US EPA

3809206 

Journal Article 

Hexabromocyclododecane (HBCD) diastereoisomers and brominated diphenyl ether congener (BDE) residues in edible fish from the rivers Skerne and Tees, U.K 

Allchin, CR; Morris, S 

2003 

0 

Organohalogen Compounds
ISSN: 1026-4892 

61 

41-44 

English 

http://dioxin20xx.org/publication_posts/hexabromocyclododecane-hbcd-diastereoisomers-and-brominated-diphenyl-ether-congener-bde-residues-in-edible-fish-from-the-rivers-skerne-and-tees-u-k/
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Hexabromocyclododecane (HBCD) is a high volume, additive brominated flame retardant that has been in use for about 20 years. Its major application (~80%) in the UK is as a flame retardant for extruded or expanded polystyrene foam, the balance is used in textile backcoatings. HBCD is manufactured in the UK by Great Lakes Chemicals at Newton Aycliffe, Co. Durham but is also imported from the Netherlands and the USA. Production figures for the Great Lakes plant are unavailable due to commercial considerations, but total sales in the UK were reported to be 570 tonnes in 2000, and European consumption was 8,900 tonnes in 1999.

The UK production facility has been the source of significant emissions to the river Skerne (1098 Kg/yr in 2000) but procedures have been put in place to reduce these emissions, to 75Kg/yr in 2002 and to <10Kg/yr in 2004. HBCD is currently undergoing a risk assessment within the EU, and HBCD has also been identified by the UK Chemical Stakeholders Forum as persistent, bioaecumulative and toxic. Despite its high level of use, few environmental data are available for HBCD and until now no data for the individual diastereoisomers has been reported for the UK.

Polybrominated di phenyl ethers (PBDEs) have, in contrast, been quite widely studied and numerous data exist for England and Wales. PBDEs were also manufactured at the Great Lakes plant at Newton Aycliffe, but production was reported to have ceased in 1998 and PBDE usage in the UK has recently been curtailed as a result of EU legislation.

Technical H BCD is a mixture of three diastereoisomers. A gas chromatographic ( GC) separation of the three HBCD diastereoisomers is currently not achievable and, given the thermal instability of HBCD at temperatures above I 60°C, GC is not an appropriate methodology, therefore a sensitive and robust LC-MS method was developed. The aims of this study were to apply this recently developed LC-MS methodology 1010 detennine current concentrations of HBCD diastereoisomers in two species of edible fish at several locations on the rivers Skerne and Tees and also to build on existing knowledge of the occurrence of PBDEs in the Skerne/Tees system.