Citation

Cao Z, Xu F, Covaci A, Wu M, Wang B, Yu G, Wang H, Huang J, Deng S, Wang X. Environ. Sci. Technol. 2014; 48(15): 8839-8846.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2014, American Chemical Society)

DOI

10.1021/es501224b

PMID

25010345

Abstract

Dust samples were collected in Beijing, China, from four different indoor microenvironments (office, hotel, kindergarten and student dormitory) and one outdoor (road dust) microenvironment. These five composite samples were fractionated into 13 sequential size fractions and an individual fraction <50 µm for further analysis. In the fractions <50 µm, ∑PFRs (nine phosphorus flame retardants), ∑NBFRs (four novel brominated flame retardants) and DPs (two Dechlorane Plus isomers) showed the highest concentrations in hotel dust (124000 ng g-1), dormitory dust (14200 ng g-1) and kindergarten dust (231 ng g-1), respectively. Nevertheless, ∑PBDEs (nine polybrominated diphenyl ethers) were the dominant FRs (96% of total FRs) in road dust with the maximum concentration of 23700 ng g-1, higher than in any indoor dust. The FR contamination varied strongly among different types of microenvironments, leading to high human exposure to various FRs. Concentrations of FRs did not increase constantly with particle size decrease. Fractions with particle size around 900, 100 and 10 µm could represent peak values, while valley values were commonly detected around fractions with particle size around 40 µm. Large differences were found between indoor dust and road dust. In road dust, FRs were mainly enriched in fractions <50 μm. The organic content of dust, FRs application and consequent abrasion processes of FR-containing materials might be the determinants of the FR concentrations. Volatilization and abrasion were considered to be important migration pathways for FRs. DPs and BDE-209 were sought to be mainly applied in abrasion-proof materials, while most PFRs were probably added in large proportion in materials easy to wear.

Language: en