Journal article
Hydroxylated Polychlorinated Biphenyls Are Emerging Legacy Pollutants in Contaminated Sediments
Environmental science & technology, Vol.56(4), pp.2269-2278
02/02/2022
DOI: 10.1021/acs.est.1c04780
PMCID: PMC8851693
PMID: 35107261
Appears in UI Libraries Support Open Access
Abstract
We measured the concentrations of 837 hydroxylated polychlorinated biphenyls (OH-PCBs, in 275 chromatographic peaks) and 209 polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs, in 174 chromatographic peaks) in sediments from New Bedford Harbor in Massachusetts, Altavista wastewater lagoon in Virginia, and the Indiana Harbor and Ship Canal in Indiana, USA and in the original commercial PCB mixtures Aroclors 1016, 1242, 1248, and 1254. We used the correlation between homologues and the peak responses to quantify the full suite of OH-PCBs including those without authentic standards available. We found that OH-PCB levels are approximately 0.4% of the PCB levels in sediments and less than 0.0025% in Aroclors. The OH-PCB congener distributions of sediments are different from those of Aroclors and are different according to sites. We also identified a previously unknown compound, 4-OH-PCB52, which together with 4'-OH-PCB18 made up almost 30% of the OH-PCBs in New Bedford Harbor sediments but less than 1.2% in the Aroclors and 3.3% in any other sediments. This indicates site-specific environmental transformations of PCBs to OH-PCBs. We conclude that the majority of OH-PCBs in these sediments are generated in the environment. Our findings suggest that these toxic breakdown products of PCBs are prevalent in PCB-contaminated sediments and present an emerging concern for humans and ecosystems.
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- Hydroxylated Polychlorinated Biphenyls Are Emerging Legacy Pollutants in Contaminated Sediments
- Creators
- Panithi Saktrakulkla - Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, IIHR-Hydroscience and Engineering, The University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa 52242, United StatesXueshu Li - Department of Occupational and Environmental Health, College of Public Health, The University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa 52242, United StatesAndres Martinez - Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, IIHR-Hydroscience and Engineering, The University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa 52242, United StatesHans-Joachim Lehmler - Department of Occupational and Environmental Health, College of Public Health, The University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa 52242, United StatesKeri C Hornbuckle - Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, IIHR-Hydroscience and Engineering, The University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa 52242, United States
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Publication Details
- Environmental science & technology, Vol.56(4), pp.2269-2278
- DOI
- 10.1021/acs.est.1c04780
- PMID
- 35107261
- PMCID
- PMC8851693
- NLM abbreviation
- Environ Sci Technol
- eISSN
- 1520-5851
- Publisher
- American Chemical Society
- Grant note
- DOI: 10.13039/100000066, name: National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, award: P42ES013661
- Language
- English
- Date published
- 02/02/2022
- Academic Unit
- Civil and Environmental Engineering; Occupational and Environmental Health; Iowa Neuroscience Institute; IIHR--Hydroscience and Engineering; Iowa Superfund Research Program; Interdisciplinary Programs
- Record Identifier
- 9984213307002771
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