Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in sediments from the Mersey Estuary, U.K.

Occurrence, sources, and ecological risks of PBDEs, PCBs, OCPs, and PAHs in surface sediments of the Yangtze River Delta city cluster, China

“…Average PCB concentrations of 14.1 − 24.9 ng/g in sediments of the Yangtze River Estuary have been observed by Gao et al (2013), which were higher than the levels in the present study. Our result was also significantly lower than the average PCB levels (ranging from 9.20 to 233 ng/g) in the urban sediments recently reported in China (Liu et al 2007;Yang et al 2009;Zhang et al 2010;Zhao et al 2010a) as well as in many riverine, estuarial, and lake sediments at other locations in the world (Vane et al 2007;Shen et al 2009;Hoai et al 2010;Martinez et al 2010;Ilyas et al 2011). The likely explanation is that the three cities in the present study are all emerging cities where commercial PCBs products were not used in large quantities in the past.…”

The distribution of Polychlorinated Biphenyls (PCBs) in the River Thames Catchment under the scenarios of climate change

“…Much lower values have been reported for the same congeners in the River Willamette (located in northwestern Oregon, US) and Lake Thun (situated in the Bernese Oberland, Swizerland) (Bogdal et al, 2010;Hope, 2008) but these are both very rural areas (>90%). The predicted sediment concentrations for the studied PCBs were about 6 times higher than the monitored data for sediments from the Mersey Estuary (Vane et al, 2007b), but were within the ranges of the reported values for sediment from the Clyde Estuary located in the conurbation of Glasgow (Vane et al, 2007a). There are no congener specific quality guidelines for PCBs in freshwater sediment, but Environmental Assessment Criteria (EAC) for ICES7 CBs in marine sediment have been set up within OSPAR (OSPAR, 2009b).…”

Humans as major geological and geomorphological agents in the Anthropocene: the significance of artificial ground in Great Britain

“…In some cases, the anthropogenic chemical signatures of artificial ground, or the sediment into which the pollution may migrate, can be used as a marker for the source of contamination and its absolute age. Sediments recovered in the Mersey Estuary, NW England, show distinct contamination, with elevated concentrations of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and mercury [57,58]. These signatures, and their variation with depth, are interpreted to relate to the industrial development of the Mersey region, where elevated mercury concentrations are associated with the expansion of the chemicals industry on the banks of the estuary in the mid-nineteenth century.…”