Abstract:Organochlorine pesticides (OCPs) were measured in 58 road dust samples collected from Suzhou, Wuxi and Nantong in southern Jiangsu Province. The samples were extracted using accelerated solvent extraction (ASE) and analyzed with gas chromatography/mass spectrometry. 19 OCPs were detected with an average total concentration of 76.6mg/kg. Hexachlorobenzene (HCB), dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethanes (DDTs) and chlordane were identified to be the predominant components of OCPs, and the average concentration were 26.8mg/kg (0.432~348mg/kg), 39.6mg/kg (1.95~559mg/kg) and 6.17mg/kg (ND~144mg/kg), respectively, with detection rates of 100%, 100% and 82.7%. The OCPs types detected in road dust samples were consistent with those in ambient air samples collected from cities of China, while the compositional fraction of the major components were different. More species and much higher levels of OCPs were found in road dust samples than those in soil samples collected from rural farmland. The ratio of (DDE+DDD)/ DDT suggested that most DDT in road dust had been degraded. Relatively high concentration of HCB in samples was observed, which was likely due to the emissions and transport of pollutants from the industrial sources. The mean ratio of trans-chlordane (TC) and cis-chlordane (CC) was determined to be 1.94, indicating a newly consumption of chlordane in some areas.