Passive sampler derived air concentrations of PBDEs along an urban-rural transect: Spatial and temporal trends

Passive air samplers consisting of polyurethane foam (PUF) disks housed in chambers were deployed at several sites along a similar to 75 km urban-rural gradient in Toronto and analyzed for polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs). Samplers were allowed to integrate gasphase PBDEs over three consecutive seasons starting in the summer of 2000. PBDEs were fairly uniform along the transect with air concentrations in Toronto (10-30 pg m(-3)) about a factor of two greater than at rural sites. Lowest concentrations were observed during the winter and probably associated with reduced inputs from indoor sources of PBDEs and to a preference for PBDEs to partition to the particle-phase at colder temperatures. The composition of PBDEs in the air samples did not differ across the transect or for the different seasons. (c) 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.