Environ Monit Assess (2014) 186:7683–7692
DOI 10.1007/s10661-014-3959-3
PBDE, HBCD, and novel brominated flame retardant
contamination in sediments from Lake Maggiore (Northern
Italy)
Giulia Poma & Claudio Roscioli & Licia Guzzella
Received: 18 December 2013 / Accepted: 22 July 2014 / Published online: 31 July 2014
# Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2014
Abstract The reduction in the use of polybrominated
diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) and hexabromocyclododecane
(HBCD) has opened the way for the introduction of novel
brominated flame retardants (NBFRs) in place of the
banned formulations. Important representatives of this
group are decabromodiphenyl ethane (DBDPE), 1,2bis(2,4,6-tribromophenoxy) ethane (BTBPE),
hexabromobenzene (HBB), and pentabromoethylbenzene
(PBEB). In this study, the contamination due to NBRFs
was investigated for the first time in Italy in the sediments
of Lake Maggiore. The aim of the research was to characterize in detail the possible presence of temporal trends
and/or to identify potential sources of contamination. The
study also considered the PBDE and HBCD lake sediment’s current contamination. The analytical results
showed that sediments in Lake Maggiore and its tributary
rivers had weak concentrations of PBEB, HBB, and
BTBPE, but they did not have a negligible/insignificant
contamination of HBCD (up to 23.7 ng/g dry weight
(d.w.)). The determination of PBDEs in sediments showed
that BDE-209 was the predominant congener (up to 217
and 28 ng/g d.w. in river and lake sediments, respectively).
DBDPE was detected in the sediments with relevant
concentrations (up to 280 ng/g d.w in the River Boesio
sediments). The positive correlation of DBDPE with
Electronic supplementary material The online version of this
article (doi:10.1007/s10661-014-3959-3) contains supplementary
material, which is available to authorized users.
G. Poma (*) : C. Roscioli : L. Guzzella
CNR-IRSA, via del Mulino 19, 20861 Brugherio (MB), Italy
e-mail: poma@irsa.cnr.it
BDE-209 confirmed the wide and important use of this
compound in the Lake Maggiore basin and the hypothesis
that this compound will soon become one of the most
important NBFRs used in Northern Italy. The contamination of Lake Maggiore sediments due to PBDEs, HBCD,
and NBFRs were comparable to other worldwide
situations.
Keywords Novel brominated flame retardants . HBCD .
PBDEs . Lake Maggiore . Sediments
Introduction
Among the different classes of organic pollutants released into the environment, the flame retardant compounds (FRs) are causing great concern recently for
scientists and regulatory authorities. The brominated
flame retardants (BFRs), including PBDEs and HBCD,
are currently the largest market group because of their
low cost and high-performance efficiency. Their global
market demand, in fact, continues to grow quickly: from
145,000 t in 1990 (BSEF 2000) to 411,000 t in 2007
(BSEF 2013, personal communication provided by
Burson–Marsteller (Brussells)). PBDEs are applied in
polyurethane foam, electrical and electronic equipment,
plastic, furniture textiles, and other materials (de Wit
2002; de Wit et al. 2010). They were produced in commercial mixtures at three different levels of bromination,
known as penta-BDE, octa-BDE, and deca-BDE. However, due to growing environmental and human health
concerns, the penta-BDE and octa-BDE mixtures were