Organophosphate flame retardants in heron eggs from upper Yangtze River basin, southwest China

Qinghui Huang; Lai Wei; Anders Bignert; Hua Ye; Fei Huang; Yanling Qiu; Åke Bergman

doi:10.1016/j.chemosphere.2019.07.058

Organophosphate flame retardants in heron eggs from upper Yangtze River basin, southwest China

Chemosphere. 2019 Dec:236:124327. doi: 10.1016/j.chemosphere.2019.07.058. Epub 2019 Jul 10.

Authors

Qinghui Huang¹, Lai Wei², Anders Bignert³, Hua Ye⁴, Fei Huang⁴, Yanling Qiu⁵, Åke Bergman⁶

Affiliations

¹ Key Laboratory of Yangtze Estuary Water Environment of the Ministry of Education, College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Tongji University, Shanghai, 200092, China; International Joint Research Center for Sustainable Urban Water System, Shanghai Institute of Pollution Control and Ecological Security, Shanghai, 200092, China. Electronic address: qhhuang@tongji.edu.cn.
² Key Laboratory of Yangtze Estuary Water Environment of the Ministry of Education, College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Tongji University, Shanghai, 200092, China.
³ Yibin Research Base of the Key Laboratory of Yangtze River Water Environment of the Ministry of Education, Yibin University, Yibin, 644000, Sichuan Province, China; Swedish Museum of Natural History, SE-10405, Stockholm, Sweden.
⁴ Yibin Research Base of the Key Laboratory of Yangtze River Water Environment of the Ministry of Education, Yibin University, Yibin, 644000, Sichuan Province, China.
⁵ Key Laboratory of Yangtze Estuary Water Environment of the Ministry of Education, College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Tongji University, Shanghai, 200092, China; International Joint Research Center for Sustainable Urban Water System, Shanghai Institute of Pollution Control and Ecological Security, Shanghai, 200092, China.
⁶ International Joint Research Center for Sustainable Urban Water System, Shanghai Institute of Pollution Control and Ecological Security, Shanghai, 200092, China; Department of Environmental Science and Analytical Chemistry (ACES), Stockholm University, SE-10691, Stockholm, Sweden; MTM Research Centre, School of Science and Technology, Örebro University, SE-70182, Örebro, Sweden.

PMID: 31319314
DOI: 10.1016/j.chemosphere.2019.07.058

Abstract

The egg samples of four heron species, including black-crowned night heron (Nycticorax nycticorax), little egret (Egretta garzetta), Chinese pond heron (Ardeola bacchus) and cattle egret (Bubulcus ibis), were collected from the upper Yangtze River (Changjiang) Basin, Southwest China in early summer of 2017. Nine out of ten target organophosphate flame retardants (PFRs) were detected in these heron egg samples. The sum of concentrations of the PFRs quantified (∑PFRs) ranged from 63 to 590 pmol g^-1 ww (18-185 ng g^-1 ww) with a median value of 139 pmol g^-1 ww (48 ng g^-1 ww) among all samples. The median ∑PFRs in eggs of night herons (160 pmol g^-1 ww) was higher than Chinese pond herons (median 121 pmol g^-1 ww) and little egrets (median 109 pmol g^-1 ww). In heron eggs, ∑PFRs were mainly contributed by tri-n-butyl phosphate (TNBP), tris (isobutyl) phosphate (TIBP), tris (1-chloro-2-propyl) phosphate (TCIPP) and tri-2-methylphenyl phosphate (TMPP). Alkyl-PFRs accounted for approximately 28%-85% (median 57%) of the nine PFRs quantified while the rest is contributed by aryl-PFRs and chlorinated PFRs. Lower levels of PFRs in little egret eggs were found upstream than downstream of the Yangtze. In addition, the daily intakes of PFRs through ingestion of heron eggs were estimated at lower levels.

Keywords: Bird eggs; Environmental pollutants; Organophosphates; Organophosphorus flame retardants; Water birds; Yangtze river basin.

MeSH terms

Animals
Birds
China
Eggs / analysis*
Flame Retardants / analysis*
Organophosphates / chemistry*

Substances

Flame Retardants
Organophosphates