Assessment of PCDD/Fs levels in soil at a contaminated sawmill site in Sweden--a GIS and PCA approach to interpret the contamination pattern and distribution

Environ Pollut. 2013 Sep:180:19-26. doi: 10.1016/j.envpol.2013.05.002. Epub 2013 May 28.

Abstract

Polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins and polychlorinated dibenzo-p-furans (PCDD/Fs) were analysed in soil from a Swedish sawmill site where chlorophenols (CPs) had been used more than 40 years ago. The most contaminated area at the site was the preservation subarea where the PCDD/F WHO2005-TEQ level was 3450 times higher than the current Swedish guideline value of 200 ng TEQ/kg soil for land for industrial use. It was also shown that a fire which destroyed the sawmill might have affected the congener distribution at the concerned areas. To get a broader picture of the contamination both GIS (spatial interpolation analysis) and multivariate data analysis (PCA) were applied to visualize and compare PCDD/F levels as well as congener distributions at different areas at the site. It is shown that GIS and PCA are powerful tools in decisions on future investigations, risk assessments and remediation of contaminated sites.

Keywords: Contamination profile; Dioxins; Geographic information systems (GIS); Principal component analysis (PCA); Sawmill site.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Benzofurans / analysis*
  • Environmental Monitoring / methods*
  • Environmental Pollution / statistics & numerical data*
  • Geographic Information Systems
  • Industry
  • Polychlorinated Dibenzodioxins / analogs & derivatives*
  • Polychlorinated Dibenzodioxins / analysis
  • Polymers / analysis*
  • Principal Component Analysis
  • Soil / chemistry
  • Soil Pollutants / analysis*
  • Sweden

Substances

  • Benzofurans
  • Polychlorinated Dibenzodioxins
  • Polymers
  • Soil
  • Soil Pollutants
  • polychlorodibenzofuran