title: Brominated flame retardants in the atmosphere of E-waste and rural sites in southern China: seasonal variation, temperature dependence, and gas-particle partitioning.
abstract: The recycling of electrical and electronic waste(e-waste) in developing countries has attracted much attention as a significant source of brominated flame retardants (BFRs).Gaseous and particle-bound BFRs were measured in the atmosphere at e-waste and rural sites in southern China during 2007-2008. The annual average concentrations in the air were 3260 ± 3370 and 219 ± 192 pg/m³ for polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) and were 546 ± 547 and 165 ± 144 pg/m³ for non-PBDE BFRs at the e-waste and rural sites,respectively. PBDEs had unusually high relative concentrations of di- and tribrominated congeners at the e-waste site. The Clausius-Clapeyron (CC) plots showed that the gaseous concentrations of less brominated BFRs (di- through hexa-BFRs) were strongly controlled by temperature-driven evaporation from contaminated surfaces (e.g., e-waste, soils, and recycled e-waste remains) except for winter. However, weak temperature dependence at the rural site suggests that regional or long-range atmospheric transport was largely responsible for the air concentrations. Gas-particle partitioning (KP) of PBDEs correlated well with the subcooled liquid vapor pressure (PL(o)) for most sampling events. The varied slopes of log KP versus log PL(o) plots for the e-waste site (-0.59 to -1.29) indicated an influence of ambient temperature and atmospheric particle properties on the partitioning behavior of BFRs. The flat slopes (-0.23 to -0.80) for the rural site implied an absorption-dominant partitioning. This paper suggests that e-waste recycling in Asian low-latitude regions is a significant source of less brominated BFRs and has important implications for their global transport from warm to colder climate
authors: State Key Laboratory of Organic Geochemistry, Guangzhou Institute of Geochemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou 510640, China.
authors: Mi
authors: M
authors: Tian
authors: She-Jun
authors: SJ
authors: Chen
authors: Jing
authors: J
authors: Wang
authors: Xiao-Bo
authors: XB
authors: Zheng
authors: Xiao-Jun
authors: XJ
authors: Luo
authors: Bi-Xian
authors: BX
authors: Mai
mesh_terms: D000393:Air Pollutants / Q000032:analysis*; D002681:China; D059029:Electronic Waste / Q000032:analysis; D004784:Environmental Monitoring / Q000379:methods*; D005411:Flame Retardants / Q000032:analysis*; D055768:Halogenated Diphenyl Ethers / Q000032:analysis; D012621:Seasons; D013696:Temperature
chemical_list: D000393:Air Pollutants; D005411:Flame Retardants; D055768:Halogenated Diphenyl Ethers