Chlorinated paraffins in the Swedish atmosphere : spatial and seasonal variability

• Chlorinated paraffins (CPs) are ubiquitous environmental contaminants of concern, as indicated by the recent addition of the short-chained CPs as a new Persistent Organic Pollutant (POP) in the United Nations Eco-nomic Commission for Europe (UNECE) Convention on Long-Range Transboundary Air Pollution (CLRTAP) (United Nations, 2010). Howev-er, knowledge about the occurrence of CPs in the environment, and in the atmosphere in particular, is limited. To address this, ambient air samples were collected over a 10 month period at an urban site and a rural site in Sweden, and analyzed for the sum of the short-chained, me-dium-chained and long-chained CPs. The CP concentrations ranged from 0.7-33 ng/m3, and they were significantly higher at the urban site. The low volatile CP congeners dominated in the samples, and this domin-ance was more pronounced at the urban site. Particle-bound and ga-seous CPs were determined separately in several samples, and between 50 and 90 % of the CPs were estimated to be in the gas phase. A clear seasonality in the concentrations was observed, with levels in summer that were about 5 times higher than in winter. This indicates that tem-perature dependent emission from urban sources is a major source of the CPs in air. Diffusive emissions from building materials are likely to make a major contribution.

Ämnesord

NATURVETENSKAP  -- Geovetenskap och miljövetenskap -- Miljövetenskap (hsv//swe)

NATURAL SCIENCES  -- Earth and Related Environmental Sciences -- Environmental Sciences (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

Chlorinated paraffins

CPs

polychlorinated n-alkanes

PCAs

air

Environmental chemistry

Miljökemi

Applied Environmental Science

tillämpad miljövetenskap

Publikations- och innehållstyp

vet (ämneskategori)

ovr (ämneskategori)