Bisphenol Analogues in Sediments from Industrialized Areas in the United States, Japan, and Korea: Spatial and Temporal Distributions

Bisphenol analogues are used in the production of polycarbonate plastics and epoxy resins. Despite the widespread use of bisphenols, few studies have reported the occurrence of compounds other than bisphenol A (BPA) in sediment. In this study, concentrations and profiles of eight bisphenol analogues were determined using high-performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (HPLC-MS/MS) in sediments collected from several industrialized areas in the United States (U.S.), Japan, and Korea. The total concentrations of bisphenols (Sigma BPs; sum of eight bisphenols) in sediment ranged from below the limit of quantitation (LOQ) to 25 300 ng/g dry weight (dw), with a mean value of 201 ng/g dw. Sediment samples from Lake Shihwa, Korea, contained the highest concentrations of both individual and total bisphenols. Among individual bisphenols, BPA and bisphenol F (BPF) were the predominant compounds, accounting for 64% and 30% of the total bisphenol concentrations in sediment. We also examined vertical profiles of concentrations of bisphenol analogues in sediment cores from the U.S. and Japan. Sediment cores from the U.S. showed a gradual decline in the concentrations of bisphenols as compared to the past decade. BPA concentrations were found to decline in a sediment core from Tokyo Bay, but bisphenol S (BPS) was more frequently detected in core sections that represent the most recent decade, which is consistent with the replacement of BPA with BPS in some applications since 2001 in Japan.This study was funded by a grant (1U38EH000464-01) from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC, Atlanta, GA) to Wadsworth Center, New York State Department of Health, where the study was conceived and performed. Its contents are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of the CDC. We thank Dr. Sachi Taniyasu and Ms. Eriko Yamazaki (AIST, Japan) for sample collection. Gratiot and Whitmore lake sediments were collected as a part of the project supported by Michigan Department of Environmental Quality during 2000-2001 and extracts from those earlier studies were used for bisphenol analysis. We thank Dr. David T. Long (Michigan State University) for these samples