加拿大空和气候变化机构Liggio, John团队报道了空气中的商业化学品在全球范围的风险。相关研究成果于2021年12月15日发表在《自然》。

全球城市中心广泛使用商业化学品，对42亿人构成潜在的接触风险。根据《斯德哥尔摩公约》等国际和国家倡议，经常根据有害化学品在环境中的持久性、在生物有机体中的积累和毒性特性对其进行评估。然而，现有的监管框架在很大程度上依赖于对母体化学品性质的了解，而很少考虑其在大气中转化的产物。这主要是由于缺乏实验数据，因为在复杂的气载化学品混合物中识别转化产物是一项巨大的分析挑战。

该文中，研究人员开发了一个新的框架，将实验室和现场实验、筛选可疑化学品的先进技术和电子建模结合起来，以评估空气中化学品的风险，同时考虑大气化学反应。通过将该框架应用于有机磷阻燃剂，作为新兴关注的代表性化学品，研究人员发现其转化产物分布在全球18个特大城市，代表了世界城市人口先前未被认识到的暴露风险。更重要的是，单个转化产品的毒性可能比母体化学品更大，并且在数量级上比母体化学品更持久，因此与转化产品混合物相关的总体风险也高于母体阻燃剂的风险。

研究结果强调了在评估商业化学品风险时需要考虑大气转换。

附：英文原文

Title: Uncovering global-scale risks from commercial chemicals in air

Author: Liu, Qifan, Li, Li, Zhang, Xianming, Saini, Amandeep, Li, Wenlong, Hung, Hayley, Hao, Chunyan, Li, Kun, Lee, Patrick, Wentzell, Jeremy J. B., Huo, Chunyan, Li, Shao-Meng, Harner, Tom, Liggio, John

Issue&Volume: 2021-12-15

Abstract: Commercial chemicals are used extensively across urban centres worldwide1, posing a potential exposure risk to 4.2 billion people2. Harmful chemicals are often assessed on the basis of their environmental persistence, accumulation in biological organisms and toxic properties, under international and national initiatives such as the Stockholm Convention3. However, existing regulatory frameworks rely largely upon knowledge of the properties of the parent chemicals, with minimal consideration given to the products of their transformation in the atmosphere. This is mainly due to a dearth of experimental data, as identifying transformation products in complex mixtures of airborne chemicals is an immense analytical challenge4. Here we develop a new framework—combining laboratory and field experiments, advanced techniques for screening suspect chemicals, and in silico modelling—to assess the risks of airborne chemicals, while accounting for atmospheric chemical reactions. By applying this framework to organophosphate flame retardants, as representative chemicals of emerging concern5, we find that their transformation products are globally distributed across 18 megacities, representing a previously unrecognized exposure risk for the world’s urban populations. More importantly, individual transformation products can be more toxic and up to an order-of-magnitude more persistent than the parent chemicals, such that the overall risks associated with the mixture of transformation products are also higher than those of the parent flame retardants. Together our results highlight the need to consider atmospheric transformations when assessing the risks of commercial chemicals.

DOI: 10.1038/s41586-021-04134-6

Source: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-021-04134-6