Spatial character of polychlorinated biphenyls from soil and respirable particulate matter in Taiyuan, China

As one of China’s great metropolises, Taiyuan is affected by heavy chemical industry and manufacture of chemical products, and faces pollution from polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). Therefore, this study was conducted to determine the PCB concentrations in various environmental media in Taiyuan. We collected 15 soil samples, 34 respirable particulate matter (PM) samples (17 of PM2.5 and 17 of PM10) from urban areas of Taiyuan, and measured a total of 144 PCB congeners (including some coeluting PCB congeners). The total PCB concentrations were 51–4.7 × 103 pg g−1 in soil, 27–1.4 × 102 pg m−3 in PM2.5 and 16–1.9 × 102 pg m−3 in PM10. Of the PCB homologues, the dominant PCBs detected in the various media were all tri-CBs. Soil was relatively the most polluted media. Furthermore, principal-component analysis revealed that the major PCB source in Taiyuan may be associated with the main commercial PCB through long-range transmission. Toxic equivalency (TEQ) concentrations (based on ten dioxin-like PCBs) ranged from N.D. to 5.9 × 10−3 pg-WHO TEQ g−1 in soil, 2.0 × 10−4–3.4 × 10−3 pg-WHO TEQ m−3 and 1.0 × 10−4–1.2 × 10−3 pg-WHO TEQ m−3 in PM2.5 and PM10, respectively. In previous studies, PCBs were not a severe component of contaminant in Taiyuan; however, this study suggested there is a potential threat of human exposure to PCBs for residents of Taiyuan.