title: Levels and isomer profiles of dechlorane plus in Chinese air.
abstract: The highly chlorinated flame retardant, Dechlorane Plus (DP), was measured in air across 97 Chinese urban and rural sites. DP was detected in 51 of these sites, with a mean air concentration in urban centers (15.6 +/- 15.1 pg m(-3)) approximately 5 times greater than those measured in rural areas (3.5 +/- 5.6 pg m(-3)). These DP levels were likely attributable to local sources rather than trans-boundary influences. Elevated urban levels were measured along the southeastern coast and in south-central China; the highest concentration was observed in the city of Kunming (66 pg m(-3)). Few of the urban samples (7%) and a majority of the rural samples (62%) were below the method detection limit, notably areas in rural central and northeastern China. The mean fractional abundance of the syn-DP isomer (f(syn)) in all samples was 0.33 +/- 0.10, values indistinguishable from that of a commercial mixture (f(syn) = 0.35). This paper represents the first report on DP levels in Chinese air, together with isomeric ratio profiles from urban and rural sites.
authors.affiliation: International Joint Research Center for Persistent Toxic Substances (IJRC-PTS), State Key Laboratory of Urban Water Resource and Environment, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin, Heilongjiang, China.
authors.forename: Nanqi
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Ren
authors.forename: Ed
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Sverko
authors.forename: Yi-Fan
authors.initials: YF
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Zhi
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Tom
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Harner
authors.forename: Degao
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Xinnan
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Wan
authors.forename: Brian E
authors.initials: BE
authors.lastname: McCarry
mesh_terms: D000393:Air Pollutants / Q000032:analysis* / Q000737:chemistry; D002681:China; D006843:Hydrocarbons, Chlorinated / Q000032:analysis* / Q000737:chemistry; D007536:Isomerism; D011083:Polycyclic Compounds / Q000032:analysis* / Q000737:chemistry
chemical_list: D000393:Air Pollutants; D006843:Hydrocarbons, Chlorinated; D011083:Polycyclic Compounds; C526360:dechlorane plus