Is BDE-175 an important enough component of commercial octabromodiphenyl ether mixtures to be listed in Annex A of the Stockholm Convention?

Commercial octabromodiphenyl ether mixtures, containing hexabromodiphenyl ethers and heptabromodiphenyl ethers were listed in Annex A of the Stockholm Convention on May 2009 (Fourth Conference of the Parties) (UNEP, 2009a). Four compounds are specifically mentioned: 2,2′,4,4′,5,5′-hexabromodiphenyl ether (BDE-153), 2,2′,4,4′,5,6′-hexabromodiphenyl ether (BDE-154), 2,2′,3,3′,4,5′,6-heptabromodiphenyl ether (BDE-175), and 2,2′,3,4,4′,5′,6-heptabromodiphenyl ether (BDE-183). Presumably they were identified as key components of commercial mixtures and found to be present in environmental samples. However, since BDE-175 and BDE-183 co-elute on common HRGC columns, the presence of BDE-175 as an important component in technical octa-BDE mixtures has not been illustrated. The successful HRGC/LRMS separation of a 1:1 mixture of BDE-175 and BDE-183, as well as ¹H NMR analysis of technical material, has allowed us to confirm that this congener is not present in technical products (e.g. Great Lakes DE-79™) in quantifiable amounts.     

Management of municipal solid waste incineration residues

The management of residues from thermal waste treatment is an integral part of waste management systems. The primary goal of managing incineration residues is to prevent any impact on our health or environment caused by unacceptable particulate, gaseous and/or solute emissions. This paper provides insight into the most important measures for putting this requirement into practice. It also offers an overview of the factors and processes affecting these mitigating measures as well as the short- and long-term behavior of residues from thermal waste treatment under different scenarios. General conditions affecting the emission rate of salts and metals are shown as well as factors relevant to mitigating measures or sources of gaseous emissions.     

Water quality status and trends in agriculture-dominated headwaters; a national monitoring network for assessing the effectiveness of national and European manure legislation in The Netherlands

Large nutrient losses to groundwater and surface waters are a major drawback of the highly productive agricultural sector in The Netherlands. The resulting high nutrient concentrations in water resources threaten their ecological, industrial, and recreational functions. To mitigate eutrophication problems, legislation on nutrient application in agriculture was enforced in 1986 in The Netherlands. The objective of this study was to evaluate this manure policy by assessing the water quality status and trends in agriculture-dominated headwaters. We used datasets from 5 agricultural test catchments and from 167 existing monitoring locations in agricultural headwaters. Trend analysis for these locations showed a fast reduction of nutrient concentrations after the enforcement of the manure legislation (median slopes of ?0.55 mg/l per decade for total nitrogen (N-tot) and ?0.020 mg/l per decade for total phosphorus (P-tot)). Still, up to 76 % of the selected locations currently do not comply with either the environmental quality standards (EQSs) for nitrogen (N-tot) or phosphorus (P-tot). This indicates that further improvement of agricultural water quality is needed. We observed that weather-related variations in nutrient concentrations strongly influence the compliance testing results, both for individual locations and for the aggregated results at the national scale. Another important finding is that testing compliance for nutrients based on summer average concentrations may underestimate the agricultural impact on ecosystem health. The focus on summer concentrations does not account for the environmental impact of high winter loads from agricultural headwaters towards downstream water bodies.     

The Science of Adaptation: A Framework for Assessment

Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change - This paper outlines what is meant by "adaptation" to climate change, and how it might be addressed in the IPCC Assessments. Two...     

Laboratory screening of distribution,conversion and mineralization of chemicals in the soil-plant-system and comparison to outdoor experimental data

A laboratory screening method is presented which yields data on residue disappearance and conversion of ¹⁴C-labelled chemicals in the soil-plant-system. For 11 chemicals it is shown that a relative prediction resulting in a correct ranking for outdoor long-term behaviour is possible.     

Octachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin in wood treatment materials and treated wood

The octachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (OCDD) concentrations have been determined in aged samples of commercial pentachlorophenol (PCP), in wood protection formulations containing PCP and in wood treated with PCP as a preservative or as an anti-sapstain treatment. The concentrations of OCDD found in the various samples are within the range expected from the amount of commercial PCP initially present in the samples. In view of the known stability of OCDD the results are interpreted as indicating that the formulation, treatment and ageing processes have not led to any substantial conversion of PCP to OCDD; although one result indicates that outdoor exposure of treated samples increased the OCDD concentration by a factor of approximately 2 after $\text{3}\text{1}\text{2}$ years. Analysis of aged samples of treated wood indicate that OCDD is lost much less rapidly from the wood than PCP.     

Sorption behavior of metolachlor, isoproturon, and terbuthylazine in soils

The sorption-desorption of metolachlor [2-chloro-N-(ethyl-6-methyl phenyl)-N-(2-methoxy-1-methyl ethyl) acetamide], isoproturon [3-(4-isopropyl phenyl)-1,1-dimethyl urea] and terbuthylazine [N6-tert butyl-6-chloro-N4-ethyl-1,3,5-triazine-2,4-diamine] herbicides was studied in two German soils at 1:10 soil to water ratio by batch method. Equilibrium of herbicides between soil and water (0.01 M CaCl2) was attained in 2 h. Sorption data fitted very well to Freundlich equation, represented by very high correlation coefficient (r2 > 0.934). Comparison of Freundlich K values indicated that sorption of all the three herbicides was most pronounced in soil having higher organic carbon content. Koc values were as expected nearly identical for each herbicide in the two soils. The Freundlich constant (1/n) was about 1 for metolachlor and less than 1 for terbuthylazine and isoproturon indicating a L-type of sorption isotherms. Desorption of all the three herbicides showed hysteresis. Nearly equal amounts of metolachlor, isoproturon and terbuthylazine were desorbed from both soils. There was a good correlation between Koc and solubility.