Effects of environmental parameters biomonitoring polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in the air by Salix matsudana leaves.

Persistent organic pollutants (POPs) encompass many organic contaminant classes that show high persistence, susceptibility for long-range transport (LRT), and potential for biomagnification in food chains (1,2). Air is an efficient medium for the global dissemination of persistent organic pollutants (POPs). Epidemiological studies investigating the health risks related to air pollution suggest that ambient air pollution (including polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, PAHs) may be responsible for increased rates of diseases like lung cancer (3, 4). Air pollution is an important environmental problem that can result from both human and natural actions. To reduce pollution levels and minimize harmful effects on human health, it is necessary to improve air monitoring and provide useful information to the communities. Recently, biomonitoring methods using passive plant samplers may offer a practicable low cost alternative, especially in terms of high spatial resolution and time-averaged data series (5, 6). In this study, seasonal distribution characteristics of PAHs in Salix matsudana leaves covering its annual life cycle were carried out in order to evaluate plant leaf response sensitivity on air pollution. Salix matsudana leaves were collected throughout different development phases of plant leaf inclusive of bud break to fallen leaves, covering from spring (May) to autumn (November). Simultaneously, particle and gas samples were collected using a high volume air sampler. Seven different PAHs were determined from three types of samples. The leaf area and lipid content changed from season to season: both parameters increased rapidly during the spring season, maintained a stable state in summer season, while lipid content dramatically decreased in autumn season. Except spring season, total PAHs showed similar seasonal trends between plant leaves and air samples, with correlation coefficients equal to 0.74 and 0.56 in summer and autumn season, respectively. In this work, it has been demonstrated that climate changes, such as rainfall and air mass movement, influence the daily concentrations of PAHs in leaf. Furthermore, PAH composition profile in leaves and air phase have been correlated by principal component analysis

Monitoring of phthalates in foodstuffs using gas purge microsyringe extraction coupled with GC–MS

Phthalate esters (PAEs) are commonly used as nonreactive plasticisers in vinyl plastics to increase the flexibility of plastic polymers. Numerous studies have indicated that the PAEs as a class of endocrine-disrupting chemicals. In addition, the studies have also shown that a major source of human exposure to phthalates is the diet. To date, the largest problem in PAEs analysis is the high blank value because PAEs are widely used in various applications and products. To overcome this shortcoming, gas purge microsyringe extraction (GP-MSE) was applied, which established a new and low-blank-value analytical method for PAE analysis to analyse PAEs in foodstuffs. In this study, GP-MSE was used as a clean-up method, and the overall recoveries ranged from 85.7 to 102.6%, and the RSD was less than 10%. More importantly, this method can overcome the problem of the high blank value in PAE analysis. This method was applied for measuring PAEs in 78 foodstuffs. The results showed that a wide variety of PAE concentrations were found in the different groups, and the content of PAEs (varies from 658 to 1610 ng g−1 fresh weight) is greatest in seafood. The concentrations were in the following order: DEHP > DBP > DEP ≈ DMP > BBP ≈ DNOP. Finally, the daily intake of PAEs was estimated for adults based on the levels of PAEs in foodstuffs. The total EDIdiet values of 3.2 and 12.9 μg kg−1 bw d−1 were calculated for DEHP based on the mean and highest concentrations in foodstuffs, respectively

Biomonitoring polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons by Salix matsudana leaves: A comparison with the relevant air content and evaluation of environmental parameter effects

Studies on seasonal distribution characteristics of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in Salix matsudana leaves covering its annual life cycle were carried out in order to evaluate plant leaf response sensitivity to air pollution. Salix matsudana leaves were collected throughout different development phases of plant leaf inclusive of bud break to fallen leaves, covering from spring (May) to autumn (November). Simultaneously, particle and gas samples were collected using a high volume air sampler. Seven different PAHs were determined simultaneously in these samples. The temperature dependence of the partitioning of PAHs in air and plant leaves was investigated and the results were incorporated into a mathematical model. The measured plant/air partition coefficients have been found to be exponentially proportional to the reciprocal temperature, in agreement with theoretical expectations. Furthermore, in order to define the influence of different parameters on PAH adsorption on plant leaves, area and lipid leaf content were also measured. Results demonstrated that temperature plays a very important role in PAHs partitioning and that this value should be carefully considered during sampling, in order to obtain the best correlation between PAHs concentration in air and leaves