Factors influencing on the bioaccessibility of polybrominated diphenyl ethers in size-specific dust from air conditioner filters

• Published in: Chemosphere (Oxford) 2013-11, Vol.93 (10), p.2603-2611
• Main Authors: Yu, Yingxin, Yang, Dan, Wang, Xinxin, Huang, Ningbao, Zhang, Xinyu, Zhang, Dongping, Fu, Jiamo
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: air; Air Conditioning; Air Pollutants - analysis; Air Pollution, Indoor - analysis; Applied sciences; Atmospheric pollution; Bioaccessibility; bioavailability; correlation; Dispersed sources and other; Dust; Dust - analysis; Environmental Monitoring; equations; Exact sciences and technology; filters; Filtration - instrumentation; Halogenated Diphenyl Ethers - analysis; In vitro test; linear models; organic matter; Particle Size; Pollution; Pollution sources. Measurement results; Polybrominated diphenyl ethers; polymers; regression analysis
• ISSN: 0045-6535; 1879-1298
• DOI: 10.1016/j.chemosphere.2013.09.085

•PBDE bioaccessibility in size-specific dust from air conditioner filter were measured.•The bioaccessibility of PBDE congeners decreased with increasing of dust size.•The way of being of PBDEs in dust significantly influenced the bioaccessibility.•Pore volume and OM were the most important factors influencing bioaccessibility. Size-specific concentrations and bioaccessibility of polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) in dust from air conditioner filters were measured, and the factors influencing the PBDE bioaccessibility were determined. Generally, the PBDE concentrations increased with decreasing dust particle size, and BDE209 (deca-BDE) was generally the predominant congener. The bioaccessibility ranged from 20.3% to 50.8% for tri- to hepta-BDEs, and from 5.1% to 13.9% for BDE209 in dust fractions of varied particle size. The bioaccessibility of most PBDE congeners decreased with increasing dust particle size. The way of being of PBDE (adsorbed to dust surface or incorporated into polymers) in dust significantly influenced the bioaccessibility. There was a significant negative correlation between the tri- to hepta-BDE bioaccessibility and organic matter (OM) contents in dust. Furthermore, tri- to hepta-BDE bioaccessibility increased with increasing polarity of OMs, while with decreasing aromaticity of OMs. The tri- to hepta-BDE bioaccessibility significantly positively correlated with the surface areas and pore volumes of dust. Using multiple linear regression analysis, it was found that the OM contents and pore volumes of dust were the most important factors to influence the tri- to hepta-BDE bioaccessibility and they could be used to estimate the bioaccessibility of tri- to hepta-BDEs according to the following equation: bioaccessibility (%)=45.05−0.49×OM%+1.79×pore volume. However, BDE209 bioaccessibility did not correlate to any of these factors.