Survey on organochlorine pesticides, PCDD/Fs, dioxin-like PCBs and HCB in sediments from the Han river, Korea

The contamination status of twelve persistent organic pollutants (POPs) on the Stockholm convention in the surface sediments of Han river, which is one of the largest river in the South Korea were investigated. Five organochlorine pesticides (OCPs) such as aldrin, dieldrin, endrin, mirex, and ΣCHLs (α-chlordane, γ-chlordane, cis-nonachlor, trans-nonachlor, and heptachlor) were not detected in all sediment samples. The overall concentrations of DDTs, HCB, dioxin-like PCBs (DL-PCBs) and PCDD/Fs were in the range of 1.05–8.94 μg kg−1 (average value: 3.93 μg kg−1), 0.485–3.73 μg kg−1 (1.48 μg kg−1), 41.5–4,530 ng kg−1 (548 ng kg−1), and 23.1–368 ng kg−1 (131 ng kg−1), respectively. The principal source of HCB, DL-PCBs and PCDD/Fs was identified as a deposition in this study. For the DL-PCBs, it was also shown that commercial PCBs product (Kanechlor 500 and/or Aroclor 1254) plays a role as a source in sediment.