Environ. Sci. Technol. 1996, 30, 341-348
Influence of Submicron Particles on Hydrophobic Organic Contaminants in Precipitation. 1. Concentrations and Distributions of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons and Polychlorinated Biphenyls in Rainwater D I A N N E L . P O S T E R †,‡ A N D J O E L E . B A K E R * ,§ Chesapeake Biological Laboratory, The Center for Environmental and Estuarine Studies, The University of Maryland System, P.O. Box 38, Solomons, Maryland 20688, and Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland 20742
Concentrations of nonfilter-retained, particle-associated organic contaminants in rain are estimated as the difference between measured filtrate concentrations and those supported by gas exchange into raindrops, using field data resulting from the simultaneous collection of air and precipitation. The distributions of organic contaminants in four discrete precipitation events are presented for several polychlorinated biphenyl congeners and for polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. These contaminants are up to 80% bound to nonfilterable particulate material in rainwater and
