Article Cite This: Environ. Sci. Technol. 2018, 52, 13690−13697
pubs.acs.org/est
Synthetic Phenolic Antioxidants and Their Metabolites in Sediments from the Coastal Area of Northern China: Spatial and Vertical Distributions Xiaoyun Wang,†,‡ Xingwang Hou,†,‡ Qunfang Zhou,†,‡ Chunyang Liao,*,†,‡ and Guibin Jiang†,‡ †
State Key Laboratory of Environmental Chemistry and Ecotoxicology, Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100085, China ‡ College of Resources and Environment, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China Environ. Sci. Technol. 2018.52:13690-13697. Downloaded from pubs.acs.org by IOWA STATE UNIV on 01/13/19. For personal use only.
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ABSTRACT: Synthetic phenolic antioxidants (SPAs) are widely used in foodstuffs, cosmetics, plastics, and rubber products. Little is known about their spatiotemporal distribution in the marine environment. In this study, a total of 144 surface sediments and three sediment cores were collected from the coastal areas of northern China to determine the spatial and vertical distributions of SPAs. For surface sediments, the total concentrations of five SPAs and their four metabolites (∑9SPAs) ranged from 133 to 4800 (mean: 588) ng/g dry weight (dw). The ∑9SPAs in surface sediments showed a decrease trend with the distance from the coast to the open sea. For sediment core samples, the ∑9SPAs in the inner-shelf mud (core-1 and core-3) showed a slight increase trend from the bottom to upper layers, whereas that in the central-shelf mud (core-2) did not. The principal component analysis suggests that the composition profiles of SPAs in both surface sediment and sediment core samples were similar, while the sediments close to the coast were obviously affected by the human activities. This is the first study to report the spatial and vertical distributions of SPAs and their metabolites in sediments from the coastal marine environment.
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INTRODUCTION Synthetic phenolic antioxidants (SPAs) are added as preservatives in foodstuffs, cosmetics, plastics, and rubber products due to their antioxidant properties.1,2 The most commonly used SPAs include 2,6-di-tert-butyl-4-hydroxytoluene (BHT), 2-tert-butyl-4-methoxyphenol (BHA), and propyl (PG)-, octyl- (OG), and dodecyl-gallates (DG).3,4 It has been estimated that SPAs are used in over 1700 cosmetic formulations at concentrations of up to 0.5%.4 BHT can be added alone or in combination with BHA and gallates at concentrations of up to 100 μg/g in lard, fish oil, and beef, poultry, and sheep fats, up to 200 μg/g in seasonings and condiments, or up to 400 μg/g in chewing gum and other food supplements.5 Widespread use of SPAs has resulted in ubiquitous human exposure to these chemicals. For example, BHT (range: below the method quantification limit (
