Volume : 3, Issue : 9, SEP 2017

OCCURRENCE OF FLAME RETARDANTS IN WATER, SLUDGE AND SEDIMENT IN THE CZECH REPUBLIC

TOMÁŠ OCELKA, MIROSLAV FLORIÁN, JI?Í OCEÁNSKÝ, MICHAEL VÍT, CHRISTOPHER HARMAN, TEREZA KA?EROVÁ, PETR KA?ER, ROMANA KURKOVÁ

Abstract

Flame retardants (FR) are compounds added in large quantities to the commercially sold products in order to increase their fire safety. Brominated (BFR) and organophosphate (PFR) FR represent the most frequently used FR and at the same time, the most frequently monitored due to their bioaccumulative properties and consequent health risks. In order to assess these risks, it is necessary to clarify the ways that FR are spread from products into the environment and human organism. Therefore, broad scale of methods for products screening (reported elsewhere) in various environmental matrices was carried out in the Czech Republic for a large variety of BFR and PFR (in 226 samples mostly 39 substances were analysed). As one identified pathway of human exposure to FR is from municipal sewage sludge, via soil and sediments, into plants and food, the current study will focus on the first steps in this. Measurements were performed at the following locations: at the output from municipal wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) using passive sampling devices (PSDs), in sewage sludge at these WWTPs, in soils, and in pond sediments

PBDE were detected at low concentrations in pond sediments. The behaviour of individual congeners in the soil varied, depending on the number of bromines. The future development of the environmental contamination by FR is difficult to predict because of the replacement of previously widespread FR, such as PBDEs, hexabromocyclododecane, or polybrominated biphenyls, due to the banning or restriction of production by legislation. Although the production of some FR has been terminated, the contamination may continue and increase significantly, as products with a high content of FRs begin to be disposed of. For these reasons, it is necessary to continue with environment monitoring of "classical", and newly produced FR.

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