Prediction of the PCB pollution in the soils of Bursa, an industrial city in Turkey

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to predict the equilibrium soil concentrations and distributions of Sigma(41) Polychlorinated Biphenyl (PCB) congeners from the air data measured at 4 sites (urban, suburban, residential, and industrial) in Bursa between 2004 and 2005. The soil-air partition coefficient (K-SA) was used for the predictions. Predicted soil concentrations ranged from 25 pg/g to 690 pg/g, while the atmospheric concentrations fluctuated between 35 pg/m(3) and 1112 pg/m(3). The soil concentrations were found to be in agreement with the lower range of European and global values, and below the regulatory limits. The urban and residential sites yielded higher PCB concentrations and a higher degree of heavier congeners than the sites characterized as suburban. The urban and residential sites were dominated by hexa-chlorinated biphenyls (CBs), followed by tri-CBs, while the industrial site was dominated by tri-CBs, followed by tetra-CBs. PCB congeners of 153, 180,138, 118, and 101 were higher in all locations. The effect of the temperature changes on the concentrations was found to be insignificant, as the correlations ranged between 0.0009 and 0.22 for all sites. The KsA approach yielded reasonable results, and it is recommended to use this approach when there is limited data about the pollution levels of a certain media such as soil using the measured levels of the other media such as air.