proximity to a copper metallurgy plant. The concentrations of PCDD/Fs in four sediment samples ranged from 37.69 to 491.49 pg/g dw., with an average value of 169.95 pg/g dw. The highest I-TEQ of PCDD/Fs (8.56 pg/g dw.) in sediment was found at sample S12 collected from the East big ditch with waste water discharged into the Yellow River. The results indicated that PCDD/Fs contamination of soil/sediment is originated from three sources: chlorine-containing chemicals, non-ferrous metal industrial PCDD/Fs emission and coal burning. The health risk exposure to PCDD/Fs through soil, dust ingestion and dermal absorption ranged from 0.0006 to 0.0134 pg/kg/day Word Health Organization's toxic equivalent in 1998 (WHO 1998 -TEQ) with mean values 0.0032 pg WHO 1998 -TEQ for adults and varied between 0.0012 and 0.0256 pg/kg/day WHO 1998 -TEQ with mean values 0.006 pg/kg/day WHO 1998 -TEQ for children, respectively. These results indicated that health risk of PCDD/Fs for children should be paid more attention.

Combination of a Fast Cleanup Procedure and a DR-CALUX® Bioassay for Dioxin Surveillance in Taiwanese Soils

“…Many environmental scientists have examined soils near stationary points with high dioxin emissions [10,13,20,21]. Recently, several studies have carried out soil dioxin surveys in various local regions [22,23,24], but only a few studies have used bioassays to determine soil dioxin levels [8,25,26,27,28,29]. A high correlation has been found between dioxin levels measured using the in vitro aryl-hydrocarbon-receptor (AhR) reporter gene assay and dioxin levels measured using chemical assays [8,30,31].…”