Study On Distribution Of Polycyclic Musks In Water Of Songhua River

As a cheap substitute of natural musks, polycyclic musks have been widely used as fragrance materials in detergent, cosmetic and perfume. Polycyclic musks exhibit the same physical and chemical properties as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), which have a strong lipophilic, hydrophobic and easily gathered in the organic phase. In addition, they degraded slowly in the environment. They have a strong bioaccumulation and show a certain level of estrogen activity if their concentrations are high enough. Therefore, the concentration levels of polycyclic musks in the environmental researches have become the focus of scientific research workers.Polycyclic musks are commonly found in water environment; however, little information is available in Chinese water bodies, especially in those of northeastern China. In this study, totally 16 water and sediment samples in the content of polycyclic musks were detected in the Songhua River basin in northeastern China from 2006 to 2009 in order to analyze their spatial and temporal trends, and influent and effluent samples of 7 municipal STPs (sewage treatment plants) were collected in Songhua River in 2009 to analyze the concentration levels and distribution of polycyclic musks in STPS of Songhua River; two representative polycyclic musks, galaxolide? (HHCB) and tonalide? (AHTN), were measured in surface water samples of Songhua River using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) in order to observe the distribution and concentration ratios of these compounds between dissolved aqueous phase and particle phase.Each sample was divided into suspended particle matter (SPM) phase and dissolved liquid (DL) phase by vacuum filtration with a 0.45μm filter. Concentrations of HHCB and AHTN in DL phase were in the range of 40~27 and 16~84 ng/L, respectively, while the ranges in SPM phase were 6.0~51 ng/L for HHCB and 5.0~20 ng/L for AHTN. Concentrations in DL phase were about 1.9~10.3 and 1.9~6.7 times higher than those in SPM phase for HHCB and AHTN, respectively, indicating that polycyclic musks mainly exist in DL phase.HHCB and AHTN presented much higher concentrations (1500~3400 ng/L for HHCB and 230~530 ng/L for AHTN) in effluents, showing that STP effluents were the main source of polycyclic musks, which is supported by the fact that higher concentration of polycyclic musks were usaually found at the downstream of the STPs and the cities. In addition, water and sediment samples in the total concentration of polycyclic musk showed an increasing trend year by year with annual growth rates in water were 1.53 and 1.48 for HHCB and AHTN respectively, in sediment were 1.18 and 1.07. The concentration levels of polycyclic musks in Songhua River is relatively low in comparison to those in other water bodies, but the long-term exposure to low concentrations of polycyclic musks in the environment still has the potential risk to human health. Therefore, we need to control concentration levels of polycyclic musks in the environment, and pay a great attention to strengthen the management to prevent the aggravation of pollution caused by these compounds.