Persistent Organic Pollutions In Birds Of Prey From Beijing,China

Persistent organic pollutants?POPs?are of great concern because of their bioaccumulative properties,environmental persistence,and potentially adverse effects on both wildlife and humans.Due to their extensive use,tendency to be accumulated in lipid-rich tissues and biomagnified along food webs,commercial polybrominated diphenyl ethers?PBDEs?,polychlorinated-p-dioxins and furans?PCDD/Fs?and polychlorinated biphenyl?PCBs?have been currently phased out by Stockholm Convention?UNEP?.Although the production and use of these POPs have been officially banned,they are still present in most environmental matrices and have a potential risk to ecosystems.As birds of prey usually occupy the top position in the food chain,they can accumulate POPs in greatest concentrations,making them more sensitive to environmental changes.Therefore,understanding the distribution of chemical contaminants in birds of prey would be fundamental to maintain the health of the species.Feather washed with different methods was investigated though scanning electron microscope?SEM?,and the concentrations and profiles of PBDEs,PCDD/Fs and PCBs in washes and washed feather were also analyzed.Three times wash by water and acetone could effectively remove external pollutions without destroy the cuticles.Due to acetone might resolve internal pollutions for some extent,feather washed by water for three times was more suitable for the removal of external pollutants on the feather surface.PBDEs in the feather and muscle of common kestrels?Falco tinnunculus?,eagle owls?Bubo bubo?and little owls?Athene noctua?collected from Beijing,China were investigated.The concentrations of?₂₃PBDEs in the muscle and feather of all the birds of prey ranged from46 to 7.77×10⁴ ng g^-1 lipid weight(lw;median 241 ng g^-1 lw)and 1.50 to 191 ng g^-1 dw(median 21.1 ng g^-1 dw),respectively.Higher brominated congeners,e.g.,BDE-209,-153,-207 and-196 were the dominant congeners in both feather and muscle.However,the concentrations of lower brominated congeners in feather were significantly correlated with those in muscle?p<0.05?,which suggested that feather could efficiently reflect lower brominated BDEs in the internal tissue of birds of prey.?₂₃PBDE levels of predators from urban areas were significantly higher than those from suburban or rural areas,indicating a higher PBDEs exposure in the urban area.The calculated hazard quotients?HQs?>10 in common kestrel and little owl suggested that the high levels of PBDEs posed potentially high risk to some birds of prey living in Beijing area.PBDEs and PCDD/Fs in liver of birds of prey?Common kestrels?collected from Beijing,China were analyzed.The level of PCDD/Fs in the samples was in the range of 1900-2830 pg g^-1 lw with a mean value of 1570 pg g^-1 lw(WHO-TEQ mean:339 pg TEQ g^-1 lw;range:7.7-668 pg TEQ g^-1 lw);the concentrations of PBDEs in the samples ranged from 143 to 565 ng g^-1 lw with a mean value of 336 ng g^-1 lw.23478-PeCDF was the dominant congener and accounted for more than 36%of PCDD/Fs;the higher brominated BDEs e.g.BDE-209 were higher and accounted for about 60%of PBDEs.The HQs of PCDD/Fs were in line with the previous studies and lower than 0.1.However,the HQs of PBDEs?0.1<HQs<10?were comparatively higher than those in other study,which indicating that the expose risk of PBDEs in Beijing area were high and the study of health effect is still warranted for further investigation.