Uncovering global-scale risks from commercial chemicals in air.

Autor: Liu Q; Air Quality Processes Research Section, Environment and Climate Change Canada, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.; Department of Environmental Science and Engineering, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, China., Li L; School of Public Health, University of Nevada Reno, Reno, NV, USA., Zhang X; Air Quality Processes Research Section, Environment and Climate Change Canada, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.; Laboratory Services Branch, Ontario Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.; Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Concordia University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada., Saini A; Air Quality Processes Research Section, Environment and Climate Change Canada, Toronto, Ontario, Canada., Li W; Air Quality Processes Research Section, Environment and Climate Change Canada, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.; International Joint Research Center for Persistent Toxic Substances (IJRC-PTS), State Key Laboratory of Urban Water Resource and Environment, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin, China., Hung H; Air Quality Processes Research Section, Environment and Climate Change Canada, Toronto, Ontario, Canada., Hao C; Laboratory Services Branch, Ontario Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks, Toronto, Ontario, Canada., Li K; Air Quality Processes Research Section, Environment and Climate Change Canada, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.; Laboratory of Atmospheric Chemistry, Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI), Villigen, Switzerland., Lee P; Air Quality Processes Research Section, Environment and Climate Change Canada, Toronto, Ontario, Canada., Wentzell JJB; Air Quality Processes Research Section, Environment and Climate Change Canada, Toronto, Ontario, Canada., Huo C; Air Quality Processes Research Section, Environment and Climate Change Canada, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.; International Joint Research Center for Persistent Toxic Substances (IJRC-PTS), State Key Laboratory of Urban Water Resource and Environment, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin, China., Li SM; State Key Joint Laboratory of Environmental Simulation and Pollution Control, Beijing Innovation Center for Engineering Science and Advanced Technology, College of Environmental Sciences and Engineering, Peking University, Beijing, China., Harner T; Air Quality Processes Research Section, Environment and Climate Change Canada, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. tom.harner@canada.ca., Liggio J; Air Quality Processes Research Section, Environment and Climate Change Canada, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. john.liggio@canada.ca.
Jazyk: angličtina
Zdroj: Nature [Nature] 2021 Dec; Vol. 600 (7889), pp. 456-461. Date of Electronic Publication: 2021 Dec 15.
DOI: 10.1038/s41586-021-04134-6
Abstrakt: Commercial chemicals are used extensively across urban centres worldwide 1 , posing a potential exposure risk to 4.2 billion people 2 . Harmful chemicals are often assessed on the basis of their environmental persistence, accumulation in biological organisms and toxic properties, under international and national initiatives such as the Stockholm Convention 3 . However, existing regulatory frameworks rely largely upon knowledge of the properties of the parent chemicals, with minimal consideration given to the products of their transformation in the atmosphere. This is mainly due to a dearth of experimental data, as identifying transformation products in complex mixtures of airborne chemicals is an immense analytical challenge 4 . Here we develop a new framework-combining laboratory and field experiments, advanced techniques for screening suspect chemicals, and in silico modelling-to assess the risks of airborne chemicals, while accounting for atmospheric chemical reactions. By applying this framework to organophosphate flame retardants, as representative chemicals of emerging concern 5 , we find that their transformation products are globally distributed across 18 megacities, representing a previously unrecognized exposure risk for the world's urban populations. More importantly, individual transformation products can be more toxic and up to an order-of-magnitude more persistent than the parent chemicals, such that the overall risks associated with the mixture of transformation products are also higher than those of the parent flame retardants. Together our results highlight the need to consider atmospheric transformations when assessing the risks of commercial chemicals.
(© 2021. Crown.)
Databáze: MEDLINE
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