Exposure to PCBs, through inhalation, dermal contact and dust ingestion at Taizhou, China – A major site for recycling transformers

Abstract

Air samples containing gaseous and particulate phases were collected from e-waste workplaces and residential areas of an intensive e-waste recycling area and compared with a reference site. The highest total concentration of PCBs was detected at transformer recycling workshops (17.6 ng m −3), followed by the residential area (3.37 ng m −3) at Taizhou, and the lowest was obtained at the residential area of the reference site, Lin’an (0.46 ng m −3). The same trend was also observed with regards to PCB levels in dust samples. The highest average PCBs level of 2824 ng g −1 (dry wt) was found in the transformer recycling workshops, and was significantly higher than that of residential areas of Taizhou (572 ng g −1 dry wt) and Lin’an (42.4 ng g −1 dry wt). WHO-PCB-TEQ level in the workshops of Taizhou was 2216 pg TEQ 1998 g −1 dry wt or 2159 pg TEQ 2005 g −1 dry wt, due to the high abundance of PCB 126 (21.5 ng g −1 dry wt), which contributed 97% or 99% of WHO-PCB-TEQs. The estimated intake of PCBs via dust ingestion and dermal absorption by transformer recycling workers were 77.5 × 10 −5 and 36.0 × 10 −5 pg WHO-PCB-TEQ 1998 kg −1 d −1, and 67.3 × 10 −5 and 31.3 × 10 −5 pg WHO-PCB-TEQ 2005 kg −1 d −1, respectively.