Measurement of persistent organic pollutants (POPs) in plastic resin pellets from remote islands: Toward establishment of background concentrations for International Pellet Watch
2012
Heskett, Marvin | Takada, Hideshige | Yamashita, Rei | Yuyama, Masaki | Ito, Maki | Geok, Yeo Bee | Ogata, Yuko | Kwan, Charita | Heckhausen, Angelika | Taylor, Heidi | Powell, Taj | Morishige, Carey | Young, Doug | Patterson, Hugh | Robertson, Bryson | Bailey, Elizabeth | Mermoz, Jorge
Plastic resin pellets collected from remote islands in the Pacific, Atlantic, and Indian Oceans and the Caribbean Sea were analyzed for polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), dichloro-diphenyltrichloroethane and its degradation products (DDTs), and hexachlorocyclohexanes (HCHs). Concentrations of PCBs (sum of 13 congeners) in the pellets were 0.1–9.9ng/g-pellet. These were 1–3 orders of magnitude smaller than those observed in pellets from industrialized coastal shores. Concentrations of DDTs in the pellets were 0.8–4.1ng/g-pellet. HCH concentrations were 0.6–1.7ng/g-pellet, except for 19.3ng/g-pellet on St. Helena, where current use of lindane is likely influence. This study provides background levels of POPs (PCBs<10ng/g-pellet, DDTs<4ng/g-pellet, HCHs<2ng/g-pellet) for International Pellet Watch. Sporadic large concentrations of POPs were found in some pellet samples from remote islands and should be considered in future assessments of pollutants on plastic debris.
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