Screening of organic flame retardants in Swedish river water

Jakob Gustavsson; Karin Wiberg; Erik Ribeli; Minh Anh Nguyen; Sarah Josefsson; Lutz Ahrens

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2017.12.281

Screening of organic flame retardants in Swedish river water

Sci Total Environ. 2018 Jun 1:625:1046-1055. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2017.12.281. Epub 2018 Jan 5.

Authors

Jakob Gustavsson¹, Karin Wiberg², Erik Ribeli², Minh Anh Nguyen², Sarah Josefsson³, Lutz Ahrens²

Affiliations

¹ Department of Aquatic Sciences and Assessment, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU), Box 7050, SE-75007 Uppsala, Sweden. Electronic address: jakob.gustavsson@slu.se.
² Department of Aquatic Sciences and Assessment, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU), Box 7050, SE-75007 Uppsala, Sweden.
³ Department of Aquatic Sciences and Assessment, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU), Box 7050, SE-75007 Uppsala, Sweden; Geological Survey of Sweden, Box 670, 75128 Uppsala, Sweden.

PMID: 29996401
DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2017.12.281

Abstract

Alternative flame retardants (FRs) have now replaced legacy FRs (such as polybrominated diphenyl ethers, PBDEs), but little is known about their fate in the aquatic environment. In this study, a range of legacy FRs (n=10) and alternative FRs, including halogenated FRs (HFRs, n=32) and organophosphorus FRs (OPFRs, n=19), were screened in water samples collected from 23 rivers covering the whole latitudinal range of Sweden. Of the 61 targeted FRs, 26 were detected in at least one of the river samples, with ΣFR concentrations ranging up to 170ngL^-1 (mean 31±45ngL^-1). In general, higher concentrations and a larger variety of FRs were detected in southern Sweden (ΣFR=60±56ngL^-1) compared with the north (ΣFR=9.0±16ngL^-1). In the south, HFRs were dominant, constituting on average 59% of ∑FRs, whereas in the north, OPFRs were dominant, constituting on average 82% of ∑FRs. This difference was best explained by higher population density in the south. The total daily flux of FRs into the Baltic Sea was estimated to be ~31kg and comprised mainly tetrabromobisphenol-A (TBBPA), 3,4,5,6-tetrabromophthalic anhydride (TEBP-Anh), and 2,4,6-tribromophenol (TBP). To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of environmental occurrence of TEBP-Anh, which was detected in two rivers and is suggested to originate from airports located near the sampling sites.

Keywords: Flame retardant; Halogenated flame retardant; Organophosphorus flame retardant; Point source; River; Surface water.