Chlorophenols in lake bottom sediments: A retrospective study of drinking water contamination

Lake and brook bottom sediments were analyzed for chlorophenols to provide historical data of exposure assessment, after the water intake plant of a Finnish village had been found to be contaminated in 1987, and subsequently elevated non-Hodgkin lymphoma risk was detected. Highly elevated 2,3,4,6-tetrachlorophenol and pentachlorophenol levels were found in all four lake sediment cores investigated. The distribution was uneven with much higher concentrations in the estuary, in contrast to PCB compounds which were more evenly distributed within the basin. The inlet origin of the chlorophenols in the sediments was further supported by the regional distribution pattern of these compounds in the sediment and water along transects of the inlet and its tributaries. The composition of chlorophenol congeners in the sediments was similar to that in a commercial fungicide used by a local sawmill, but different from other sediment analyses reported in Finland, also implying a local source. Dating of three cores by Pb-210 and soot ball chronology indicated that the contamination of the watercourse started in the early 1970s at the latest but possibly earlier. This would provide the latency time required for tumour appearance in the 1970s and 1980s.