Abstract
We measured the concentrations of 837 hydroxylated polychlorinated biphenyls (OH-PCBs, in 275 chromatographic peaks) and 209 polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs, in 174 chromatographic peaks) in sediments from New Bedford Harbor in Massachusetts, Altavista wastewater lagoon in Virginia, and the Indiana Harbor and Ship Canal in Indiana, USA and in the original commercial PCB mixtures Aroclors 1016, 1242, 1248, and 1254. We used the correlation between homologues and the peak responses to quantify the full suite of OH-PCBs including those without authentic standards available. We found that OH-PCB levels are approximately 0.4% of the PCB levels in sediments and less than 0.0025% in Aroclors. The OH-PCB congener distributions of sediments are different from those of Aroclors and are different according to sites. We also identified a previously unknown compound, 4-OH-PCB52, which together with 4′-OH-PCB18 made up almost 30% of the OH-PCBs in New Bedford Harbor sediments but less than 1.2% in the Aroclors and 3.3% in any other sediments. This indicates site-specific environmental transformations of PCBs to OH-PCBs. We conclude that the majority of OH-PCBs in these sediments are generated in the environment. Our findings suggest that these toxic breakdown products of PCBs are prevalent in PCB-contaminated sediments and present an emerging concern for humans and ecosystems.
Highlights
Mono-hydroxylated polychlorinated biphenyls (OH-PCBs) are major oxidative products of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), a group of persistent organic pollutants.[1−7] OHPCBs have been reported in biota, air, and sediments,[8−13] their prevalence and origin in the environment are not fully understood
The metabolism is mediated through cytochrome P450 monooxygenase (CYP450) by direct electrophilic addition of oxygen or by the formation of a transient reactive arene oxide and the spontaneous rearrangement to OH-PCBs.[1−4,19,20] OH-PCB metabolites formed in the living organisms can enter the food chain and be released into the environment.[2]
Sediments, we found that the total OH-PCB concentrations range from 9.9 to 18 μg/g dry weight (DW) with a geometric mean (GM) concentration of 12 μg/g DW, and the total PCB concentrations range from 240 to 3800 μg/g DW with a GM concentration of 1500 μg/g DW
Summary
Mono-hydroxylated polychlorinated biphenyls (OH-PCBs) are major oxidative products of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), a group of persistent organic pollutants.[1−7] OHPCBs have been reported in biota, air, and sediments,[8−13] their prevalence and origin in the environment are not fully understood. We report for the first time the total OH-PCB concentrations and their congener-specific distributions in sediments and in Aroclors.
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