International pellet watch: Global monitoring of polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) in plastic resin pellets

Polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) were measured in plastic resin pellets collected from 65 beaches across 27 countries worldwide. They detected at 49 locations concentrations of the sum congeners up to 46 ng/g-pellet and a median 2 ng/g-pellet. These values are one two orders magnitude lower than those polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) (median, 51 ng/g-pellet). This difference can be attributed production Penta-BDE technical mixture, which is used extensively some countries, availability brominated flame retardants for equilibrium partitioning PCBs. Tetra-, penta-, hexa-brominated (BDE-47, 99, 100, 153, 154) dominant over deca-substituted congener (BDE-209) many samples; this was significantly locations. Results indicate that reflect pollution status PBDEs dissolved phase seawater. From ranking summed six major PBDE (?6PBDEs), we propose five levels categorization (ng/g-pellet): no (<0.2), slight (0.2–0.78), moderate (0.78–2.6), high (2.6–8.5), extreme (>8.5) local pollution. The USA neighboring categorized as (17–36 ng/g-pellet), western Europe Japan (?8.8), most Asian African (<0.8). Notably, or also observed with history production, such Ghana (?6PBDEs 16 Philippines (7.5), Hong Kong (7.7). Scrapped electrical electronic waste might explain these anomalously values.