A preliminary investigation of 942 organic micro-pollutants in the atmosphere in waste processing and urban areas, northern Vietnam: Levels, potential sources, and risk assessment
Graphical abstract
Introduction
Air pollution and its potential adverse effects on humans have become an issue of great concern in Vietnam. The major sources of air pollutants, e.g., particulate matter (PM), inorganic gases, and organic contaminants, in this developing country have been identified as traffic and construction emissions, inappropriate waste disposal and recycling, and other industrial and agricultural production activities (Huy et al., 2017, Le et al., 2014, Luong et al., 2017, Phung et al., 2016, Tue et al., 2013, Wang et al., 2016a). The strong associations between the daily hospital admissions for acute respiratory diseases and the levels of common air pollutants (e.g., PM10, NO2, SO2) have been observed in the metropolitan areas of Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh city (Luong et al., 2017, Nhung et al., 2018, Phung et al., 2016). However, studies on the occurrence and risk assessment of organic micro-pollutants, including highly toxic persistent organic pollutants (POPs), in Vietnam's atmosphere are relatively limited, mainly due to the lack of suitable sampling methods and cost-effective quantification tools. Some legacy POPs such as dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethans (DDTs) and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) were found at relatively high concentrations in the ambient air in Vietnam, as compared with some other Asian countries (Wang et al., 2016a). Elevated levels of PCBs and polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) were recorded in the atmosphere around some e-waste recycling households in northern Vietnam (Tue et al., 2013). Concentrations of phthalate esters, an emerging group of air pollutants, in Vietnamese indoor air were comparable to those detected in some developed countries such as US and Japan (Tri et al., 2017a). Actually, the Vietnamese ambient air is estimated to be polluted by a great number of organic pollutants originating from complex anthropogenic sources (Tri et al., 2017a, Tri et al., 2017b, Tue et al., 2013, Wang et al., 2016a). This finding suggests an urgent need to conduct a comprehensive investigation into the presence and exposure risk of organic air pollutants in Vietnam, especially for urban areas of big cities and primitive waste processing areas.
The passive air sampling method using polyurethane foam discs (PUF–PAS) was introduced by Shoeib and Harner (2002) for monitoring of POPs such as PCBs and polychlorinated naphthalenes (PCNs). The PUF–PAS method has been widely applied as an alternative to conventional active air sampling (AAS) for organic pollutants because of its advantages of low cost, simple handling, no power supply required, and deployable at many sites at the same time for large scale monitoring (Bogdal et al., 2013, Harner et al., 2006). As reviewed by Esteve-Turrillas and Pastor (2016), several semivolatile organic compounds (SVOCs) have been monitored in the atmosphere by using the PUF–PAS method, for example, PCBs, PCNs, brominated flame retardants (BFRs, e.g., PBDEs), polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins/dibenzofurans (PCDD/Fs), organochlorine pesticides, current-use pesticides, and other emerging pollutants. We have found that PUF–PAS is an appropriate sampling method for organic pollutants, especially for developing countries with limited financial resources (Bogdal et al., 2013, Tue et al., 2013, Wang et al., 2016a).
The gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC–MS) method operated in selective ion monitoring (SIM) modes exhibits outstanding separation efficiency, high selectivity, and low detection limits. However, a conventional GC–MS method usually focuses on one or a few groups of chemicals with similar physicochemical properties and requires much efforts to prepare and operate analytical standards, especially for multi-residue analysis of several hundred analytes. To simultaneously determine nearly 1000 SVOCs with different physicochemical properties using GC–MS without using authentic chemical standards, Kadokami et al. (2005) introduced a novel screening tool, an Automated Identification and Quantification System with a Database for GC–MS (AIQS–DB/GC–MS). The database consists of three components including mass spectra, retention times, and calibration curves, which are essential for both identifying and quantifying target substances, overcoming some of the limitations of traditional GC–MS analysis (Kadokami et al., 2005). The AIQS–DB/GC–MS method has been efficiently and inexpensively used to quantify hundreds of organic contaminants in aquatic environments such as surface water (Kong et al., 2015), groundwater (Kong et al., 2016), and sediments (Kadokami et al., 2013, Pan et al., 2014). This tool has also been applied to monitor hundred organic micro-pollutants in Vietnamese sewer systems (Ha et al., 2017, Hanh et al., 2014, Hanh et al., 2015), and settled dusts collected from end-of-life (ELV) vehicle processing and urban areas in northern Vietnam (Anh et al., 2018).
To our knowledge, there have been no studies on the screening analysis of organic pollutants in northern Vietnam. In the present study, 942 organic compounds were comprehensively monitored in the air samples collected from an informal ELV dismantling area in Bac Giang province, a waste recycling cooperative in Thai Nguyen province, and an urban area of Hanoi city by using the PUF–PAS coupled with AIQS–DB/GC–MS quantification. Concentrations and patterns of multiple organic air pollutants were investigated to provide an overall view of the pollution status and their potential emission sources in some primitive waste processing and urban areas in northern Vietnam. Human health risks associated with inhaling organic pollutants were also estimated for waste processing workers and residents in the study areas.
Section snippets
Study areas
The ELV dismantling workshops were located in Thuyen village, Bac Giang province, about 60 km northeast of the capital city Hanoi. ELVs and other machinery engines from all around the country are collected and then manually dismantled using rudimentary tools such as drop hammers and oxygen-fuel cutting torches. The dismantled components are categorized into reusable parts for resale, recyclable materials for recycling, and low value materials for disposal (including open burning). In the survey
Comparison of PAH concentrations obtained using the AIQS–DB/GC–MS method and the conventional GC–MS/SIM method
To validate the accuracy of this screening method, we analyzed some PAHs in the same air samples using the GC–MS/SIM method with isotope dilution quantification. The comparison of analytical results of PAHs in the air samples obtained by the two methods is presented in Table S4. Concentrations of the predominant PAH congeners such as fluorene, phenanthrene, fluoranthene, pyrene, and benzo[c]phenanthrene derived by using the screening method were in good agreement with those found by the
Conclusions
This study is the first to report data on the levels, accumulation profiles, potential emission sources, and exposure risk related to multiple classes of organic micro-pollutants in the air from waste processing and urban areas in northern Vietnam. A large number of 167 organic pollutants belonging to three categories such as domestic chemicals, industrial chemicals, and pesticides, were detected, with their sources revealed to be from business/household, agricultural, and waste processing
Acknowledgements
This study was supported in part by Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B: 16H02963) from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) and the Environment Research and Technology Development Fund (3K153001) from the Japanese Ministry of the Environment. We thank the staff of CETASD (VNU University of Science) and CATE (Ehime University) for sampling activities and sample analysis. We thank Adj. Prof. Dennis Murphy (The United Graduate School of Agricultural Sciences, Ehime
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