Historical record of polychlorinated biphenyls in a sediment core from Lake Biwa, Japan: Significance of unintentional emission and weathering signals revealed by full congener-specific analysis.

Abstract

The occurrence of 209 PCB congeners was determined in a sediment core dated between 1930 and 2019 from Lake Biwa, a typical temperate monomictic lake in Japan. Concentrations of total PCBs ranged from 5.3 to 48\xa0ng/g dry weight (dw), showing a highest peak at the 1960s to 1970s. The temporal trend of total PCBs in this sediment core generally matched with Japanese PCB production and emission pattern (i.e., increasing from the 1950s, peaking at 1970, and gradually decreasing since 1972). The vertical PCB profiles in our core were affected by physical mixing and bioturbation. By using a detailed and comprehensive analytical method, we have found elevated concentrations and special historical profiles of several congeners such as CB-7, -11, -47/48/75, -51, -68, and -209, which are still rarely included in routine PCB analysis. Some tetra-CB congeners like CB-47/48/75, -51, and -68 showed their concentration peaks at the early 2010s, which may be unintentionally produced during polymer manufacturing processes. PCB homolog- and congener-specific profiles in our sediment core samples have experienced weathering with higher proportions of penta- and hexa-CBs as compared to the Kanechlor usage pattern (i.e., dominated by tri- and tetra-CBs). Both intentional (i.e., technical mixtures) and unintentional (e.g., PCB-containing polymers and pigments) sources of PCBs were suggested from congener-specific analysis.