Persistent organic pollutants (POPs) are defined by their characteristic properties in the environment, such as adverse effects on humans and other organisms, a low degradation rate, a potential for bioaccumulation and long range-transport. These properties are the reason that POPs are monitored in remote regions, like the Polar Regions and open oceans, even though they were mostly used in populated areas (urban or rural). A group of POPs was banned under the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants in 2001 by a number of countries and more chemicals have been added to the list subsequently. To assess the effect of international regulation more information about the long-term fate of these chemicals, the transport processes and the exchange between different environmental media is needed. The first part of this thesis describes long-term trends of POPs such as polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) in the environmental compartment air. One study discusses the trends that were observed with passive air samplers in remote locations along a transect across the UK and Norway. The air• concentrations monitored from 1994 to 2008 at 11 sites showed a general decline. While the total air concentrations decreased with increasing latitude, the decline rates did not differ between sampling sites. A second study discusses the trends of PCBs in the UK atmosphere for urban and rural sites. As in the remote areas, a steady decline was observed following first order kinetics. The PCB concentrations at each sampling site were directly proportional to the population density of the area. It was therefore concluded that air concentrations of PCBs are currently still defined by the direct input from primary source emissions and the observed decline mirrors a decline in emission. In order to assess the fate of POPs in other environmental media soil cores were collected following the transect for the passive air data across the UK and Norway. The soil cores were collected at identical locations ten years earlier. A direct comparison of the data between the sampling years proved that the decline in soil is more variable than in air for most monitored POPs. While there were nearly no changes in soil concentrations of organochlorine pesticides, there was a slight decline for PCBs and a strong decline for PBDEs. Changes in the burden, of PCBs per unit soil organic matter between 1998 and 2008 indicate the approach of soil-air equilibrium for the monitored sites. However chiral data and atmospheric data from the regions indicate that the influence of re-volatilization contributed only a minor component of the air burden of PCBs in remote areas of northern Europe. Important tools in monitoring regional and temporal trends of POPs are passive air samplers, which can be deployed at low cost in remote areas. A new type of sampling medium. the sorbent-impregnated polyurethane foam (SIP) disk, was assessed for its applicability for long-term monitoring of PCBs, PBDEs and hexachlorobenzene. Long-term deployment is a necessity for areas with low concentrations. In order to estimate the most precise atmospheric concentrations from the chemicals sequestered on the sampling medium, it would be preferable if the sampler and atmosphere are not in equilibrium and the sampled air volume is therefore directly proportional to the deployment time. It was found that the SIP disk presents a valid alternative to other established passive air sampling media. The last part of the thesis discusses a group of emerging POPs, the perfluorinated compounds (PFCs). PFCs were monitored in a passive air sampling campaign in different Asian countries. Differences were observed in the PFC composition at different sampling sites. These were explained with different usage pattern and regulations in the different countries. Further research is required to gain deeper understanding the transfer mechanism between different environmental compartments for POPs. The application of a model is needed to assess the increasing influence of secondary sources, i.e. revolatilisation from soils on atmospheric concentrations. While long-term studies for emerging compounds already exist, it is necessary to establish similar monitoring campaigns for emerging chemicals.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:618816 |
| Date | January 2011 |
| Creators | Schuster, Jasmin |
| Publisher | Lancaster University |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
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