25th International Meeting on Organic Geochemistry IMOG 2011

P-396
Brominated flame retardants in German Wadden Sea sediments
Thorsten Stiehl 1 , George Sawal 2 , Barbara Scholz-Böttcher 1 , Melanie Beck 1 , Jürgen
Rullkötter 1 , Peter Lepom 2
1 Institute of Chemistry and Biology of the Marine Environment (ICBM), University of Oldenburg, P.O. Box
2503, Oldenburg, Germany, 2 Laboratory for Water Analysis, Federal Environment Agency, Bismarckplatz 1,
Berlin, Germany
To prevent or at least delay combustion of
commercial and consumer products brominated flame
retardants (BFR) are added to a variety of industry
goods such as electronics, plastics or textiles. BFRs
can be either of aromatic, aliphatic, or cycloaliphatic
structure and have different degrees of bromination.
Among the group of BFRs decabromodiphenyl ether
(BDE209) is one of the most commonly utilised
chemicals. As many of the BFRs are admixtures and
not chemically bound to the matrix, they can easily
enter the environment. Their unique physico-chemical
properties make them persistent and allow long-range
transport as well as bioaccumulation in different
environmental matrices and along food chains [1].
Penta- and octabromodiphenyl ethers are listed in the
amendments to the Stockholm Convention on
Persistent Organic Pollutants in 2010.
So far, data on BFR levels in sediments of the
German Bight are scarce, and none were available for
the Jade Bay, which forms part of the large tidal flat
system in North West Germany.
Twenty-three polybrominated diphenyl ethers
(PBDEs) and six novel BFRs were determined in
Wadden Sea surface sediments collected in the Inner
Jade Bay using a fully optimised and validated GC-
ECNI-MS method. Analyses of PBDEs,
pentabromotoluene (PBT), pentabromoethylbenzene
(PBEB), hexabromobenzene (HBB), brominated
biphenyls (BB153, BB209) and
1,2-bis(tribromophenoxy)ethane (BTBPE) were
performed as described previously 2 with some
modifications [2].
In the studied sediments, BDE209 prevailed. In
addition, low concentrations of BDE28, BDE47,
BDE49, BDE66, BDE99, BDE100, BDE183,
BDE196 and BDE197 were detected in all samples.
The levels of the remaining congeners were below the
limit of detection (LoD