• Environmental Analysis Health and Toxicology
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.251-259
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• 2009

This study was conducted to measure the concentration of PCBs in pine needles and soil in urban (Seoul, many artificial sources of PCBs), semi-rural (Anseong, small town located below Seoul in wind direction) and rural areas (Jincheon, rarely artificial sources of PCBs) in which the artificial production amount of PCBs are different. The total PCBs concentrations in pine needles, which did not show big difference in three sampling sites, were 107.5 pg/g (urban), 94.8 pg/g (semi-rural) and 78.8 pg/g (rural) respectively. The low chlorinated PCBs were major component in pine needles and the PCBs congener concentration profile of each sampling area were similar each other, and the octanol-air partitioning coefficient, Koa, highly correlated with the PCBs concentrations in pine needles. The total PCBs concentrations in soil which did show big difference in three sampling sites, were 830.0 pg/g (urban), 314.1 pg/g (semi-rural) and 136.5 pg/g (rural) respectively. The high chlorinated PCBs were major component in soil and the PCBs congener concentration profile of each sampling area were similar each other. There was no similarity between the PCBs concentration of pine needles and those of soil at each site, because of the different mechanism of deposition and volatilization processes of PCBs. The total PCBs concentrations of 2009 became 12.9 times lower than those of 2001. The reduce rate of PCB 28 was the greatest.