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Plant Uptake of Sludge‐Borne PCBs
Author(s) -
O'Connor G. A.,
Kiehl D.,
Eiceman G.A.,
Ryan J.A.
Publication year - 1990
Publication title -
journal of environmental quality
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.888
H-Index - 171
eISSN - 1537-2537
pISSN - 0047-2425
DOI - 10.2134/jeq1990.00472425001900010016x
Subject(s) - contamination , polychlorinated biphenyl , daucus carota , environmental chemistry , sewage sludge , soil water , chemistry , greenhouse , environmental science , food chain , sewage , agronomy , environmental engineering , biology , ecology , soil science
Plant uptake of sludge‐borne polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) (similar to Aroclor 1248) was evaluated in a greenhouse study with two food‐chain crops and a grass species. Polychlorinated biphenyl loading to two soils was varied in one experiment by adding different rates of a municipal sewage sludge heavily contaminated (52 mg kg −1 with PCBs. In a second experiment, Aroclor 1248 was spiked into unamended soils or soils amended with another sludge containing <1 mg kg −1 PCBs. Analysis of PCBs was by GC/MS with a reliable detection limit in plants of 20 µ g kg −1 for individual chlorinated classes (tri‐, tetra‐, and pentachlorobiphenyls) and total PCBs. Only carrots ( Daucus carota ) were contaminated with PCBs, and contamination was restricted to carrot peels. Current USEPA guidelines for land application of sludges based on sludge PCB content are shown to be extremely conservative.