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Article
Concentrations, Gas-Particle Distributions, and Source Indicator Analysis of Brominated Flame Retardants in Air at Toolik Lake, Arctic Alaska.
Environmental Science: Processes and Impacts
  • Cleo L. Davie-Martin, University of Otago
  • Kimberly J. Hageman, Utah State University
  • Yu-Ping Chin, Ohio State University
  • Benjamin J. Nistor, University of Otago
  • Hayley Hung, Air Quality Processes Research Section
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
10-12-2016
Publisher
Royal Society of Chemistry
Abstract

Brominated flame-retardants (BFRs) can be released from consumer products, resulting in accumulation in the surrounding environment and/or long-range transport to remote environments. We evaluated concentration changes in a suite of BFRs, including 13 polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) and 1,2-bis(2,4,6-tribromophenoxy)ethane (BTBPE), in air at Toolik Lake, Arctic Alaska during the Northern Hemisphere summer of 2013. A high-volume active air sampler was used to collect 2 day integrated samples at the field station and three flow-through air samplers were used to collect 18 day integrated samples along a transect extending away from the field station. The BDE congeners associated with the penta-BDE commercial mixture (BDE-47, -99, and -100) were the most frequently detected BFRs and were found at concentrations consistent with those reported at other Arctic sites. Gas–particle distributions were influenced by temperature and correlations between gas-phase concentrations and temperature suggested that either volatilization from local sources or re-emission from secondary sources (that is, re-volatilization of BFRs that had migrated northwards from distant sources) was important for the lower-brominated BFRs during the warmer months. Source indicator analysis suggested no single dominant geographic source of BFRs while results from the flow-through samplers indicated that the field station itself was not a significant source of BFRs.

Citation Information
Concentrations, gas-particle distributions, and source indicator analysis of brominated flame retardants in air at Toolik Lake, Arctic Alaska. (2016) Davie-Martin, C.L., Hageman, K.J., Chin, Y.-P., Nistor, B.J., Hung, H. Environmental Science: Processes and Impacts, 18, 1274-1284.