Abstract

Polyurethane foam (PUF) disk passive samplers were deployed at one inland and two island locations in the Bothnian Bay region of the northern Baltic Sea. Uptake was linear over 81-147 d and a temperature range of -2.6 to 14.2 degrees C for organochlorine pesticides (OCPs) and current-use pesticides (CUPs) having log K-OA >= 9 at ambient temperatures. Partial saturation of the PUF disks occurred for the more volatile OCPs hexachlorocyclohexanes (HCHs) and hexachlorobenzene (HCB), and for bromoanisoles (BAs), which are products of bromophenols released by natural and anthropogenic sources. Correction for nonlinear uptake of these was made using experimentally measured PUF-air partition coefficients. Passive-derived air concentrations of pesticides were uniform over the bay and agreed within a factor of 2 or better with levels determined by active (pumped) sampling at one of the island stations. Levels of OCPs were similar to those reported at background sites in the European and Canadian Arctic and at monitoring stations in the central Baltic and southern Scandinavia, indicating long-range transport. The insecticide chlorpyrifos was 10 times lower at bay stations than in the Canadian Arctic. Insight to sources and processes was gained by examining compound profiles. Fractions F-alpha = alpha-HCH/(alpha-HCH + gamma-HCH) and f(TC) = trans-chlordane/(trans-chlordane + cis-chlordane) at bay stations were higher than in the Norwegian and Finnish Arctic and similar to those at the southern monitoring stations. Volatilization of chlordanes from Baltic seawater may also modify F-TC. Higher F-TriBA = 2,4,6-TriBA/(2,4,6-TriBA + 2,4-DiBA) distinguished local volatilization from the Baltic Sea versus lower F-TriBA found at the inland site and reported in air on the Norwegian coast, suggesting westerly transport from the Atlantic across Norway and Sweden. (C) 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords

Passive air sampling; Polyurethane foam; Pesticides; Halogenated Natural Products; Baltic Sea

Published in

Environmental Pollution
2017, Volume: 225, pages: 381-389
Publisher: ELSEVIER SCI LTD

SLU Authors

• Laudon, Hjalmar

  • Department of Forest Ecology and Management, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

UKÄ Subject classification

Environmental Sciences


Publication identifier

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envpol.2017.02.064

Permanent link to this page (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/83653