Concentration and Composition of Phthalate Esters in the Groundwater of Jianghan Plain, HuBei, China

Samples of groundwater were collected from 17 sites in Jianghan plain in July, 2007. Sixteen phthalate esters (PAEs) in each sample were detected using solid-phase extraction (SPE) - gas chromatography (GC) spectrometry. The results showed that there were one or several PAEs in all the samples and the concentrations of total PAEs ranged from 80.12 to 1882.18 ng/L. Four PAEs, i.e. di-iso-butyl phthalate (DIBP), di-n-butyl phthalate (DBP), bis (2-ethoxyethyl) phthalate (BEEP) and di (2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP) were the dominant species. Among these, DIBP, DBP and DEHP concentrations were closely related to the water supply from Yangtze River, Hanjiang River and Honghu Lake. However, the distribution of BEEP was irregular, which may be due to the application of some kind of products containing BEEP in the related areas. PAEs distribution was irrelevant to the electrical conductivity and sample depth.