"Quantitative Source Identification of Dioxin-like PCBs in Yokohama, Japan, by Temperature Dependence of their Atmospheric Concentrations" 

Isamu Ogura¹, Shigeki Masunaga², Junko Nakanishi¹

¹National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology
²Yokohama National University

ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY, Vol.38 pp.3279-3285 (2004)

---

Abstract

Source and environmental behavior of dioxin-like polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) together with other PCBs and polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins and dibenzofurans (PCDDs/PCDFs) was evaluated based on analysis of variations in their atmospheric concentrations in Yokohama, Japan. 

Potential factors responsible for variations in the atmospheric concentrations of the congeners were investigated by principal component analysis and multiple regression analysis of the data. Two major variations were seen: one had strong temperature dependence and another had no significant temperature dependence. 

A possible explanation for this result is that the former is related to congeners released by volatilization (e.g., volatilization from commercial PCB products and past polluted environments) and the latter is related to congeners emitted from thermal processes. The relative contributions of dioxin-like PCBs released by volatilization and those emitted from thermal processes were estimated by the temperature dependence of the atmospheric concentrations. 

The results suggested that both dioxin-like PCBs emitted from thermal processes and those released by volatilization are significant sources of air pollution in this area in terms of toxic equivalent (TEQ) for dioxin-like PCBs. We demonstrated that the present approach based on variations in atmospheric concentrations can be useful to provide qualitative, as well as quantitative, understanding of source information.

Keywords

PCB, dioxin, polychlorinated biphenyl, coplanar PCB, source, atmospheric concentration, temperature dependence