Do trans-Pacific air masses deliver PBDEs to coastal British Columbia, Canada?
In order to distinguish between 'local' and 'background' sources of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) in coastal British Columbia (Canada) air, we collected samples from two sites: a remote site on western Vancouver Island, and a near-urban site in the Strait of Georgia. Seasonally-integrated samples of vapor, particulate, and rain were collected continuously during 365 days for analysis of 275 PCB and PBDE congeners. While deposition of the legacy PCBs was similar at both sampling sites, deposition of PBDEs at the remote site amounted to 42% (10.4 mg/ha/year) of that at the near-urban site. Additional research into atmospheric circulation in the NE Pacific Ocean will provide more insight into the transport and fate of priority pollutants in this region, but trans-Pacific delivery of PBDEs to the west coast of North America may underlie in part our observations. For example, approximately 40% of >12,000 ten-day back trajectories calculated for the remote site originated over Asia, compared to only 2% over North America.
Noël
Marie
M
Institute of Ocean Sciences, Fisheries and Oceans Canada, 9860 West Saanich Road, PO Box 6000, Sidney, British Columbia V8L 4B2, Canada.
Dangerfield
Neil
N
Hourston
Roy A S
RA
Belzer
Wayne
W
Shaw
Pat
P
Yunker
Mark B
MB
Ross
Peter S
PS
D000393:Air Pollutants / Q000032:analysis*; D001208:Asia; D001955:British Columbia; D004784:Environmental Monitoring; D055768:Halogenated Diphenyl Ethers / Q000032:analysis*; D009656:North America; D011891:Rain / Q000737:chemistry
D000393:Air Pollutants; D055768:Halogenated Diphenyl Ethers