Short- and medium-chain chlorinated paraffins in urban road dust of Shanghai, China: concentrations, source apportionment and human exposure assessment.

Abstract

Chlorinated paraffins (CPs) are ubiquitous anthropogenic contaminants that have been found in various environmental media. The objective of this study was to determine concentrations, spatial distribution, possible sources and potential health risk of SCCPs and MCCPs in urban road dust collected from Shanghai, China. The concentrations ranged from 9.74 to 11,400ngg-1 for ΣSCCPs, 44.1 to 49,900ngg-1 for ΣMCCPs and 53.9 to 61,400ngg-1 for total CPs, respectively. MCCPs were the dominant component in all road dust, averagely accounting for 82.8% of total CPs. The concentrations of CPs in dust collected from traffic and commercial areas were significantly higher than those from campus, industrial, park and residential areas (p < 0.01), which could be attributed to tire wear in heavy traffic. All dust samples were divided into two groups by hierarchical cluster analysis for both SCCPs and MCCPs, and the most abundant homologue groups in most samples were C10Cl7-10 and C13Cl7-9 for SCCPs, and C14Cl7-9 and C15Cl8-9 for MCCPs. Correlation analysis showed that all carbon homologues in road dusts were highly correlated each other, suggesting SCCPs and MCCPs in dust maybe came from similar sources. Three sources for CPs in dust samples were apportioned by the PMF model; their relative contributions to the total CPs burden in dust were 25.6% for factor 1 (commercial CP mixture), 13.7% for factor 2 (long-distance transport) and 60.7% for factor 3 (commercial CP mixture). The median estimated daily intakes of total CPs via road dust were 1.78 × 10-5 for children and 3.0 × 10-6mgkg-1day-1 for adults, respectively. Quantitative risk assessment using non-cancer hazard index and total margin of exposure of total CPs indicated that total CPs at the present level in road dust pose no significant risk for both children and adults in Shanghai.