Polychlorinated biphenyls in Chinese surface soils

Polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) concentrations in surface soil samples (0-20 cm) from 52 sites (4 background, 39 rural, and 9 urban) across China in 2005 are presented. The average concentration of total PCBs among all the sites was 515 pg/g dry weight (dw), approximately one-tenth of that in global background soil in 1998. Differences of less than 1 order of magnitude were found between all background and rural sites, indicating a generally uniform distribution of PCBs in Chinese background/rural surface soil. While the major PCB homologue group in global background soil is hexa-PCB followed by penta-PCB, the major PCB homologue group in Chinese background/rural soil is tri-PCB followed by di-PCB, indicating a rather fresh signature in comparison to the much weathered PCBs in global surface soil. The correlation between ΣPCBs and also each PCB homologue group per soil organic carbon (SOC) content in background/rural soil with longitude from 80° to 122° East was studied. The results indicated the strong influence of PCBs concentrations in Chinese background/rural soil by proximity to source region and SOC content, and also provided evidence for urban fractionation effect of PCBs in soil in the city of Shanghai and the longitudinal fractionation of PCBs in Chinese background/rural soil from east to west. This work is the first comprehensive and spatial study of its kind for PCBs in Chinese surface soil on a national scale, and the data presented in this study can provide baseline information for establishing a long-term PCBs monitoring program in China.