ORIGINAL ARTICLE Polybrominated diphenyl ethers in combusted residues and soils from an open burning site of electronic wastes Qian Luo • Ming Hong Wong • Zijian Wang • Zongwei Cai Received: 12 June 2011 / Accepted: 20 October 2012 / Published online: 20 November 2012 Ó Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2012 Abstract Polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) are ubiquitous environmental contaminants due to their exten- sive use. Combusted residue from electronic waste (e-waste) combustion is one of the contamination sources because PBDEs may be deposited in the soil and transported to remote locations. The transport and deposition behaviors of PBDEs released from burning were evaluated by analyzing their concentrations and congener distributions. Total PBDE concentrations were detected in the range from 2379 to 6238 ng/g (dry weight) in the combusted residue samples collected from a large open burning site and from 247.4 to 1422.3 ng/g in soil samples collected from different locations close to the open burning site. BDE-209, 183, 153, 99, and 47 were detected in relative high concentrations in both com- busted residue and soil samples. The interpretation of the PBDEs concentrations and congener patterns in the com- busted residue and soil samples indicated that PBDEs con- tamination in soil might be a result of e-waste burning and transportation, and deposit of the combusted residue. The total PBDE concentrations decreased significantly with increasing distance from the burned site, suggesting that the combusted activities were the major source of PBDEs in the region and the transportation behavior of lower brominated congeners might not differ from that of higher brominated congeners for short distances. Keywords Brominated flame retardants (BFRs) Á BDE-209 Á Open burning Á Combusted residue Á Soil Á GC–MS Introduction Polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) are used in large quantities as brominated flame retardants (BFRs) that are added to a variety of consumer and electronic products (Alaee et al. 2003). There are three different PBDEs technical products that are the mixtures of diphenyl ethers with various numbers of bromine atoms on the two rings. Penta-BDE technical products such as Bromkal 70-5DE or Great Lake DE-71, which contains primarily tetra-, penta- and some hexa-BDEs (Sjodin et al. 1998), while the octa-BDE product contains hexa- to nona-brominated congeners and the deca- BDE product is almost entirely composed of BDE-209 (Alaee et al. 2003). Penta-BDE mixtures are considered generally more toxic than Octa-BDE, whereas BDE-209 is essentially non-toxic to invertebrates. Penta-BDE and Octa-BDE have been listed in Stockholm Convention in 2009. However, BDE-209 remains legal in most countries and is starting to be banned in some countries (Betts 2008; BSEF 2003). The PBDEs technical products are commonly used in printed circuit boards, components such as connectors, cables, plastic covers and parts of keyboards and monitors in computers (Martin et al. 2004). PBDEs have caused considerable con- cerns not only because they have been found in the envi- ronmental matrices (air, water, sediment, and soil) (de Wit Q. Luo Á Z. Wang (&) Research Center for Eco-Environmental Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100085, People’s Republic of China e-mail: wangzj@rcees.ac.cn Q. Luo Á Z. Cai (&) Department of Chemistry, Hong Kong Baptist University, Kowloon Tong, Hong Kong SAR, People’s Republic of China e-mail: zwcai@hkbu.edu.hk M. H. Wong Department of Biology, Croucher Institute for Environmental Sciences, Hong Kong Baptist University, Kowloon Tong, Hong Kong SAR, People’s Republic of China 123 Environ Earth Sci (2013) 69:2633–2641 DOI 10.1007/s12665-012-2084-2