Organochlorine Pesticides in the Air around the Taihu Lake, China

• Published in: Environmental science & technology Vol. 38; no. 5; pp. 1368 - 1374
• Main Authors: Qiu, Xinghua, Zhu, Tong, Li, Jing, Pan, Hansheng, Li, Quanlin, Miao, Guofang, Gong, Jicheng
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Washington, DC American Chemical Society 01.03.2004
• Subjects: Agriculture; Air Pollutants - analysis; Air pollution; Applied sciences; Atmospheric pollution; China; Ecology; Environmental Monitoring; Exact sciences and technology; Freshwater; Hazardous air pollutants; Hydrocarbons, Chlorinated; Insecticides - analysis; PCB; Pesticides; Pollutants physicochemistry study: properties, effects, reactions, transport and distribution; Pollution; Polychlorinated biphenyls; Water Supply; Asia; China; Yangtze River; Taihu Lake; China, People's Rep., Hubei Prov., Yangtze R; China, People's Rep., Taihu Watershed; China, People's Rep., Changjiang R; Heptachlor; DDE; Lindane; Pesticides; Troposphere; Diurnal variation; Time variation; Persistent organic pollutant; DDT; Source localization; Organochlorine compounds; Chlorine Organic compounds; Pollution source; Air pollution; Agriculture; Trajectory; Nocturnal variation; Organic compounds; Concentration distribution; Anthropogenic factor
• ISSN: 0013-936X; 1520-5851
• DOI: 10.1021/es035052d

Organochlorine (OC) pesticides have been used broadly in China's past, yet very little is known about their atmospheric concentrations and transport. In this work, air samples were collected in the Taihu Lake Region, China, from July 23 to August 11, 2002, to measure concentrations of OC pesticides in air. The average concentrations of α and γ- hexachlorocyclohexane (HCH), hexachlorobenzene (HCB), heptachlor (HEPT), α-endosulfan, p,p‘-DDT, p,p‘-DDE, p,p‘-DDD, and o,p‘-DDT in the air were 74 and 46, 47, 53, 307, 124, 212, 36, and 767 pg m-3, respectively. It was interesting to note that the concentrations of p,p‘-DDT, p,p‘-DDE, and o,p‘-DDT were all very high, even though the use of technical DDT has been banned in China since 1983. Moreover, the average concentration ratios of o,p‘-DDT/p,p‘-DDT and p,p‘-DDE/p,p‘-DDT were as high as 6.3 and 1.8. This suggested that there could be an unknown source of DDT-related compounds (DDTs), especially o,p‘-DDT and p,p‘-DDE. It is very likely that this unknown source was the application of dicofol, an acaricide manufactured from technical DDT and used mainly on cotton fields to treat mites in China. Backward trajectory analysis also provided consistent evidence that the high air concentrations of DDTs were related to trajectories from the area north of the Yangtze River, where cotton fields account for a significant fraction of land use.