The predicted environmental distribution of selected flame retardant chemicals

Abstract

The aim of this study is to calculate environmental equilibrium distributions for selected Flame Retardant Chemicals and thus to indicate where each of them goes and what relative concentrations they adopt in the enviromental compartments. In this study, Mackay's Level I Fugacity Model, based on fugacity that characterizes the escaping tendency from a phase, is used for calculations. The fugacity calculations are applied to an evaluate environment a "unit world" consisting of compartments of homogeneous air, soil, water, biota, suspended solids and sediment. Each compartment is assigned a reasonable volume and properties and the equilibrium distributions of those chemicals are calculated using fugacity capacities, that are calculated from physical and chemical data partition coefficients. When the results are designed to yield priorities for each compartment, it is found that Halognated Flame Retardant Chemicals for the air compartment, Phosphorus Flame Retardant Chemicals in the Sediment and Soil compartments are priorities.