Distribution, historical trends and inventories of polychlorinated biphenyls in sediment from Yangtze River Estuary and adjacent East China Sea

Date

2012

Authors

Zhang, Carl

Journal Title

Journal ISSN

Volume Title

Publisher

Environmental Pollution

Abstract

A large portion of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) from e-waste released into the coastal areas may be the potential source of PCBs to the global oceans. The paper presents data of PCBs concentrations in fifty surface sediment samples and a dated sediment core in Yangtze River Delta (YRE) and adjacent East China Sea (ECS). The total PCBs levels varied from 5.08 to 19.64 ng/g dry weight, with the highest concentrations situate within the river-sea boundary zone which is so-called “marginal filter”. Concurrent with the operation of e-waste recycling over the last two decades, PCB fluxes started to rise again after 1980s and reached a maximum in this century. The full data set was used to estimate the burden of PCBs in YRE and adjacent ECS. A total sediment burdens were 192.8 tons, with the spatial density of 364 ng/cm2 which accounts for 1.9% of all the PCBs in China.

Description

Keywords

Polychlorinated biphenylsSediment PCBsE-wasteEstuarySpatial patternPCB source

Citation

Yang H, Zhuo S, Xue B, Zhang C, Liu W (2012), Distribution, historical trends and inventories of polychlorinated biphenyls in sediments from Yangtze River Estuary and adjacent East China Sea, Environmental Pollution, 169:20-26.