IARC MONOGRAPHS ON THE EVALUATION OF CARCINOGENIC ...

and detected at average concentrations of 51 ng/L (range, 3–109) and 284 ng/L (range,
3–2240), respectively (Benfenati et al., 1992). It was also detected in two polluted rivers,
Besós and Llobregat, in Barcelona, Spain, in 1985–86 at mean concentrations of 1300
(SD, 150) ng/L and 180 (SD, 130) ng/L, respectively (Gomez-Belinchon et al., 1991).
Naphthalene was one of the main aromatic hydrocarbons detected (at a concentration of
0.02 μg/L) in surface waters of Admiralty Bay, King George Island, Antarctica, during
the summers of 1989, 1990, 1992 and 1993 (Bícego et al., 1996).
Naphthalene was found at concentrations of 0.5–35 ng/L (arithmetic mean, 12 ng/L)
over 15 months at a coastal site near piers extending into Vineyard Sound, MA, USA. A
dominant wintertime source considered was use of space-heating oil, with higher
concentrations of naphthalene found in the winter and lowest concentrations found in the
summer (Gschwend et al., 1982).
(c) Soil and sediments
NAPHTHALENE 381
Releases of naphthalene to land from 744 industrial facilities in the USA in 1999
amounted to 66 tonnes (Environmental Protection Agency, 2001).
In untreated agricultural soils, naphthalene has been found at concentrations ranging
from 0 to 3 μg/kg in 1942–84 (Wild et al., 1990). It has been found at 6.1 (SD, 0.2) mg/kg
in coal tar-contaminated soil (Yu et al., 1990), at 16.7 mg/kg in soil from a former tar-oil
refinery (Weissenfels et al., 1992; Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry,
1995a) and at up to 66 μg/kg in sludge-treated soils (Wild et al., 1990).
In the USA, naphthalene was reported to be detectable in 7% of 267 sediment
samples (with the median concentration for all samples of less than 500 μg/kg) entered
into the Environmental Protection Agency STORET database (1980–82) (Staples et al.,
1985).
Naphthalene has been detected in contaminated sediments in Texas, USA, at average
concentrations of 54.7 and 61.9 μg/kg at 10 m and 25 m from an oil platform and in
nearby non-contaminated estuarine sediments at 2.1 μg/kg in 1982–85 (Brooks et al.,
1990). It was found at 200 mg/kg in a tar-contaminated sediment of the River Warnow
at Schwaan near Rostock, Germany, in August 1989 (Randow et al., 1996). Naphthalene
was found in all four Canadian marine sediments analysed (representing varying concentrations
and sources of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon contamination) at concentrations
ranging from 0.1 to 115 mg/kg dry sediment (Simpson et al., 1995).
Naphthalene concentrations ranging from < 2 to 20.2 mg/kg dry wt were reported in
three out of four sediments from lakes in the Northwest Territories in Canada (Lockhart
et al., 1992). Primarily due to oxygen limitation, naphthalene persists in coal tar-contaminated
surface sediments (Madsen et al., 1996). Naphthalene concentrations in soils
and sewage sludges are usually less than 1 mg/kg in the United Kingdom (Wild & Jones,
1993).