New insights into the impact of leachates from in-field collected plastics on aquatic invertebrates and vertebrates

The impact of leachates from micronized beached plastics of the Mediterranean Sea and Atlantic Ocean on coastal marine ecosystems was investigated by using a multidisciplinary approach. Chemical analysis and ecotoxicological tests on phylogenetically distant species were performed on leachates from the following plastic categories: bottles, pellets, hard plastic (HP) containers, fishing nets (FN) and rapido trawling rubber (RTR). The bacteria Alivibrio fischeri, the nauplii of the crustaceans Amphibalanus amphitrite and Acartia tonsa, the rotifer Brachionus plicatilis, the embryos of the sea urchin Paracentrotus lividus, the ephyrae of the jellyfish Aurelia sp. and the larvae of the medaka Oryzias latipes were exposed to different concentrations of leachates to evaluate lethal and sub-lethal effects. Thirty-one additives were identified in the plastic leachates; benzophenone, benzyl butyl phthalate and ethylparaben were present in all leachates. Ecotoxicity of leachates varied among plastic categories and areas, being RTR, HP and FN more toxic than plastic bottles and pellets to several marine invertebrates. The ecotoxicological results based on 13 endpoints were elaborated within a quantitative weight of evidence (WOE) model, providing a synthetic hazard index for each data typology, before their integrations in an environmental risk index. The WOE assigned a moderate and slight hazard to organisms exposed to leachates of FN and HP collected in the Mediterranean Sea respectively, and a moderate hazard to leachates of HP from the Atlantic Ocean. No hazard was found for pellet, bottles and RTR. These findings suggest that an integrated approach based on WOE on a large set of bioassays is recommended to get a more reliable assessment of the ecotoxicity of beached-plastic leachates. In addition, the additives leached from FN and HP should be further investigated to reduce high concentrations and additive types that could impact marine ecosystem health

”New” POPs in marine mammals in Nordic Arctic and NE Atlantic areas during three decades

The report describes the findings of a Nordic study aiming to depict possible trends in “new” contaminants in marine mammals in Nordic Arctic waters over three decennia. The “new” contaminants in focus are the brominated flame retardants, BFRs, methoxylated PBDEs, perfluorinated compounds including the PFOS family, and polychlorinated naphthalenes, PCNs. In addition, brominated dioxins and dibenzofurans were analysed in a subset of the samples. The study aims at giving a wide scope of the presence of a selection of these “new” contaminants in marine mammals in recent time and so far back as is possible with extracting samples from specimen banks. The marine mammal species analysed were fin whale, minke whale, pilot whale, white-sided dolphins, harbour porpoise, ringed seal and hooded seal. The study is the result of collaboration between Norway, Denmark/Greenland, Faroe Island, Iceland and Sweden. The funding for large parts of the project has been made available by the Nordic Council of Ministers via the working group on Akvatiska Ekosystemer

Per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) in follicular fluid from women experiencing infertility in Australia

Per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) have been widely used and detected in human matrices. Evidence that PFAS exposure may be associated with adverse human reproductive health effects exists, however, data is limited. The use of a human matrix such as follicular fluid to determine chemical exposure, along with reproductive data will be used to investigate if there is a relationship between PFAS exposure and human fertility. Objective: This study aims to: (1) assess if associations exist between PFAS concentrations and/or age and fertilisation rate (as determined in follicular fluid of women in Australia who received assisted reproductive treatment (ART)); and (2) assess if associations exist between PFAS concentrations and infertility aetiology. Methods: Follicular fluids were originally collected from participants who underwent fully stimulated ART treatment cycles at an in vitro fertilisation (IVF) clinic in the period 2006–2009 and 2010–11 in Queensland, Australia. The samples were available for analysis of 32 PFASs including perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS), perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), perfluorohexane sulfonate (PFHxS), and perfluorononanoic acid (PFNA) using high performance liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (HPLC-MS/MS). 97 samples were matched with limited demographic data (age and fertilisation rate) and five infertility factors (three known female factors): 1) endometriosis, 2) polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS), and 3) genital tract infections - tubal/pelvic inflammation disease; as well as 4) male factor, and 5) idiopathic or unknown from either males or females. SPSS was used for linear regression analysis. Results: PFASs were detected in all follicular fluid samples with the mean concentrations of PFOS and PFOA, 4.9, and 2.4 ng/ml, respectively. A lower fertilisation rate was observed at higher age when age was added as a covariate, but there was no relationship between PFAS concentrations and fertilisation rate. There were few statistically significant associations between PFAS concentrations in follicular fluid and infertility factors. Log-transformed PFHxS concentrations were lower in females with endometriosis (factor 1) than in women who had reported ‘male factors’ as a reason of infertility, while PFHpA was higher in women who had infertile due to female factors (factor 1–3) compared to those who had infertile due to male factor. Conclusion: PFASs were detected in follicular fluid of Australian women who had been treated at an IVF clinic. PFAS exposure found in follicular fluids is linked to increased risk of some infertility factors, and increased age was associated with decreased fertilisation rate in our data. But there was no relationship between PFAS and ferlitisation rate. Further large-scale investigations of PFAS and health effects including infertility are warranted

Comparison between manta trawl and in situ pump filtration methods, and guidance for visual identification of microplastics in surface waters

Owing to the development and adoption of a variety of methods for sampling and identifying microplastics, there is now data showing the presence of microplastics in surface waters from all over the world. The difference between the methods, however, hampers comparisons, and to date, most studies are qualitative rather than quantitative. In order to allow for a quantitative comparison of microplastics abundance, it is crucial to understand the differences between sampling methods. Therefore, a manta trawl and an in situ filtering pump were compared during realistic, but controlled, field tests. Identical microplastic analyses of all replicates allowed the differences between the methods with respect to (1) precision, (2) concentrations, and (3) composition to be assessed. The results show that the pump gave higher accuracy with respect to volume than the trawl. The trawl, however, sampled higher concentrations, which appeared to be due to a more efficient sampling of particles on the sea surface microlayer, such as expanded polystyrene and air-filled microspheres. The trawl also sampled a higher volume, which decreased statistical counting uncertainties. A key finding in this study was that, regardless of sampling method, it is critical that a sufficiently high volume is sampled to provide enough particles for statistical evaluation. Due to the patchiness of this type of contaminant, our data indicate that a minimum of 26 particles per sample should be recorded to allow for concentration comparisons and to avoid false null values. The necessary amount of replicates to detect temporal or spatial differences is also discussed. For compositional differences and size distributions, even higher particle counts would be necessary. Quantitative measurements and comparisons would also require an unbiased approach towards both visual and spectroscopic identification. To facilitate the development of such methods, a visual protocol that can be further developed to fit different needs is introduced and discussed. Some of the challenges encountered while using FTIR microspectroscopic particle identification are also critically discussed in relation to specific compositions found

Comparison of effective methods for quantification of plankton-sized microplastics: the case of the Gulf of Bothnia, Sweden

In recent years, the concern about the concentration and impact of microplastics (< 5 mm) in the marine environment has increased globally. Recent studies show that more than 70% of the microplastics found in marine vertebrates are smaller than 2 mm. However, few studies have analysed the fraction of microplastics smaller than 300 microns, which overlaps in size with many planktonic prey organisms. This study aims to compare two sampling methods and devices for collection of microplastics down to 10 μm in marine waters.Water samples were collected from 5 stations along the Gulf of Bothnia off the coast of Sweden. Large volumes of surface water (1 m3) were filtered with a 10 μm steel mesh using two types of plastic-free pumps: UFO AAU (Aalborg University) and PUMP ÖRU (Örebro University) both at surface level and 3.5 m depth. These samples were processed according to a protocol developed at AAU, briefly: SDS incubation, enzymatic treatment, fenton reaction, density separation, and evaporation. In turn, microplastics larger than 300 μm were processed by microscopy and FTIR spectroscopy, while the fraction between 10- 300 microns was processed by μFTIR-Imaging spectroscopy, followed by automatic PM detection. Our preliminary results show that most marine MPs are smaller than 300 μm, and can be potentially ingested by marine animals, entering in marine food webs. At the same time, it is expected that this characterization of microplastics at the water surface and the comparison between methods will allow establishing common protocols for the sampling of microplastics smaller than 300 microns in the marine environment, which is essential to better evaluate the levels of plastic pollution in the ocean.125

Uptake and bioaccumulation of PCDD/Fs in earthworms after in situ and in vitro exposure to soil from a contaminated sawmill site

Uptake of polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins and polychlorinated dibenzofurans (PCDD/Fs) was studied in earthworms collected from a sawmill site in Sweden with severe PCDD/Fs contamination (the hot spot concentration was 690,000 ng TEQWHO2005/kg d.w.) in order to investigate the transfer of PCDD/Fs from the site to the biota. PCDD/Fs concentrations in the collected earthworms were compared to PCDD/Fs concentrations in laboratory exposed earthworms (Eisenia fetida), which were exposed to contaminated soils from the sawmill site for 34 days. All analyses were performed by high resolution gas chromatography/high resolution mass spectrometry (HRGC/HRMS). PCDD/Fs concentrations in the earthworms ranged from 290 to 520,000 pg/g (f.w.). The main congeners found in both soils and earthworms were OCDF, 1234678-HpCDF, OCDD and 1234678-HpCDD. The study showed that the PCDD/Fs in the soil were biovailable to the earthworms and the PCDD/Fs concentrations in the soils correlated with the concentrations in the earthworms. Earthworm samples from soil with lower concentration had higher bioaccumulation factors than samples from soils with high concentration of contamination. Thus, a less contaminated soil could yield higher concentrations in earthworms compared to a higher contaminated soil. Assuming that when assessing risks with PCDD/F contaminated soil, a combination of chemical analysis of soil PCDD/Fs concentrations and bioavailability should be employed for a more comprehensive risk assessment.Funding Agencies:Arvika municipality, SwedenDepartment of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, Faculty of Medicine and Health, Orebro University, SwedenMTM Research Centre, Orebro University, Sweden</p

Maternal exposure to perfluoroalkyl acids measured in whole blood and birth outcomes in offspring

Perfluoralkyl and polyfluoralkyl substances have been measured in plasma and serum of pregnant women as a measure of prenatal exposure. Increased concentrations of individual perfluoroalkyl acids (PFAAs), (typically perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and perfluoroctane sulfonate (PFOS) have been reported to be associated with reductions in birth weight and other birth outcomes. We undertook a study of 14 PFAAs in whole blood (including PFOS, PFHxS, PFHpA, PFOA, PFNA, PFDA and PFUnDA) from 98 pregnant women in Western Australia from 2008 to 2011. Median concentrations (in μg/L) were: PFOS 1.99; PFHxS 0.33; PFOA 0.86; PFNA 0.30; PFDA 0.12 and PFUnDA 0.08. Infants born to women with the highest tertile of PFHxS exposure had an increased odds of being b95% of their optimal birth weight (OR 3.5, 95% CI 1.1 11.5). Conversely, maternal blood concentrations of PFUnDA were associated with non-significant increases in average birth weight (+102 g, 95% CI −41, 245) and significant increases in proportion of optimal birth weight (+4.7%, 95% CI 0.7, 8.8) per ln-unit change. This study has reported a range of PFAAs in the whole blood of pregnant women and suggests that PFHxS and PFUnDA may influence foetal growth and warrant further attention. Additional studies are required to identify the sources of PFAA exposure with a view to prevention, in addition to further studies investigating the long term health effects of these ubiquitous chemicals