Flame retardants and organochlorines in indoor dust from several e-waste recycling sites in South China: Composition variations and implications for human exposure

Several classes of flame retardants, such as polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs), novel brominated flame retardants (NBFRs), dechlorane plus (DPs), and organophosphate flame retardants (PFRs), together with polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) were measured in indoor dust from five villages located in three e-waste recycling regions in Guangdong Province, South China. The medians of PBDEs, NBFRs, and PFRs in dust in five sites ranged from 685–67,500, 1460–50,010, and 2180–29,000 ng/g, respectively. These concentrations were much higher than the medians of PCBs (52–2900 ng/g). BDE 209 and decabromodiphenyl ethane (DBDPE) were the two major halogen flame retardants in dust, while tris-(1-chloro-2-propyl) phosphate (TCIPP) and triphenyl phosphate (TPHP) were the major PFRs. Principle component analysis revealed the different pollutant patterns among different sites. The estimated median human exposures of PBDEs, NBFRs, PFRs, and PCBs via dust ingestion were 1.1–24.1, 0.73–20.3, 1.36–23.5, and 0.04–0.93 ng/kg bw/day for adults, and 16.2–352, 10.7–296, 19.9–343, 0.05–0.61, 0.65–13.6 ng/kg bw/day for toddlers, respectively. Residents from Site 5 had the highest exposure (95 percentile levels and high dust ingestion for toddlers) of PBDEs (3920 ng/kg bw/day), NBFRs (3200 ng/kg bw/day), and PFRs (5280 ng/kg bw/day). More attention should be paid to the contamination with NBFRs and PFRs, instead of PCBs, in these e-waste recycling regions, and local public health threat from PBDE alternatives should remain of concern. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study on human exposure assessment of PFRs at e-waste sites.