Occurrence and Distribution of Organophosphate Esters in Surface Soil and Street Dust from Chongqing, China: Implications for Human Exposure

In the present study, the occurrence, concentrations, and distribution of organophosphate esters (OPEs) were studied in surface soil and street dust samples collected from different sites of Chongqing, a metropolitan city in western China. Furthermore, nondietary daily intakes (DIs) of OPEs only through dust ingestion absorption were assessed between toddlers and adults. The aOPEs contents ranged from 10.1 to 315 ng/g dw and from 348 to 1369 ng/g dw in surface soil and street dust samples, respectively, with tris (2-butoxyethyl) phosphate (TBOEP), the predominant OPEs in surface soil, whereas tris (chloroethyl) phosphate (TCEP) occupied a relatively high proportion in street dust samples. The mobility of TCEP and tris (2-chloroisopropyl) phosphate (TCIPP) to deeper soil zones with seepage water may play a role in decreasing contents of both compounds in surface soil. Considerably different patterns of pairwise correlations of six OPEs congeners were observed between surface soil and street dust, which could largely relate to the complicated environmental process for tris (1,3-dichloroisopropyl) phosphate (TDCIPP) and TCIPP in surface soil. Analogous sources between surface soil and street dust have been identified through principal component analysis. Compared with adults, the toddlers were more vulnerable to OPEs intake, according to the estimated DI values. For both toddler and adult groups, the estimated exposure values for all OPEs were several orders of magnitude lower than the reference dose (RfD), not suggesting the potential risk to human health.