Persistent Toxic Substances in Agricultural Soils of Lishui
County, Jiangsu Province, China
G.-J. Hu Æ S.-L. Chen Æ Y.-G. Zhao Æ C. Sun Æ J. Li Æ
H. Wang
Received: 8 December 2007 / Accepted: 14 July 2008 / Published online: 23 July 2008
Ó Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2008
Abstract The contamination status and distribution of PTS,
including HCHs, DDTs, PCBs, and PAHs, were studied in the
agricultural soil of Lishui County, one of China’s nationally
designated eco-demonstration region. The PTS was analyzed
by GC, GC/MS, and HPLC coupled with microwave extrac-
tion. The concentrations of the sum of HCHs, DDTs, and
PCBs ranged from\0.1 ng g
-1
to 133 ng g
-1
,93.8ngg
-1
,
and 81.0 ng g
-1
(dry wieght), respectively; while the contents
of the sum of PAHs ranged from 3.26 ng g
-1
to 91.0 ng g
-1
(dry wieght). The soil investigation revealed that there were
no recent HCHs and DDTs pollution; none of the soil PCBs
concentrations suggested a serious biological threat in the
investigated area; the extent of pollution of PAHs was low
compared to other investigations. In summary, levels of PTS
contamination in the soil of the Lishui County were relatively
low, but caution should be taken in industrial zone.
Keywords Agricultural soils Á HCH Á DDT Á PCB Á
PAH Á Nationally designated eco-demonstration region Á
East China
Persistent toxic substances (PTS) are of great environmental
concern due to their bioaccumulation, persistence, toxicity,
and long-distance transport issues. The behavior of PTS in
soil has been a hot topic of research (Barra et al. 2005). In
China research on this topic includes dichloro-diphenyl-tri-
chloroethane (DDT) (Cao et al. 2007), polychlorobiphenyl
(PCB) (Mai et al. 2005), and polyaromatic hydrocarbon
(PAH) (Ding et al. 2005). The results show that it is neces-
sary to pay attention to PTS pollution in China.
In 1995, China initiated the Nationally Designated Eco-
Demonstration Region (NDEDR) Project. One goal was to
produce clean and green food supplies for domestic and
international consumption. To date, more than 300 counties
in China have participated in the NDEDR Project. The
assessment index of eco-environmental protection for
NDEDRs, announced by China State Environmental Pro-
tection Administration in 1995, ignores the factor of ‘soil
quality’, which strongly influences the fate and distribution
of pollutants in the environment (Barra et al. 2005), as well
as the quality of agriculture products. Also, the study of PTS
soil contamination in China rarely focuses on NDEDRs. In
this paper the contamination status and distribution of PTS in
the agricultural soil of Lishui County, one of China’s
NDEDRs, were investigated and soil quality was assessed.
Materials and Methods
Lishui County is located in southern Jiangsu Province,
China (Fig. 1). After the rice harvest in November, 2004,
74 soil samples were collected in four agricultural subre-
gions in Lishui: an organic crop production area
(Subregion A), the provincial agricultural science and
technology park (Subregion B), a non-hazardous rice pro-
duction area (Subregion C), and a non-hazardous vegetable
oil production site (Subregion D) (Fig. 1). Fourteen sam-
ples were collected from Subregion A, 30 samples from
Subregion B, nine samples from Subregion C, and 21
G.-J. Hu Á C. Sun (&)
State Key Laboratory of Pollution Control and Resource Reuse,
School of the Environment, Nanjing University,
Nanjing 210093, China
e-mail: envidean@nju.edu.cn; hgj@jshb.gov.cn
G.-J. Hu Á S.-L. Chen Á Y.-G. Zhao Á J. Li Á H. Wang
Jiangsu Provincial Environmental Monitoring Center,
Nanjing 210036, China
123
Bull Environ Contam Toxicol (2009) 82:48–54
DOI 10.1007/s00128-008-9501-y