Screening of Atmospheric Short- and Medium-Chain Chlorinated Paraffins in India and Pakistan using Polyurethane Foam Based Passive Air Sampler Chakra Chaemfa,* ,† Yue Xu, † Jun Li, † Paromita Chakraborty, ‡ Jabir Hussain Syed, † Riffat Naseem Malik, § Yan Wang, †,⊥ Chongguo Tian, # Gan Zhang, † and Kevin C. Jones †,∇ † State Key Laboratory of Organic Geochemistry, Guangzhou Institute of Geochemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou, 510640, China ‡ SRM Research Institute, SRM University, Kattankulathur, India § Environmental Biology and Ecotoxicology Laboratory, Department of Environmental Sciences, Quaid-I-Azam University, Islamabad 45320, Pakistan ⊥ Key Laboratory of Industrial Ecology and Environmental Engineering (MOE), School of Environmental Science and Technology, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian 116024, China # Key Laboratory of Coastal Zone Environmental Processes and Ecological Remediation, Yantai Institute of Coastal Zone Research (YIC), Chinese Academy of Sciences(CAS); Shandong Provincial Key Laboratory of Coastal Zone Environmental Processes, YICCAS, Yantai Shandong 264003, P. R. China ∇ Lancaster Environment Centre, Lancaster University, Lancaster, LA1 4YQ, United Kingdom * S Supporting Information ABSTRACT: Production and use of chlorinated paraffins (CPs) have been increasing in India. Distribution of CPs in the area and vicinity have become a great concern due to their persistency and toxicity. Polyurethane foam based passive air samplers (PUF-PAS) was deployed in order to screen the presence of short- and medium- chain chlorinated paraffins (SCCPs and MCCPs) in the outdoor atmosphere at many sites in India (in winter 2006) and Pakistan (in winter 2011). Concentrations of SCCPs and MCCPs ranged from not detected (ND) to 47.4 and 0 to 38.2 ng m -3 with means of 8.11 and 4.83 ng m -3 , respectively. Indian concentrations showed higher average levels of both SCCPs and MCCPs India (10.2 ng m -3 and 3.62 ng m -3 than the samples from Pakistan (5.13 ng m -3 and 4.21 ng m -3 ). Relative abundance patterns of carbon number are C10 > C11 > C12 ∼ C13 for SCCPs and C14 > C15 > C16 C17 for MCCP with similarity to the profiles of samples from China, the biggest CPs producer in the world. Principal Component Analysis suggested that detected SCCPs and MCCPs in this study originated from the same emission source. ■ INTRODUCTION Chlorinated paraffins (CPs) are chlorinated n-alkanes contain- ing 30-70% of chlorine in their very complex structure. There are more than hundred thousand isomers, 1 which are very inert, water insurable and produced by chlorination of n-paraffin or paraffin wax. 2 They also known as polychlorinated n-alkanes or PCAs, and have been produced and used as additives (in metal- working fluids, sealants, and paints), plasticizer (in polyvinyl chloride or PVC production) and flame retardants (in plastic) 3,4 for many decades. Because of their similarity in physical and chemical properties to persistent organic pollutants (POPs), such as PCBs, toxaphene and DDT, 5,6 they are very toxic to human/wildlife and persistent in the environment. 7,8 CPs consists of three different groups divided by the number of carbon atoms in the structures; short, Received: November 21, 2013 Revised: February 28, 2014 Accepted: March 26, 2014 Published: March 26, 2014 Article pubs.acs.org/est © 2014 American Chemical Society 4799 dx.doi.org/10.1021/es405186m | Environ. Sci. Technol. 2014, 48, 4799-4808