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Abstract
Forty one soil samples were collected from Liaohe estuarine wetland in May 2009 for assessing the distribution, ecological risk, and health risk of dioxin-like PCBs (dl-PCBs). The total concentrations of 12 dl-PCBs ranged from 0.36–1.36 ng/g, with a mean value of 0.77 ng/g. The dominant dl-PCBs were Tetra-CBs, which contributed to 43.9% of the total. The ecological risk of dl-PCBs was analyzed based on the toxic equivalent (TEQ) approach. In this study, the TEQ concentrations of dl-PCBs in soils varied from 0.06–22.55 pg/g, with a mean value of 8.18 pg/g. Human health risk was evaluated based on the non carcinogenic and carcinogenic risk method. Non carcinogenic risk was measured using a hazard quotient (HQ) values for 95% upper control limit (UCL) and maximum concentrations of dl-PCBs. HQ values were lower than 1 under both exposure scenarios, which indicated that the non carcinogenic risk of dl-PCBs was negligible. Carcinogenic risk was estimated based on the criteria of ingestion, dermal contact and inhalation of soils. Carcinogenic risk values were less than 10−6, which exhibited negligible cancer risk for infant, child and adult, respectively, through ingestion, dermal contact, and inhalation pathway.