Air-Soil Partitioning of PCBs in Rural Area

The soil concentrations of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) were measured at 12 sites in Ansung, Kyonggi province, Korea. Correlation coefficient (r) between total PCBs and organic matter content (OM) was significant (r=0.562, p< 0.05). It suggests that organic matter may be a key factor of soil absorption of PCBs. The PCB concentrations of low chlorinated congeners with high vapor pressure were relatively abundant in air but high chlorinated congeners with low vapor pressure were mainly dominated by soil. The results indicated the influence of physicochemical properties of PCBs such as vapor pressure, octanol - air partition coefficient ( $K_{OA}$ ). The calculated soil/air fugacity quotients suggested that the soil may be a source of heavier molecular PCBs (>penta-CBs) to the atmosphere, where lighter molecular PCBs appear to be affected by a movement from air to soil, especially tetra-CBs. Therefore, PCB homologs with low vapor pressure might have been influenced by revolatilization from soil.