Selected Persistent Organic Pollutants in Ambient Air in Turkey: Regional Sources and Controlling Factors

Abstract

As a result of its unique location, Turkey receives air masses from Europe, Russia, Middle East, and Africa, making it an important place in terms of long range atmospheric transport (LRT) of contaminants. Atmospheric levels of 22 organochlorine pesticides (OCPs), 45 polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), and 14 polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) were measured in two metropolitan cities, Istanbul and Izmir, on a weekly basis from May 2014 to May 2015. Dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT) and its derivatives were dominant OCP species, followed by isomers of hexachlorocyclohexane (HCH) at both sites. The annual mean concentration of ΣDDX (sum of o,p′-DDT, p,p′-DDT, o,p′-DDD, p,p′-DDD, o,p′-DDE, and p,p′-DDE) was 82 pg/m 3 for Istanbul and 89 pg/m 3 for Izmir, while these levels were about 46 pg/m 3 for ΣHCHs (sum of α-, β-, γ-, and δ-HCH) at both of the sites. At both stations, tri-and tetra-PCBs and tetra-and penta-PBDEs were dominant congeners. The temperature dependence indicates that both LRT and local contaminated areas contribute to the elevated levels. A Lagrangian particle dispersion model (FLEXPART) showed a few potential source regions in northern Africa and Middle East, southern-southwestern and eastern Europe including Russia, as well as from local domestic metropolitan areas.

The effect of military conflict zone in the Middle East on atmospheric persistent organic pollutant contamination in its north

“…Similar findings were reported by back-trajectory and potential source contribution function analyses for POPs measurement at different sites of Turkey (Kuzu and Saral, 2017;Yenisoy-Karakaş et al, 2012). The source areas associated with the measured ∑ 14 PBDE concentrations in İzmir included northern Africa, southern and eastern Europe (Gungormus et al, 2021).…”

“…In this study, 3-Cl and 4-Cl groups were dominant in far group, former of which has a higher LRAT potential than highly chlorinated congeners (Greenwood et al, 2007). Western Turkey is known to receive POPs via LRAT from Europe and Eurasia (Gungormus et al, 2021;Mulder et al, 2015). Thus, Izmir and Bursa may have high ambient air POP concentrations due to having large metropoles, and they are located nearby industrial areas, in addition to contribution from LRAT.…”

“…Thus, taking LRAT as a source of POPs, western Turkey was impacted by areas in Europe and Eurasia while southeastern Turkey was impacted by areas in south of the border, the war zone. There are reports in the literature supporting these findings (Gungormus et al, 2021;Rastgeldi Dogan et al, 2018).…”

“…There are supporting findings by the back-trajectory analysis presented in Section 3.2. The lighter congeners have higher LRAT potential (Wania and Dugani, 2003), and higher concentration and proportion of lighter congeners at Izmir and Bursa stations may implicate the effect of both short and LRAT as there are known sources such as those in Aliaga and Dilovasi industrial areas (Besis et al, 2017;Cetin et al, 2018;Gungormus et al, 2021;Kuzu and Saral, 2017).…”

Physical exercise and persistent organic pollutants

“…And dust acts as the major exposure pathways to POPs for outdoor or indoor exercisers ( Table 1 ). Besides, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), organochlorine pesticides (OCPs), per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs), and polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) represent primary classes of POPs exposed [ [30] , [31] , [32] , [33] , [34] ]. Although the production and use of some POPs have been banned, they were detected frequently in environmental media, food and biospecimen due to the environmental release of legacy residues, the by-products associated with industrial production and the generation in nature by biological and abiotic processes.…”