title: Polychlorinated biphenyls in respirable particulate matter from different industrial areas in northern China.
abstract: As two typical industrial bases of China's great metropolises, Lingfen and Datong are affected by the steel industry, chemical plants, coal-fired power plants, and several coking plants, and face pollution from polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). Therefore, this study was conducted to determine the PCB concentrations in PM2.5 and PM2.5-10 samples obtained in Lingfen and Datong. We collected 22 respirable particulate matter samples (11 of PM2.5 and 11 of PM2.5-10) from Lingfen and Datong, and measured a total of 144 PCB congeners. The total PCB concentrations were 5.92-38.7 pg m(-3) (median: 21.58 pg m(-3)) in PM2.5 and 1.83-40.8 pg m(-3) (median: 24.3 pg m(-3)) in PM2.5-10 in Linfen, and 4.33-18.5 pg m(-3) (median: 11.9 pg m(-3)) in PM2.5 and 13.0-47.4 pg m(-3) (median: 17.4 pg m(-3)) in PM2.5-10 in Datong. Of the PCB homologues, the dominant PCBs detected in the various media were all trichlorobiphenyls (tri-CBs). Moreover, the PCB distributions in PM2.5 and PM2.5-10 samples were quite different in the two cities. This may be caused by the differences of the industrial structures, and their relatively unintentional release of PCBs in these cities. Source analysis revealed that the major PCB contaminants in Linfen and Datong were tri-CBs and di-CBs, which were possibly associated with unintentional release of PCBs. Toxic equivalency concentrations based on ten dioxin-like PCBs ranged from 4.0×10(-5) to 2.3×10(-3) pgWHO-TEQ m(-3) in Linfen, and 4.5×10(-4) to 2.6×10(-4) pgWHO-TEQ m(-3) in Datong. The presence of PCB pollution is a potential threat to the residents of Datong and Linfen.
authors.affiliation: School of Earth Sciences and Resources, China University of Geosciences, Beijing 100083, People's Republic of China; State Key Laboratory of Environmental Chemistry and Ecotoxicology, Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Post Office Box 2871, Beijing 100085, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Haifeng
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Nie
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Environmental Chemistry and Ecotoxicology, Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Post Office Box 2871, Beijing 100085, People's Republic of China. Electronic address: fushan@rcees.ac.cn.
authors.forename: Shan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Fu
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Environmental Chemistry and Ecotoxicology, Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Post Office Box 2871, Beijing 100085, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Yuan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Dong
authors.affiliation: School of Earth Sciences and Resources, China University of Geosciences, Beijing 100083, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Zhongfang
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Yang
mesh_terms: D000393:Air Pollutants / Q000032:analysis*; D002681:China; D002947:Cities; D004784:Environmental Monitoring; D007220:Industrial Waste / Q000032:analysis*; D052638:Particulate Matter / Q000032:analysis*; D011078:Polychlorinated Biphenyls / Q000032:analysis*; D013232:Steel / Q000737:chemistry
chemical_list: D000393:Air Pollutants; D007220:Industrial Waste; D052638:Particulate Matter; D013232:Steel; D011078:Polychlorinated Biphenyls
keywords: China; Industrial area; Polychlorinated biphenyls; Respirable particulate matter