Distributions of new Stockholm Convention POPs in soils across South Korea

In this study, we monitored the newly added Stockholm Convention persistent organic pollutants (POPs) HCHs, PeCBz, endosulfans, chlordecone, PBDEs, PBBs and PFCs in industrial, urban, and agricultural soils in South Korea, in order to evaluate their distributions and potential sources. These POPs were widely distributed throughout South Korea, and their concentrations and distributions were affected by land use, reflecting their sources. The overall concentrations of HCHs, PeCBz, endosulfans, PBDEs, and PFCs in soils were in the range of ND (non-detectable)–0.358 ng/g (average ± standard deviation: 0.060 ± 0.080 ng/g), ND–0.531 ng/g (0.083 ± 0.133 ng/g), 0.058–8.42 ng/g (2.19 ± 2.43 ng/g), 0.004–4.78 ng/g (0.68 ± 1.06 ng/g), and ND–1.62 ng/g (0.50 ± 0.46 ng/g), respectively. Agricultural soils showed the highest concentration of endosulfan, which was the most recently used pesticide monitored in this study. On the other hand, industrial soils contained the highest concentrations of PeCBz, PBDEs, and PFCs, which were mainly introduced to environment via the industrial activities.