4.8 Article

Contamination of indoor dust and air by polychlorinated biphenyls and brominated flame retardants and relevance of non-dietary exposure in Vietnamese informal e-waste recycling sites

Journal

ENVIRONMENT INTERNATIONAL
Volume 51, Issue -, Pages 160-167

Publisher

PERGAMON-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD
DOI: 10.1016/j.envint.2012.11.006

Keywords

Air; BFRs; e-Waste; House dust; PCBs; Vietnam

Funding

  1. Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) [20221003]
  2. Waste Management Research grants from the Ministry of the Environment, Japan [K2062, K2129, K2121]
  3. Global COE Program of the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT)
  4. JSPS

Ask authors/readers for more resources

This study investigated the occurrence of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), and several additive brominated flame retardants (BFRs) in indoor dust and air from two Vietnamese informal e-waste recycling sites (EWRSs) and an urban site in order to assess the relevance of these media for human exposure. The levels of polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs), hexabromocyclododecane (HBCD), 1,2-bis-(2,4,6-tribromophenoxy) ethane (BTBPE) and decabromodiphenyl ethane (DBDPE) in settled house dust from the EWRSs (130-12,000, 5.4-400, 5.2-620 and 31-1400 ng g(-1), respectively) were significantly higher than in urban house dust but the levels of PCBs (4.8-320 ng g(-1)) were not higher. The levels of PCBs and PBDEs in air at e-waste recycling houses (1000-1800 and 620-720 pg m(-3), respectively), determined using passive sampling, were also higher compared with non-e-waste houses. The composition of BFRs in EWRS samples suggests the influence from high-temperature processes and occurrence of waste materials containing older BFR formulations. Results of daily intake estimation for e-waste recycling workers are in good agreement with the accumulation patterns previously observed in human milk and indicate that dust ingestion contributes a large portion of the PBDE intake (60%-88%), and air inhalation to the low-chlorinated PCB intake (>80% for triCBs) due to their high levels in dust and air, respectively. Further investigation of both indoor dust and air as the exposure media for other e-waste recycling-related contaminants and assessment of health risk associated with exposure to these contaminant mixtures is necessary. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Authors

I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.

Reviews

Primary Rating

4.8
Not enough ratings

Secondary Ratings

Novelty
-
Significance
-
Scientific rigor
-
Rate this paper

Recommended

No Data Available
No Data Available