Currently, dioxin contamination in soil is only being investigated in a limited capacity, focusing on returned U.S. military bases and select farmlands under the jurisdiction of the National Agricultural Products Quality Management Service.
This stud...
Currently, dioxin contamination in soil is only being investigated in a limited capacity, focusing on returned U.S. military bases and select farmlands under the jurisdiction of the National Agricultural Products Quality Management Service.
This study addresses the growing concern surrounding soil dioxins, a topic highlighted in discussions at National Assembly forums. For sampling, surface materials such as weeds and organic matter are removed before collecting soil and sediment samples. Soil samples are taken at a width of approximately 5 cm, a length of 5 cm, and a depth of 5 cm from each sampling point. Sediment samples are collected using grab samplers to obtain surface layers.
The soil samples are air-dried for 48 hours before undergoing Soxhlet extraction, followed by hexane substitution. They are then subjected to primary purification using a sulfuric acid-treated silica gel column, followed by concentration and secondary purification with an alumina column. The final concentrate is adjusted to a volume of 20–100 µL, completing the pretreatment process.
The prepared 2 mL vials are analyzed using a GC-HRMS (Thermo DFS) equipped with a DB-5MS column (60 m x 0.32 mm ID x 0.25 µm). Calibration curves are constructed using five levels of quantification standards, which include 2,3,7,8-isomers and corresponding 13C12 isotope-substituted internal standards. Dioxin quantification employs a relative calibration curve method using isotope-labeled internal standards (13C12 or 37Cl) added prior to extraction. Measured concentrations are converted into toxic equivalent concentrations (pg I-TEQ/g or ng I-TEQ/g) by applying the toxicity equivalency factor (I-TEF), and samples are ranked accordingly.
The study results revealed significant seasonal differences, with dioxin concentrations generally higher in winter compared to summer. Regionally, the northern areas exhibited the highest concentrations, while the eastern areas showed the lowest levels, indicating notable regional variations as well.