Spatial distribution of polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins and dibenzo-furans (PCDDs/Fs) in dust, soil, sediment and health risk assessment from an intensive electronic waste recycling site in Southern China

Abstract

Workshop dust, soil and sediment samples were collected to investigate the level and spatial distribution of PCDDs/Fs at an intensive electronic waste (e-waste) recycling site in Southern China, and also to characterize the dioxin emission in different e-waste recycling procedures. environmental matrices reveal the characteristics of contaminant environmental behavior and fate during the transportation from "source" to "sink". Daily intake of PCDDs/Fs through soil ingestion and dermal absorption was negligible, but the rough estimated total PCDD/F intake dose far exceeded the tolerance daily intake value of 4 pg-TEQ per kg per day recommended by WHO, indicating that residents in Longtang were at a high risk of exposure to dioxins, especially children. Environmental impactOur paper displays original and unambiguous PCDD/F information concerning the spatial distribution in different environmental media of an intensive electronic waste recycling site in Southern China, reveals the emission characteristics of different recycling procedures and the contaminant environmental behavior and fate during the transportation from "source" to "sink", and also assesses the dioxin exposure risk of local residents, which would bring a much deeper understanding of the pollution extent, emission characteristics and human health threat of PCDDs/Fs caused by crude e-waste recycling, and provide a scientic basis for PCDDs/Fs emission reduction and human health protection for related government departments. We believe that the readers will nd the results of our study interesting and potentially useful to their studies.

Levels of polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins, dibenzofurans (PCDD/Fs) and biphenyls (PCBs) in blood of informal e-waste recycling workers from Agbogbloshie, Ghana, and controls

“…BFR containing or polyvinyl chloride (PVC) coated copper cables, provide optimal conditions for de novo formation of halogenated aromatic compounds, such as PCDD/Fs, its brominated equivalents PBDD/Fs, mixed brominated/chlorinated homologies (PXDD/Fs) and other dioxin-related compounds (DRCs) (Weber and Kuch, 2003;Hedman et al, 2005;Gullett et al, 2007;Duan et al, 2011;Hibbert and Ogunseitan, 2014). Due to uncontrolled combustion and thermal processing of e-waste, these POPs have been found in the air, bottom ash, dust, soil, water and sediment samples from EWRSs worldwide, partly in tremendous high concentrations (Li et al, 2007;Wong et al, 2007;Brigden et al, 2008;Liu et al, 2008;Ma et al, 2009aMa et al, , 2009bWen et al, 2009Wen et al, , 2011Ni et al, 2010;Tue et al, 2010b;Zhang et al, 2012b;Chan and Wong, 2013;Hu et al, 2013;Labunska et al, 2013;Ren et al, 2013;Wang et al, 2013;Hosoda et al, 2014;Xiao et al, 2014). The share of annual mass of e-waste derived PCDD/F in China alone is estimated to be in the range of several kilograms (Ni et al, 2010).…”

Estimating national dioxins and furans emissions, major sources, intake doses, and temporal trends in Iran from 1990–2010

“…Although, the WHO has recommended 4 pg TEQ/kg/d as the standards for PCDD/PCDFs, generally known as tolerable daily intakes (TDIs), numerous regulatory agencies in each country have their own TDIs. The proposed TDIs for PCDD/PCDFs ranges from 1 pg TEQ/kg/d (in the Netherlands and Germany), to 4 pg TEQ/kg/d (in Japan), 5 pg TEQ/kg/d (in Sweden, Norway, Finland and Denmark), and to 10 pg TEQ/kg/d (in UK, New Zealand and Canada) [ 29 , 30 ]. Currently, Iran has no PCDD/PCDFs standard value.…”

Characterization of polybrominated dibenzo-p-dioxins and dibenzo-furans (PBDDs/Fs) in environmental matrices from an intensive electronic waste recycling site, South China

“…Nevertheless, for children, soil and dust ingestion contributed greater PBDD/F intakes than dermal exposure (Fig. 5, bottom ) and the intakes reported for total 17 PCDDs/Fs in the same set of samples analyzed in our previous work (0.38 pg TEQ kg À1 day À1 for adults and 1.11 pg TEQ kg À1 day À1 for children) (Hu et al, 2013).…”

“…The concentrations were as almost twice as the average concentration of the dust collected from large-scale ewaste facilities in Taizhou (1088 ng kg À1 , when the same eight 2378-substituted PBDD/F congeners are taken into account) (Ma et al, 2008). The TEQ values for the only eight PBDD/F congeners were higher than those of the seventeen PCDD/F congeners from the same set of samples analyzed in our previous study (range: 4.2e1369 ng TEQ kg À1 ; mean TEQ: 380 ng TEQ kg À1 ) (Hu et al, 2013). The PBDD/F concentrations of six sampling sites decreased in the following order: D3 >D6 >D1 >D4 >D5 >D2.…”

“…Previous studies have pointed out the high levels of PCDD/F contamination and human PCDD/F exposure in e-waste recycling areas (e.g. Ma et al, 2008;Li et al, 2007;Li et al, 2008b;Wen et al, 2009;Chan et al, 2007;Hu et al, 2013;Xiao et al, 2012;Liu et al, 2008;Yu et al, 2008;Fu et al, 2012;Shen, 2008). However, the emission of PBDDs/Fs from e-waste recycling operations and its impact on adjacent areas received less attention (Li et al, 2007;Xiao et al, 2012;Leung et al, 2007;Ma et al, 2009).…”