Residue Levels And Characteristics Of Typical Polybrominated Diphenyl Ethers In Indoor Environment Of Hangzhou City

Halogenated flame retardants (HFRs) including chloride and bromide flame retardants are common pollutants in indoor environment and are widely used in paint, textiles, circuit board, especially plastic housing of electrical and electronic products (E&E). Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), Dechloranes and polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) are three typical HFRs. PBDEs threaten the health of human including the liver, endocrine system, nervous system and reproductive system. The studies and pollution treatments of HFRs are of great urgency but the research into dealing with HFRs indoors is limited. This work investigated the concentrations, distributions and influencing factors of dechlorane plus (DP), PCBs and PBDEs in the housings and the offices of Hangzhou urban areas by using passive sampling technology.Ubiquitous PBDEs were tested in all sampling points. The concentrations of PBDES in offices (227.52pg/m3) was higher than PBDES in housings (123.46pg/m3) because of a large number of E&E in the offices. Comparing the concentration of PBDEs indoors of other areas at home and abroad, indoor Polybrominateddiphenyl ethers pollution in Hangzhou was below medium-polluting level but indoor BDE209pollution in Hangzhou was above medium-polluting level. BED209was predominant composition of PBDEs homologues, and next were BDE47and BDE99. It indicated that decabromodiphenyl oxide was using mainly in the offices of Hangzhou and commercial grade Octabromodiphenyl ether was rarely used. Concentrations of PBDEs in indoor air had a significantly positive correlation with the number of electrical equipment, the serviceof electrical equipment,the using of E&E indoors was the major emission source of PBDEs. The decoration, the furniture, the type and the condition of E&E, using time of the house and ventilation habits were also important to the PBDEs emission.PCBs were discovered in sampling points,the average concentrations of PCBs in housings get to1387.29pg/m3。The office samplings is2700.01pg/m,which was significantly higher than those in the housings and generally lower than abroad study reported. Air conditionings and computers were used frequently in winter. Comparing with high chlorinated homologues monomer, the detectable rate and the concentration of low chlorinated homologues monomer indoors which were mainly trichloro and tetrachloro compounds were high. The composition of homologues indoors in Hangzhou was familiar with commercial production of PCBs in the world. The spatial position and the decoration decided the concentrations of PCBs in high-rise buildings were much lower than in low-rise buildings. The use of E&E products was the primary source of PCBs in indoor air. In addition, ventilation habit of residents was an important factor.The average concentrations of DP got to84.89pg/m3in housings, and133.72pg/m3in office samplings.The concentration of DP in the office was much higher than in the house and it was probably related to more E&E products in the offices in winter. Average values of syn-DP fractional abundance in the house and in the office were0.38and0.39respectively. It was basically in accord with commercial grade fsyn-DP in the range of0.200-0.360. The use and the spread of commercial grade DP were main sources of DP in indoor air.