Determination of toxic congeners of 17 PCDDs/PCDFs and 12 dl-PCBs using polyurethane foam passive air samplers in ten cities around Seoul.

Twenty-nine toxic congeners including 17 polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins (PCDDs) and polychlorinated dibenzofurans (PCDFs) and 12 dioxin-like polychlorinated biphenyls (dl-PCBs) were determined using passive air samplers (PAS) at ten satellite cities of Seoul for two years. Chemical analysis was done by high resolution gas chromatography (HRGC) coupled with high resolution mass spectrometry (HRMS). The ten monitoring sites represent urban-residential, industrial, urban-rural mixed, and rural types of regions in Gyeonggi Province, Republic of Korea. The concentrations of PCDDs/PCDFs and dioxin-like PCBs ranged from 0.59 pg·day(-1) to 29.7 pg·day(-1) and from 3.44 pg·day(-1) to 99.7 pg·day(-1), respectively with the highest values at industrial areas. The relative abundance of more toxic congeners (tetra- and penta-chlorinated PCDDs/PCDFs) was the highest in urban-rural mixed group despite the less emission sources than industrial group. It implies that this group was under the influence of fugitive emissions that have not yet been identified or regulated. This study reports the first attempt of atmospheric PCDDs/PCDFs and dl-PCB measurements with PAS in the monitoring network of Korea, which highlights the efficacy of PAS in continuous and long-term monitoring of those species particularly at regions that could easily slip out of environmental governance or of low accessibility to monitoring.