Volatile organic compounds soil pollution

Pollutant Distribution. Of particular importance for the aquatic ecosystem is the distribution of volatile substances, eg, gases and volatile organic compounds, between the atmosphere and water, and the sorption of compounds at soHd surfaces, eg, settling suspended matter, biological particles, sediments, and soils (41,42). 

Kliest J, Fast T, Boley JS. 1989. The relationship between soil contaminated with volatile organic compounds and indoor air pollution. Environment International 15 419-425. 

Chlorinated hydrocarbons are persistent volatile organic compound (VOC) pollutants that infiltrate soil from disposal of dry cleaning fluids, degreasing solvents, food extraction solvents, and paint strippers. Trichloroethylene (TCE) is illustrative of these compounds. 

Cousins IT, Jones KC. 1998. Air-soil exchange of semi-volatile organic compounds (SOCs) in the UK. Environ Pollut 102 105-118. 

Other common environmental examples of quantitative GC are in the determination of pesticides in water, dioxin levels in soil and air pollutants. It is routinely used to examine levels of volatile organic compounds (VOCs), polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). It is also a very important technique in the food industry, where it is used extensively for assay of fatty acids, flavours, sterols and residues such as insecticides, herbicides, preservatives, solvents and veterinary drugs. 

DHS can significantly affect the environmental behavior of hydrophobic organic compounds and lower the possibility of direct contact of such organic compounds with various solid phases. The rate of chemical degradation, photolysis, volatilization, transfer to sediments/soils, and biological uptake may be different for the fraction of organic pollutant that is bound to DHS. If this is the case, the distribution and total mass of a pollutant in an ecosystem depends, in part, on the extent of humic matter-hydrophobic binding. 

Many persistent organic pollutants (POPs) are semivolatile organic compounds (SVOCs) having vapour pressures (see Box 4.14) between 10 and 10 7Pa. At these vapour pressures SVOCs can evaporate (volatilize) from soil, water or vegetation into the atmosphere. However, as vapour pressure is temperature dependent (see Box 4.14), it follows that at lower temperatures (lower vapour pressures)... 

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