Conclusions
This study has provided the occurrence and concentrations of organic pollutants and assessed of the
initial ecological risk of these organic pollutants in water from the Yangtze River Estuary (YRE). The 23
organic pollutants, including 19 in surface and 20 in deep water samples, were detected by combination
of GC-MS and NAGINATATM database and were dominated by phthalate esters (PAEs), petroleum
hydrocarbons (PHCs) and substituted benzenes. The PEC/PNEC ratios of 8 organic pollutants were
determined to be higher than 1, and 3 of them (DEHP, octadecane, nonadecane) were higher than 100,
indicating a severe ecological risk to the aquatic environment of YRE. Therefore, we should pay much
attention to the contaminations of PAEs and PHCs in YRE water