Journal of Environmental Chemistry
Online ISSN : 1882-5818
Print ISSN : 0917-2408
ISSN-L : 0917-2408
Volume 29, Issue 2
Displaying 1-5 of 5 articles from this issue
Original
  • Yuko MIYAUCHI, Ayato KAWASHIMA, Shoma MORI, Tomofumi TAKAHASHI, Noriak ...
    2019 Volume 29 Issue 2 Pages 31-39
    Published: June 18, 2019
    Released on J-STAGE: December 19, 2019
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS

    The conventional methods of PCB analysis used for testing environmental samples and measuring all PCB congeners are complicated in operation and sometimes insufficient to perform purification.
    Therefore, we developed a simple and rapid purification method for the analysis of all PCB congeners in environmental samples by improving upon the existing analysis method used for electrical insulating oils. This existing method uses heated, multi-layer silica gel column/alumina column which cannot recover low chlorinated PCB in which only one aromatic ring is substituted with chlorine and high chlorinated tetra-ortho PCB.
    At the outset, we prepared a column set that consisted of a purification column and a concentration column. The purification column was filled with sulfuric acid silica gel for refining the sample. The concentration column was filled with alumina and silver-modified alumina for facilitating selective adsorption and elution of PCB. The recovery rate of high chlorinated tetra-ortho PCB was improved when the column set was used under the non-heating cleanup condition. However, that of monochlorinated biphenyl did not show any improvement. Afterwards, an additional amount of silica gel was stacked in layers on the sulfuric acid silica gel to boost the purification column's function. As a result, the loaded sample was contained and degradation of low chlorinated PCB by sulfuric acid silica gel was prevented. Thus, all PCB congeners were recovered using this improved column set.
    Subsequently, the above column set was also used to purify the samples of sediment and fish tissues. The effective cleanup was confirmed by the chromatogram of GC/ECD and GC/MS. Furthermore, the performance of this method was evaluated by the certified reference materials. The result of the study showed that the proposed method has satisfactory quantitative capability and repeatability.
    Hence, this method was found to be effective for analyzing the presence of all PCB congeners in environmental samples.

    Download PDF (3415K)
Reseach Note
  • Yoshinari SUZUKI, Ryota NAKAJIMA
    2019 Volume 29 Issue 2 Pages 41-49
    Published: June 18, 2019
    Released on J-STAGE: December 19, 2019
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS

    A hyphenated analytical system with a gas exchange device (GED) and an inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometer (ICP-MS) enabled us to measure the concentration of metals in atmospheric particulate matter in real time. In this study, with a special focus on passive smoking whereby non-smokers inhale cigarette smoke in the environment, the concentration of metals contained in smoking booth exhaust was directly measured by GED-ICP-MS. Furthermore, we used a generalized linear mixture model (GLMM) and hierarchical Bayesian model (HBM) to explain the analytical results. To compute the statistical models, the number of smokers of each brand was used as an explanatory variable, and the emission contribution of each brand to the metal concentration in the exhaust was estimated. GLMM and HBM analyses were carried out based on random effects such as observation errors and errors among smokers. It became clear that the number of smokers of brand C contributes to the increase in the concentration of Mn, Fe, and Ni. As for Ni, where we also introduced a hierarchical Bayesian model to compare brands, the probability of the regression coefficient of brand C being larger than 0 was 1.0. Moreover, the probability that the regression coefficient of brand C is larger than those of other brands was 0.97 or more. Furthermore, in the scenario where four smokers smoke brand C near the exhaust port at the same time, the Ni concentration in the smoke exhaust was estimated to be increased by 0.05 ng/m3, and if it was assumed that this exhaust is exposed for lifetime, the carcinogenic risk was estimated to increase by a maximum of 1.2×10−8.

    Download PDF (2339K)
Survey Report
  • Akira MIYAZAKI, Shinichiro TSUTSUMI, Nobumasa NAGAHAMA, Toshihisa MARU ...
    2019 Volume 29 Issue 2 Pages 51-57
    Published: June 18, 2019
    Released on J-STAGE: December 19, 2019
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS

    The concentration of Li, Mn, Ni, Co, Fe in Japanese rivers those are used to the lithium ion battery(LIB), nickel metal hydride battery(NiMHB)etc. were determined using ICP-MS and ICP-AES. Fifty five samples were collected around the LIB and NiMHB factory etc. from Miyagi prefecture to Tottori prefecture. Because the concentration of Mn and Fe was high, we measured them by ICP-AES and determined other elements by ICP-MS. Because 58Ni was interfered by 58Fe, 60Ni was used for the measurement. In the three samples among 55 samples, three or more elements of Li, Mn, Ni and Co showed more than 5 times the concentration of river in Japan. In 14 samples, 2 elements of Li, Mn, Ni and Co showed more than 5 times the average value of the river in Japan.
    Since the use of LIB and NiMHB will increase here after, it will be important to pay attention to the concentrations of these elements in river waters.

    Download PDF (2670K)
Technical Reports
  • Narumi SHIRAI, Shigeru SUZUKI
    2019 Volume 29 Issue 2 Pages 59-66
    Published: June 18, 2019
    Released on J-STAGE: December 19, 2019
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS

    A simultaneous determination method for brominated flame retardants (BFRs) of hexabromocyclododecane isomers(HBCDs), tetrabromobisphenol A (TBBPA) and 2,4,6-tribromophenol (TBP) in road dust has developed and applied to the environmental distribution survey in Nagoya city. The recovery rates and relative standard deviations (RSD%) of total HBCDs, TBBPA, TBP were 86% (RSD 2.3%), 107% (RSD 1.3%) and 114% (RSD 4.2%), respectively. The method was applied to the determination of the BFRs in road dusts at 50 area meshes (2.5 km ×2.5 km) covering the entirety of Nagoya city. The concentrations of total HBCDs, TBBPA and TBP in the road dust were respectively 0.11 to 10.6 ng/g with the mode value of 1.2 ng/g or less, 0.77 to 120 ng/g with the mode of 2.4 to 7.2 ng/g and 0.64 to 147 ng/g with the mode of 2.8 to 8.4 ng/g. There were no relationships among correlation of the three BFRs, which suggests that the BFRs would be individually emitted from different sources to air with the discrimination of HBCDs isomers.

    Download PDF (2263K)
  • Toyokazu KOGA, Manabu KASHIWABARA, Shusaku HIRAKAWA, Nobuhiro SHIMIZU, ...
    2019 Volume 29 Issue 2 Pages 67-77
    Published: June 18, 2019
    Released on J-STAGE: December 19, 2019
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS

    Since 2009, Ministry of the Environment, Japan has discussed the issues in using "Whole Effluent Toxicity (WET) test" from both technical and legal standpoints. One of the issues is the current expensive cost of the WET test. Therefore, it is necessary to develop a simpler and cheaper toxicity test. In this study, we developed a small-scale algal growth inhibition test (small-scale method) to test for toxicity. Among several test vessel sizes and test medium volumes examined for the small-scale method, the growth rate using a 50 mL glass Erlenmeyer flask with 20 mL of test medium was found to be the most comparable to that of the existing draft protocol of the algal growth inhibition test (the existing method). The developed small-scale method was first evaluated by testing of potassium dichromate and 3, 5-dichlorophenol. In the testing of potassium dichromate, it was shown that the IC25 and control coefficient of variation (CV) of the growth rate were at acceptable levels compared with findings from the Japanese laboratory. Furthermore, the no observed effect concentration (NOEC), IC25, and IC50 of the wastewater samples by the small-scale method were almost the same as those by the existing method, although the detection power of the small-scale method was somewhat lower. We investigated 25 effluent samples by the developed small-scale method. Algal growth inhibition was confirmed with 8 wastewater samples in the lowest concentration group (20% concentration group). Our results suggest that the developed small scale method is effective for identifying the tendency of algae growth inhibition.
    In addition, the developed small-scale method was able to test multiple samples simultaneously. Therefore, it is possible that Toxicity Identification Evaluations (TIEs) can be performed efficiently by our new developed small-scale method.

    Download PDF (1561K)
feedback
Top