Abstract
Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) have been withdrawn from the market due to their toxicity, bioaccumulation capacity, and persistence. PCBs have been observed to potentially form in combustion processes under appropriate conditions and in the presence of precursors containing chlorine. The study covered a municipal waste incineration plant and an industrial waste incineration plant. The objective of the study was to assess the effect of these objects on PCB accumulation in soil and plants taking into account the distance from the emission object and wind direction. Soil samples were collected from layers: 0-5, 5-10, 10-20, and 20-30 cm. Test plants were collected from the same areas as the soil samples. The highest accumulation of PCBs was found in plants with large leaf area. Around the municipal waste incineration plant, these were Tanacetum vulgare leaves (12.45 ng/g), and around the industrial waste incineration plant–grasses (4.3 ng/g). In the case of soils, the accumulation of PCBs for both kind waste incinerators was similar, reaching approximately 3 ng/g. As the distance from the municipal waste incinerator and industrial waste incinerator increased, the accumulation of PCBs in the soil decreased. For municipal waste incinerator, no effect of wind direction on PCB accumulation in the soil was observed. In the majority of cases, the accumulation of PCBs in soils taken from the leeward side of the industrial waste incinerator was higher than that in soils from the windward side. In soils around the municipal waste incinerator, PCB compounds moved deep into the soil and reached the highest accumulation in the soil layer of 10-20 cm or 20-30 cm. In soils around the industrial waste incinerator, the highest accumulation of PCBs occurred in the soil layer of 0-5 cm.
Highlights
Due to the high toxicity of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), their lipophilicity, and bioaccumulation capacity, polychlorinated biphenyls have been taken out of service [1,2,3,4]
The soils around the municipal waste incinerator developed from loose sands or weakly clayey sands
In the case of MWI, PCBs were observed to move to deeper soil layers, with the highest accumulation of PCBs determined in the layer 20-30 cm due to the loose structure of the analysed soils
Summary
Due to the high toxicity of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), their lipophilicity, and bioaccumulation capacity, polychlorinated biphenyls have been taken out of service [1,2,3,4]. In the process of secondary incineration, a large part of coplanar PCBs is destroyed. Another way of PCBs formation is de novo synthesis [7]. It was found that, depending on the combustion conditions, large quantities of PCBs with a low level of chlorination, or PCBs with a high level of toxicity may be formed in incineration plants [13]. In the United Kingdom, the most frequently detected PCB congeners in the exhaust gases from waste incineration plants were 118, 123, and 180 [18]. The amount of PCBs produced in the exhaust gases was measured, and the following results were obtained for the reactor: 3284.46 ng/kg of biomass and 1.68 ng/kg of burnt biomass for the household stove [20]. By adding a mixture of inhibitors such as (NH4)2SO4, (NH4)2S2O3, and (NH2)2CO + S (1:1) the formation of PCBs can be significantly reduced [21]
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