Uncovering the Relative Importance of Chemical Emissions Arising from the Application as Polymer Additives
5 affiliations
- 1Department of Physical and Environmental Sciences, University of Toronto Scarborough, 1265 Military Trail, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, M1C 1A4
- 2Department of Chemistry, University of Toronto, 80 St. George Street, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, M5S 3H6
- 3Department of Chemical Engineering & Applied Chemistry, University of Toronto, 200 College St, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, M5S 3E5
- 4College of Environmental Sciences and Engineering
- 5Peking University
Abstract
Polymers can act as “Trojan Horse” releasing toxic chemical additives into ecosystems and individual organisms. However, the extent to which additive use contributes to the overall emissions and environmental burdens of multifunctional chemicals remains poorly understood. Here, we use polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs), and short-, medium-, and long-chain chlorinated paraffins (SCCPs, MCCPs, and LCCPs) as case studies to quantify the contribution of polymer additive use to their global historical emissions and environmental burdens. We revisit their global emission inventories and derive emissions exclusively associated with additive use using the CiP-CAFE model. The total emissions and those arising from additive use are both fed into the BETR-Global model to quantify the environmental burden attributable to additive applications. Additive applications are estimated to account for 38%, 84%, 14%, 26%, and 9% of cumulative global emissions of PCBs, PBDEs, SCCPs, MCCPs, and LCCPs, respectively. Additive and non-additive applications differ substantially in their release characteristics, including emission factors during use and end-of-life management, the mode of emission, temporal delays, and spatial distributions. By 2025 (for PCBs and PBDEs) and 2020 (for SCCPs, MCCPs, and LCCPs), 24%, 92%, 51%, 42%, and 13% of the global environmental burden, respectively, can be attributed to additive use, with disproportionately larger contributions in more dispersive environmental compartments, particularly the atmosphere and seawater, and therefore also in remote polar and oceanic regions.
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BibTeX
@misc{chen2026uncovering,
title = {{Uncovering the Relative Importance of Chemical Emissions Arising from the Application as Polymer Additives}},
author = {Chengkang Chen and Ziqi Zhang and Judith Glienke and Jiazhe Chen and Jianguo Liu and Frank Wania},
howpublished = {ChemRxiv},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.26434/chemrxiv.15009202/v1},
url = {https://chemrxiv.org/doi/full/10.26434/chemrxiv.15009202/v1},
note = {CC BY},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Uncovering the Relative Importance of Chemical Emissions Arising from the Application as Polymer Additives
AU - Chengkang Chen
AU - Ziqi Zhang
AU - Judith Glienke
AU - Jiazhe Chen
AU - Jianguo Liu
AU - Frank Wania
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/21
PB - ChemRxiv
DO - 10.26434/chemrxiv.15009202/v1
UR - https://chemrxiv.org/doi/full/10.26434/chemrxiv.15009202/v1
AB - Polymers can act as “Trojan Horse” releasing toxic chemical additives into ecosystems and individual organisms. However, the extent to which additive use contributes to the overall emissions and environmental burdens of multifunctional chemicals remains poorly understood. Here, we use polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs), and short-, medium-, and long-chain chlorinated paraffins (SCCPs, MCCPs, and LCCPs) as case studies to quantify the contribution of polymer additive use to their global historical emissions and environmental burdens. We revisit their global emission inventories and derive emissions exclusively associated with additive use using the CiP-CAFE model. The total emissions and those arising from additive use are both fed into the BETR-Global model to quantify the environmental burden attributable to additive applications. Additive applications are estimated to account for 38%, 84%, 14%, 26%, and 9% of cumulative global emissions of PCBs, PBDEs, SCCPs, MCCPs, and LCCPs, respectively. Additive and non-additive applications differ substantially in their release characteristics, including emission factors during use and end-of-life management, the mode of emission, temporal delays, and spatial distributions. By 2025 (for PCBs and PBDEs) and 2020 (for SCCPs, MCCPs, and LCCPs), 24%, 92%, 51%, 42%, and 13% of the global environmental burden, respectively, can be attributed to additive use, with disproportionately larger contributions in more dispersive environmental compartments, particularly the atmosphere and seawater, and therefore also in remote polar and oceanic regions.
ER -