title: Polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) in soils along a rural-urban-rural transect: sources, concentration gradients, and profiles.
abstract: This study reports concentrations of PBDEs in surface soil samples collected along a 140 km transect across Kuwait to assess the role of urban centers as sources of persistent organic pollutants to the surrounding environment. The ΣPBDE concentrations varied by a factor of ~250 and ranged from 289 to 80,078 pgg (-1)d.w. The concentrations of PBDEs in Kuwait City were significantly higher (p<0.01) than those collected from sites outside the city supporting the hypothesis that urban centers are sources of PBDEs. The congener profiles were dominated by BDE-209, accounting for 93% of the PBDEs in the soil samples. The concentrations of all congeners (except BDE-209) were highly correlated with percent organic carbon (%OC) (p>0.05) when the data from Kuwait City was omitted from the analysis. These findings suggest that soil concentrations outside the urban centers were close to equilibrium with the atmosphere.
authors.affiliation: Department of Environmental Science, Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research, PO Box 24885, Safat 13109, Kuwait. bgevao@kisr.edu.kw
authors.forename: Bondi
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Gevao
authors.forename: Abdul Nabi
authors.initials: AN
authors.lastname: Ghadban
authors.forename: Saif
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Uddin
authors.forename: Foday M
authors.initials: FM
authors.lastname: Jaward
authors.forename: Majed
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Bahloul
authors.forename: Jamal
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zafar
mesh_terms: D002947:Cities; D004784:Environmental Monitoring; D055768:Halogenated Diphenyl Ethers / Q000032:analysis*; D007730:Kuwait; D012424:Rural Population; D012989:Soil Pollutants / Q000032:analysis*
chemical_list: D055768:Halogenated Diphenyl Ethers; D012989:Soil Pollutants