Medium- and Short-Chain Chlorinated Paraffins in Mature Maize Plants and Corresponding Agricultural Soils.

For the most complex artificial chlorinated environmental contaminants, much less is known for medium-chain CPs than short-chain CPs. In this research, the spatial distributions of MCCPs and SCCPs in farmland soil and maize leaves near a CP production facility were found marginally influenced by seasonal winds. The levels of ∑MCCPs and ∑SCCPs were in the ranges of <1.51-188 and 5.41-381 ng/g dw for soils; and 77.6-52930 and 119-61999 ng/g dw for maize leaf, respectively. Bioaccumulation and tissue distributions of the CPs within maize plants were specifically analyzed. Most of the CPs were contained in the tissues directly exposed to airborne CPs. Though the estimated risk of CPs to humans through ingestion of kernels appears to be minimal, the edible safety of MCCPs in maize plants for cattle was nearly in the designated range of adverse effects. To our knowledge, this is the first report on bioaccumulation of CPs in mature maize plants, especially in the parts eaten by humans and domestic animals. It provides a baseline reference to the edible risks of CPs in agricultural food plants and alerts us to the problematic environmental behavior of MCCPs, a probable future replacement for SCCPs commercially.

Characteristics and trihalomethane formation reactivity of dissolved organic matter in effluents from membrane bioreactors with and without filamentous bulking.

In this study, synthetic wastewater was treated by two identical membrane bioreactors (MBRs): the normal sludge MBR (NS-MBR) and the bulking sludge MBR (BS-MBR). Effects of filamentous bulking on the characteristics and trihalomethane (THM) formation reactivity of MBR effluent dissolved organic matter (EfOM) were investigated. Filamentous sludge bulking had no significant influence on the regulated MBR effluent water quality except NO2-N and NO3-N. NS-MBR effluent had more low molecular weight (LMW) (<5kDa) EfOM (92.43%) than BS-MBR (75.18%). About two-thirds of EfOM from BS-MBR were hydrophilic substances. On the contrary, EfOM from NS-MBR exhibited higher hydrophobicity. The ratio of polysaccharides and proteins in MBR effluents increased after filamentous bulking. There were more protein-like materials, fulvic acid-like and humic acid-like in BS-MBR EfOM. The THM formation reactivity of BS-MBR EfOM was 30.15% of NS-MBR EfOM, whereas BS-MBR EfOM exhibited higher formation reactivity of bromine containing species.