Screening Chemicals for the Potential to be Persistent Organic Pollutants: A Case Study of Arctic Contaminants

Abstract

A large and ever-increasing number of chemicals are used in commerce, and researchers and regulators have struggled to ascertain that these chemicals do not threaten human health or cause environmental or ecological damage. The presence of persistent organic pollutants (POPs) in remote environments such as the Arctic is of special concern and has international regulatory implications. Responding to the need for a way to identify chemicals of high concern, a methodology has been developed which compares experimentally measured properties, or values predicted from chemical structure alone, to a set of screening criteria. These criteria include partitioning properties that allow for accumulation in the physical Arctic environment and in the Arctic human food chain, and resistance to atmospheric oxidation. Atthe same time we quantify the extent of structural resemblance to a group of known Arctic contaminants. Comparison of the substances that are identified by a mechanistic description of the processes that lead to Arctic contamination with those substances that are structurally similar to known Arctic contaminants reveals the strengths and limitations of either approach. Within a data set of more than 100,000 distinct industrial chemicals, the methodology identifies 120 high production volume chemicals which are structurally similarto known Arctic contaminants and/or have partitioning properties that suggest they are potential Arctic contaminants.

Identification and Evaluation of a Novel Heterocyclic Brominated Flame Retardant Tris(2,3-dibromopropyl) Isocyanurate in Environmental Matrices near a Manufacturing Plant in Southern China

“…A previous work reported that a group of haloderived triazine chemicals is among the list of potential POPs that could be present in the Arctic (10). Thus, it is important to monitor this group of HFRs in the environment to properly assess the potential exposure effects on ecosystems and humans.…”

“…However, these alternative products might also have similar semivolatile properties, and their environment behaviors and underlying toxic effects are still unclear. Several of them have been identified as emerging chemicals that are present in the environment, such as 1,2,5,6,9,10-hexabromocyclododecane (HBCD), Dechlorane Plus and several others have been detected in different environmental matrices (1,(8)(9)(10)(11)(12)(13)(14)(15)(16)(17) and biological samples (18).…”

Organophosphorus Flame Retardants and Plasticizers in Rain and Snow from Middle Germany

“…Brown and Wania [44] use a minimum hydroxyl radical atmospheric oxidation half-life of two days as the criterion for long-range air transportation. According to their atmospheric half-life times, chlorinated OPs are not sufficiently persistent in the atmosphere to be classified as POP substances, but their calculated photooxidation half-lives in air are nevertheless sufficient for short-range or medium-range atmospheric transportation.…”

Transport and fate of hexachlorocyclohexanes in the oceanic air and surface seawater

“…al ., 1992;Schreitmuller and Ballschmiter, 1995;Lakaschus et al, 2002;Jantunen et al, 2004;Shen et al, 2004;Ding et al, 2007;Brown and Wania, 2008;Lohmann et al, 2009;Breivik et al, 1999). Briefly, HCHs have been used mainly in the Northern Hemisphere from 1940s to 2000 with technical mixtures containing 55-80 % α-HCH, 5-14 % β-HCH and 8-15 % γ -HCH (Iwata et al, 1993;Lakaschus et al, 2002).…”