Abstract
Polychlorinated terphenyls (PCTs) are a class of polyhalogenated compounds previously used for similar purposes as polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). In this study, we assessed environmental concentrations and congener profiles of PCTs in sediment core samples collected from Furuayase River, Japan. The concentrations of PCT in the sediment samples were between 300 and 3,100 ng/g-dry and were inversely correlated to the collection depth of the samples. The PCTs’ homologue profiles were similar but their congener profiles differed with varying sampling depth, particularly for nonachloroterphenyl. We compared PCT congener profiles of the sediment samples with those of an industrial sludge sample from a chemical factory located in Furuayase River basin, and with a technical-grade PCT standard: the chromatograms of the sediment samples were equivalent to the sum of the chromatograms of the industrial sludge and PCT standard. The concentration of PCTs originating from the industrial sludge was strongly correlated with that of 1,3,7,8+1,3,7,9-tetrachlorodibenzofuran (1,3,7,8+1,3,7,9-TeCDF) in sediment. We previously reported the reaction pathway which could generate 1,3,7,8+1,3,7,9-TeCDF. According to these results, we concluded that PCTs with a specific congener profile were also unintentionally generated with same pathway, and that these PCTs contaminated the sediment of Furuayase River.
