[Source apportionment of dioxin-like polychlorinated biphenyls in soil of the modern Yellow River Delta]

The concentrations of 12 dioxin-like polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in twenty two soil samples collected from modern Yellow River Delta were determined by dual capillary GC-ECD associated with GC-MS. Principle component analysis (PCA) was applied in analysing the dioxin-like PCBs data to obtain types, sources, percentages of source contribution and the congener composition of PCBs in the Delta on the congener level. The results indicated that four types of PCBs contamination sources affecting the PCBs distribution pattern were apportioned in the Delta. The first source was water runoff (non-point source), which was from the industrial production and use by the enterprises along the Yellow River, and it contributed 49.6% of the total contamination burden in the Delta, its dioxin-like PCBs profile was similar to native PCBs and Aroclorl221; the second and third types of PCBs sources were point sources, whose percentages of contribution were 15.0% and 10.1% respectively, the composition of the second source was similar to that of Aroclor1221 and Aroclor1242, the composition of the third source was similar to that of Aroclor1260; the fourth source is believed to be non-point source which was from the atmospheric dry and wet precipitation, it contributed 8.4%, its profile have similarity composition of the integration of Aroclor1242, Aroclor1248 and Aroclor1260.