Notice of RetractionPolycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs) in the Sediments of Beijiang River, China: Characteristics, Sources and Toxicity Evaluation

Notice of Retraction

After careful and considered review of the content of this paper by a duly constituted expert committee, this paper has been found to be in violation of IEEE´s Publication Principles.

We hereby retract the content of this paper. Reasonable effort should be made to remove all past references to this paper.

The presenting author of this paper has the option to appeal this decision by contacting TPII@ieee.org.

To estimate the status of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) contamination in sediments of Beijiang River, 12 surface sediment samples were collected in January 2009 and analyzed for 16 PAHs listed as priority pollutants by US EPA using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). The concentrations of PAHs in sediments were ranged from 44 to 8921 ng/g dry weight. The total concentrations of potentially carcinogenic PAHs (cΣPAHs) ranged from 2 ng/g to 4159 ng/g with an arithmetic mean of 587 ± 1210 ng/g suggesting that some adverse ecological effects would arise from the PAHs in these sediments. Ratios of individual PAHs suggest that the major source of PAHs in the Beijiang River is likely combustion and that direct petroleum contamination could be a minor source. The toxic equivalency factors (TEFs) were used to estimate benzo[a]pyrene-equivalent concentration (TEQ^carc). These findings indicated that the sediments in all stations, especially in S5 and S4, should have potential biological impact, but should have no impairment.