Abstract
Large amount of phthalate esters (PAEs) used as plasticizers in polyvinyl chloride (PVC) products has caused ubiquitous contamination to the environment and potential ecology security risk all around the world, especially in places plastic films were indispensably utilized due to the widely proposing of facility agriculture in China. A case of PAEs contamination in four suburb areas of Nanjing was analyzed and discussed in this study. A new frame work has been put forward based on multi-criteria evaluation model and mathematical method of catastrophe theory, using farming work, laboratory determination and relevant environmental standards to measure the ecology security risk of PAEs in study areas. The factors were selected based on the availability of the data and the local conditions. The assessment model involves the contamination status of PAEs in soil and vegetables, the contamination effects of PAEs to human and soil organisms and the contamination source of PAEs from plastic films and other products in the four study facility agriculture areas. An evaluation system of the model was composed of thirteen mesosphere indicators and twenty-five underlying indicators including total PAEs concentration in soils, single PAE concentration in soils, total PAEs concentrations in roots, leafy, solanaceous and stem vegetables, PAE human risks, soil microbial counts, microorganism diversity indices, atmospheric deposition of PAEs, whether sewage wastewater irrigation, planting mode of the facility agriculture areas and climate condition of study areas. The modified evaluation system was used in the assessment of ecology security of the same place based on the data of 2012, and the results suggested that the ecology security indicators were reliable and were agree well with the practical situation of the study areas. The results could provide guidance for the application of health risk assessment of soil environment for the strong objectivity of catastrophe theory compared with other evaluation methods.
Highlights
Agricultural production is the foundation of human society sustainable development, providing food crops, economic crops, vegetables and fruits, which could solve the problem of food and clothing for human survival and reproduction and provide the necessary nutrients for human survival and health
We developed a catastrophe model for the assessment of ecology security of the selected four study area contaminated by phthalate esters (PAEs), selecting the environment and the living creatures as the most noteworthy factors based on the weight of data from 2011, to obtain a better understanding of the ecology security risk of target PAEs
Contamination status of PAEs in soils and vegetables In Tables 3 and 4 and Fig 2A, the initial data collected in December, 2011 [6] and the annual statistical meteorological data of the indicators in the setup catastrophe model describing A1) contamination source, A2) contamination status and A3) contamination effects of the soils in four study areas in suburb Nanjing were listed
Summary
Agricultural production is the foundation of human society sustainable development, providing food crops, economic crops, vegetables and fruits, which could solve the problem of food and clothing for human survival and reproduction and provide the necessary nutrients for human survival and health. The main target pollutants of this study, phthalate esters or phthalic esters (PAEs), which have been utilized all over the world as the most common plasticizers, are the most critical component in films of facility agriculture and are easy to release into different environmental matrix and cause damage to different groups of organisms [1,2,3,4]. During the management of the intensive vegetable cultivation, exponentially increased application of fertilizers and pesticide dose, plus the long time high temperature and high humidity of the internal environment of the greenhouses, has made the characteristics of the soil and the releasing of the PAEs in plastic films much easier. In facility agriculture production areas, the ecology security risk caused by target PAEs pollutants should be taken into consideration and focused on because the intake of PAEs could be both carcinogenic and reproductive toxic [9]
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