Polychlorinated byphenyls in the air of an industrial plant of Sour El Ghozlane (Bouira), Algeria

Recognized as toxicants, polychlorobiphenys (PCBs) are now prohibited for use, and their contents in emissions, wastes and media is subjected to regulation. Nevertheless PCB still affect all compartments of our world of life, due to their wide applications (e.g., as component of transformer oils, heat capacitors, ink and pesticide solvents/mixtures, etc.) and their persistence combined with hydrophobicity and lipophilicity. This problem looks even harder in developing countries, where only recently environmental preservation has begun a theme, and clean technologies suffer delays to be introduced. The study here presented was carried out inside the industrial district belonging to Entreprise Nationale Des Peintures (EPL), located close to Lakhdaria city, Bouira province, Algeria. There, gaseous organic contaminants were investigated by means of dedicated diffusive sampling techniques. Primarily, the gaseous fraction of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons was characterized by means of Analyst 2 collection devices in seven locations inside the industrial plant, from Oct 22, 2014 to Feb 1, 2015. PAH congeners from naphthalene to pyrene could be identified and quantified. Nevertheless, the air of interiors revealed to be particularly affected by PCBs, which could be identified by mass spectrometric spectrums and retention times compared with authentic standard mixtures. Individual PCBs containing 3 to 5 chlorine atoms were the principal contaminants (it must be underlined that congeners with >6 Cl atoms exist overall in the particulate phase). The mean PCB concentrations at the seven sampling points over the sampling period ranged from 0.55 up to 42 ng/m3. Big differences were observed from location to location, especially from external points and interiors. Besides, the concentrations resulted everywhere quite "high", compared to usual values recorded in the air (