Regional measurements of PCDD/PCDF concentrations in Korean atmosphere and comparison with gas-particle partitioning models

The current investigation was aimed at determining the levels of polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins and dibenzofurans (PCDDs/PCDFs) in the Korean atmosphere along with their estimation using gas-particle partitioning. Samples collected from six cites showed that large cities were polluted with a concentration of 0.593 pgTEQ/m(3). Samples were also collected from residential (nine sites), commercial (five sites), and industrial (seven sites) districts in each city. Higher levels of PCDDs/PCDFs were observed in industrial area than other areas, since it includes many sources. Higher chlorinated 2,3,7,8-substituted congeners were predominantly found in the particulate phase. HpCDD/Fs and OCDD/Fs shared 97-99% of the particulate phase, whereas TCDD/Fs, which dominated the gaseous phase, shared 34.8% and 42.8% in 2,3,7,8-substituted congeners. The regression dataset was transformed due to the relationship between log K-P and log P-L(o). A wide variation was observed in the slopes for the residential areas when compared with the slopes for the commercial and industrial areas. The Junge-Pankow model and K-oa adsorption model were both found to be helpful in describing the gas-particle partitioning in the current study. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.