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Remoteness from Emission Sources Explains the Fractionation Pattern of Polychlorinated Biphenyls in the Northern Hemisphere

The global distillation hypothesis states that fractionation patterns of persistent semivolatile chemicals in the environment are determined by the effect of spatially varying environmental temperature on the temperature-dependent phase partitioning coefficients of chemicals. Here, we use a model experiment and an analysis of monitoring data for polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) to explore an alternative hypothesis, the differential removal hypothesis, which proposes that fractionation results from different loss rates from the atmosphere, acting along a gradient of remoteness from emission sources. Model calculations for a range of PCB congeners demonstrate that fractionation occurs with distance from sources, regardless of the temperature gradient. We have assembled two independent data sets of PCB concentrations in European air that show fractionation, and quantified the remoteness of monitoring sites from PCB sources using the remoteness index, RI. Regression analysis of these empirical data against RI...

Authors:   Harald von Waldow; Matthew MacLeod; Kevin Jones; Martin Scheringer; Konrad Hungerbühler; Harald von Waldow; Kevin Jones; Martin Scheringer; Konrad Hungerbühler
Journal:   Environmental Science & Technology
Year:   2010
DOI:   10.1021/es101291q
Publication date:   12-08-2010

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