The reported concentrations of the other PBDEs in the cores from both Lakes Michigan and Erie and of BDE-209 in the Lake Erie core are unaffected by this calibration error. The rates of increase indicated in Figure 3 and the doubling times given in Table 2 are unchanged. All of the data for BB-153 are unchanged.
ng‚cm-2 year-1; and load rate, 0.56 tons/year. Mention of these values in the text and in Figure 3 (top) should be reduced accordingly. The corrected Figure 2 is shown below. Abstract. The corrected abstract is as follows: The history of polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) and the major polybrominated biphenyl congener (BB153) was studied in dated sediment cores taken from Lakes Michigan and Erie. The surficial concentration of total PBDE (65 ng/g dry weight) in Lake Michigan was about 1.6 times higher than that in Lake Erie (40 ng/g) and about 5 times higher than that in Lake Superior (∼12 ng/g). The concentrations of total PBDEs in these sediments have increased rapidly, with doubling times of 5-10 years, reflecting the increasing market demand for these flame retardants over the last 30 years. BDE-209 was found to be the predominant congener in both sediment cores, making up ∼95% of the total PBDE load. The inventories of total PBDEs to Lakes Michigan and Erie were both 40 ng/cm2. The total burdens of these compounds in the sediment of Lakes Michigan and Erie were 23 and 10 metric tons, respectively. We estimate the total burden of these compounds in all of the Great Lakes is on the order of 100 tons. In both Lakes, BB-153 was found to increase rapidly during the 1970s and to peak around 1980.
Table 2. The corrected BDE-209 values for Lake Michigan samples in Table 2 are as follows: surface concn, 63 ng/g; inventory, 38 ng/cm2; burden, 22 tons; surface flux 0.98
ES051141+ 10.1021/es051141+
2005, Volume 39, Pages 3488-3494 Lingyan Zhu and Ronald A. Hites*: Brominated Flame Retardants in Sediment Cores from Lakes Michigan and Erie The reported concentrations for BDE-209 in the Lake Michigan sediment core were too high by a factor of 5.0. This error was uncovered by a cross calibration exercise of various commercially available reference standard solutions with a standard solution provided by H. M. Stapleton at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). Cambridge Isotope Laboratory (CIL) PBDE standard solution #EO-5103, which was used for the Lake Erie samples, gave BDE-209 concentrations that agreed with the NIST standard, but the CIL individual BDE209 standard solution #EO-4928, which was used for the Lake Michigan samples, did not.
FIGURE 2. (revised). PBDE congener patterns (given as percent of total) in sediments from Lakes Michigan and Erie. Note the logarithmic scale. Congeners 17, 71, 85, 138, and 190 were not detected in any of the samples. ES048240S
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ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY / VOL. 39, NO. 15, 2005
10.1021/es051141+ CCC: $30.25
2005 American Chemical Society Published on Web 07/01/2005
