Levels, profile and distribution of Dechloran Plus (DP) and Polybrominated Diphenyl Ethers (PBDEs) in the environment of Pakistan Jabir Hussain Syed a , Riffat Naseem Malik b , Jun Li c,⇑ , Yan Wang c , Yue Xu c , Gan Zhang c , Kevin C. Jones d a Environmental Biology Laboratory, Department of Plant Sciences, Quaid-I-Azam University, Islamabad 45320, Pakistan b Environmental Biology and Ecotoxicology Laboratory, Department of Environmental Sciences, Quaid-I-Azam University, Islamabad 45320, Pakistan c State Key Laboratory of Organic Geochemistry, Guangzhou Institute of Geochemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou 510640, China d Lancaster Environment Centre, Lancaster University, Lancaster LA1 4YQ, UK highlights  First systematic data of PBDEs and DPs was reported from Pakistan.  BDE-209 was the most abundant PBDE congener in air, soils and sediments.  The fractions of anti-DP indicated the lack of DP production source in Pakistan. article info Article history: Received 21 June 2012 Received in revised form 13 August 2013 Accepted 19 August 2013 Available online 8 October 2013 Keywords: Polybrominated diphenyl ethers Dechlorane Plus Air Soil Sediment Pakistan abstract No scientific data is available on emerging contaminants including Polybrominated Diphenyl Ethers (PBDEs) and Dechloran Plus (DP) levels in the environment in Pakistan. Levels of PBDEs and DP were determined in the soil, sediment and atmospheric samples along the stretch of River Ravi in Punjab Prov- ince. Average concentrations of RPBDEs in atmosphere, soils and sediments were 36 pg m 3 , 40 ng g 1 and 640 ng g 1 . BDE-209 was the most abundant PBDE congener, showing that deca-BDE accounts for most of the total PBDE emitted in the environment of Pakistan. Total DP levels were calculated as 88 pg m 3 , 0.8 ng g 1 and 1.9 ng g 1 in air, soil and sediment samples, respectively. The lower average fractions of anti-DP showed significant differences to those of the technical mixtures, indicating the lack of DP production source in Pakistan. Ó 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Halogenated flame retardants especially Polybrominated Di- phenyl Ethers (PBDEs) are potentially toxic, bioaccumulative, ubiq- uitous and persistent in the environment (Talsness, 2008; Ismail et al., 2009; Malik et al., 2011). These are industrial compounds which are widely used as additive flame retardants in a variety of consumer products to prevent the development of fire (Wilford et al., 2004). Generally there are three commercial formulations for PBDEs including Penta-, octa-, and deca-BDE technical mixtures. Among these important PBDE congeners, Penta- and octa-BDE have been reported as causing carcinogenicity, neurotoxicity and endo- crine disruption (Costa and Giordano, 2007). These flame retardant compounds have now been regulated in Europe, Japan and in sev- eral states of USA. However, deca-BDE commercially produced in many countries of the world. Due to its higher susceptibility to degradation via debromination, it makes it more lipophilic, toxic, persistent and bioaccumulative (Stapleton et al., 2006). Such re- stricted flame retardants are likely to be replaced by non-regulated ones such as Dechloran Plus (DP). DP is a highly chlorinated flame retardant which incorporated in coating electrical wires and cables, connectors used in comput- ers and plastic decoration materials (Qiu et al., 2007). Although it has been used decades but DP has not received any attention until recently when it was detected in air, sediments and fish from the Great Lakes (Hoh et al., 2006; Tomy et al., 2007; Sverko et al., 2008, 2010; Gauthier and Letcher, 2009). However, in Asia some studies have been conducted to understand the sources of DP in the environment. In china, DP has been detected in air (Ren et al., 2008; Ma et al., 2009, 2011; Yu et al., 2011), in aquatic spe- cies (Luo et al., 2009), in human serum (Ren et al., 2009) and in 0045-6535/$ - see front matter Ó 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.chemosphere.2013.08.054 ⇑ Corresponding author. Tel.: +86 20 8529 1508; fax: +86 20 8529 0706. E-mail address: junli@gig.ac.cn (J. Li). Chemosphere 93 (2013) 1646–1653 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Chemosphere journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/chemosphere