Passive and Active Air Samplers as Complementary Methods for Investigating Persistent Organic Pollutants in the Great Lakes Basin

摘要

Data obtained using passive air samplers(PAS)are compared to active high-volume air sampling data in order to assess the feasibility of the PAS as a method,complementary to active high-volume air sampling(AAS),for monitoring levels of organochlorine(OC)pesticides,polychlorinated biphenyls(PCBs),and polybrominated diphenyl ethers(PBDEs)in the Laurentian Great Lakes.PAS were deployed at 15 of the Integrated Atmospheric Deposition Network(IADN)sites on a quarterly basis between July 2002 and June 2003,and PAS and AAS results are compared.Levels for the OC pesticides are typically highest in agricultural areas,with endosulfan I dominating air concentrations with values ranging between 40 and 1090 pg centre dot m~(-3),dieldrin values between 15 and 165 pg centre dot m~(-3),and gamma-HCH values between 13 and 100 pg centre dot m~(-3).alpha-HCH was seen to be relatively uniform across the Great Lakes Basin with values ranging between 15 and 73 pg centre dot m~(-3).Large urban centers,such as Chicago and Toronto,have the highest levels of PCBs and PBDEs that range between 400 and 1200 pg centre dot m~(-3)and 10 and 70 pg centre dot m~(-3),respectively.Comparison of the AAS and the PAS data collected during this study shows good agreement,within a factor of 2 or 6,suggesting that the two sample methods produce comparable results.It is suggested that PAS networks,while providing data that are different in nature from AAS,can provide a cost-effective and complementary approach for monitoring the spatial and temporal trends of persistent organic pollutants.