Occurrence of organophosphorus flame retardants in indoor dust in multiple microenvironments of southern China and implications for human exposure

•OPFRs were measured in indoor dust from four microenvironments in southern China.•The OPFR concentrations in indoor dust from the e-waste area were highest.•The OPFR compositions reflected three types of OPFR sources to the indoor dust.•Concerns should be paid to the exposure of toddlers in the e-w...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Chemosphere (Oxford) 2015-08, Vol.133, p.47-52
Main Authors: He, Chun-Tao, Zheng, Jing, Qiao, Lin, Chen, She-Jun, Yang, Jun-Zhi, Yuan, Jian-Gang, Yang, Zhong-Yi, Mai, Bi-Xian
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adolescent
Adult
Air Pollution, Indoor - analysis
China
Dust - analysis
E-waste
Electronic Waste
Environmental Exposure - analysis
Exposure
Flame retardants
Flame Retardants - analysis
Households
Housing
Human exposure
Humans
Indoor dust
Organophosphorus Compounds - analysis
Organophosphorus flame retardants (OPFRs)
Phosphates
Recycling
Rural
TCP (protocol)
Urban
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:•OPFRs were measured in indoor dust from four microenvironments in southern China.•The OPFR concentrations in indoor dust from the e-waste area were highest.•The OPFR compositions reflected three types of OPFR sources to the indoor dust.•Concerns should be paid to the exposure of toddlers in the e-waste area to OPFRs. Organophosphorus flame retardants (OPFRs) are important alternatives to brominated flame retardants (BFRs), but information on their contamination of the environment in China is rare. We examined the occurrence of 12 OPFRs in indoor dust in four microenvironments of southern China, including a rural electronic waste (e-waste) recycling area, a rural non-e-waste area, urban homes, and urban college dormitory rooms. The OPFR concentrations (with a median of 25.0μgg−1) were highest in the e-waste area, and the concentrations in other three areas were lower and comparable (7.48–11.0μgg−1). The levels of OPFRs in the present study were generally relatively lower than the levels of OPFRs found in Europe, Canada, and Japan because BFRs are still widely used as the major FRs in China. The composition profile of OPFRs in the e-waste area was dominated by tricresyl phosphate (TCP) (accounting for 40.7%, on average), while tris(2-chloroethyl) phosphate (TCEP) was the most abundant OPFR (64.4%) in the urban areas (homes and college dormitories). These two distribution patterns represent two OPFR sources (i.e., emissions from past e-waste and from current household products and building materials). The difference in the OPFR profiles in the rural area relative to the OPFR profiles in the urban and e-waste areas suggests that the occurrence of OPFRs is due mainly to emissions from characteristic household products in rural homes. Although human exposures to all the OPFRs were under the reference doses, the health risk for residents in the e-waste area is a concern, considering the poor sanitary conditions in this area and exposure from other sources.
ISSN:0045-6535
1879-1298
DOI:10.1016/j.chemosphere.2015.03.043