Congener Profiles and Source-Wise Phase Partitioning Analysis of PCDDs/Fs and PCBs in Gyeonggi-Do Ambient Air, South Korea

Jongwon Heo, Donggi Kim and Gangwoong Lee
Additional contact information
Jongwon Heo: Gyeonggi-Do Institute of Health and Environment, Suwon 440-290, Korea
Donggi Kim: Gyeonggi-Do Institute of Health and Environment, Suwon 440-290, Korea
Gangwoong Lee: Department of Environmental Science, Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, Yongin 449-791, Korea

IJERPH, 2014, vol. 11, issue 11, 1-16

Abstract: The atmospheric concentrations and gas–particle partitioning of polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins and furans (PCDDs/Fs) and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) were investigated at two sites (Suwon and Ansan) in Gyeonggi-do, a heavily industrialized area of Korea, during the year 2010. The sum level (?17) of PCDDs/Fs and dioxin-like PCBs (dl-PCBs) in the ambient air at Suwon and Ansan ranged from 0.04 to 0.30 pg-TEQ·m ? 3 (geometric mean: 0.09 pg-TEQ·m ? 3 ) and 0.17 to 0.63 pg-TEQ·m ? 3 (geometric mean: 0.36 pg-TEQ·m ? 3 ), respectively. Moreover, the geometric mean concentrations of ?180 PCBs at Suwon and Ansan were 233.6 pg·m ? 3 and 274.2 pg·m ? 3 , respectively, and di-chlorinated biphenyls and tri-chlorinated biphenyls were the predominant homologs. Among the PCB congeners, 3,3'-dichlorobiphenyl (PCB-11) was the dominant species at both sites during all sampling periods, comprising up to 15.1% of ?180 PCBs at Ansan and 24.6% at Suwon. We evaluated their gas-to-particle equilibriums by conducting regression between the particle–gas partition coefficient K p (m 3 ·ug ?1 ) and the corresponding subcooled liquid vapor pressure (P L °). The slope (m) values for log–log plots of K p vs. P L ° were steeper in industrial areas owing to local source proximity. Moreover, owing to enhanced emissions from combustion-related sources at low temperatures, PCDD/Fs exhibited the largest deviation from the regression line of the particle–gas partition coefficient. Incinerators were found to be the primary emission source of atmospheric PCDDs/Fs, whereas re-evaporation from pre-existing environmental loads (e.g., storage areas or spilled soil and water bodies) was the dominant source for PCBs.

Keywords: PCDDs/Fs; PCBs; congener profiles; gas-particle partitioning; Korea (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/11/11/11065/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/11/11/11065/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:11:y:2014:i:11:p:11065-11080:d:41611

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().