Fate and risk of pesticides, pharmaceuticals, illicit drugs, and personal care products in the Iberian river basins of Ebro and Llobregat: Challenges and solutions using advanced treatment technologies in a European context

Occurrence of emerging contaminants in environmental waters is directly related to their removal in wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) and the flow rate of the receiving waters. Conventional WWTPs were not designed to remove some organic compounds such as emerging pollutants. A wide array of micropollutants are usually found in WWTP efluents, so there is a need to develop and evaluate alternative treatments which could be efficient for their elimination.Advanced treatment technologies such membrane bioreactors (MBR) and photocatalytic processes could improve the removal of many emerging pollutants and thereby diminish their presence in surface waters. Mediterranean rivers are characterized by important fluctuations in the flow rates and heavy contamination pressures from extensive urban, industrial and agricultural activities. This translates in contamination levels most often higher than in other European basins. For instance, the Llobregat river basin (Catalonia, NE Spain) suffers from extreme and frequent flow fluctuations (1–100 m3 s-1) and receives the effluent discharges of more than 55 WWTPs, and at some points, especially in drought periods, the effluents may represent almost 100% of the total flow of the river. Thus, it is not strange to find considerably high levels of organic contaminants along the river and increasing concentrations when moving downstream due to the also increasing number of WWTPs and population pressure. Besides conventional contaminants such as pesticides, Hg, organochlorine compounds, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), alkylphenols and polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs), emerging contaminants such as pharmaceuticals and personal care products and illicit drugs represent an overgrowing portion of trace organic contaminants of concern in two studied Iberian rivers (Ebro and Llobregat). This presentation summarizes the findings of several studies and monitoring programs conducted with the aim of getting a better insight about the sources and fate of pesticides, pharmaceuticals, illicit drugs and personal care products in the aquatic environment in Spain. The occurrence of these contaminants is discussed in relationship to their removal in WWTPs, influence of hydrological conditions in the receiving river waters, sediments and dilution factors. The removal of some of them (e.g., acetaminophen, diclofenac, ibuprofen, carbamazepine and atenolol as well as the illicit drugs cocaine and methadone) with advanced water treatments and the study ofthe formed transformation products and their toxicity is also presented. In addition, the risk posed by these emerging contaminants in both surface and effluent wastewaters was assessed towards different aquatic organisms (algae, daphnids and fish) by determining hazard indexes.These indexes are further correlated with some biological descriptors characterizing both the structure and functioning of the receiving aquatic ecosystems such as biofilms or the macroinvertebrate community. The study completes with an analysis of the strategies under discussion within the European Countries in order to reduce the environmental risk posed by the occurrence of the most critical emerging contaminants in surface waters. In particular the recent European directive 2013/39/UE as regards priority substances in the field of water policy and the Swiss Micropoll Strategy are presented and their main issues discussed in terms of relevant compounds to monitor regularly, priority actions to reduce their occurrence, best techniques to adopt in upgrading existing wastewater treatment plants

Environmental Risk Assessment of Sunscreens

22 pagesThe sunscreens are complex products for protecting the skin of UV radiation. These products contain active ingredients organic and inorganic UV filters. The release of some of these components can provoke negative effects to aquatic ecosystems. The UV filters have shown to be present in environmental compartments (freshwater, wastewater, groundwater, seawater, sediment, and sand) and to be ubiquitous, motivated by the use in other applications. To assess the environmental risk of these products implies to know exposure conditions and toxic effects in order to establish the risk quotient. This is calculated as the ratio between predicted environmental concentration (PEC) or measured environmental concentration (MEC) and predicted no-effect concentration (PNEC). The organic compounds that presented higher risk were benzophenone-3, ethylhexyl methoxycinnamate, and 4-methylbenzylidene camphor. Nevertheless, this risk is depending on the location and environmental compartment. The lack of a database concentration of inorganic nanoparticles (TiO2 and ZnO) makes difficult to carry out a realistic assessment of environmental risk, although using modeled data an approach was carried out. The results evidenced that certain risk can be related to the release of these nanomaterials from sunscreens, although a refinement will be necessary to reduce the uncertainties. Finally, some gaps of information have been identified in order to get a more realistic environmental risk assessment. Thus, the toxicity of the mixture of sunscreens compounds under realistic conditions and the improvement of the knowledge of their mode of actions could be the next stepsWe would like to thank to the projects CTM2016-75908-R funding by the Spanish Ministry of Economy, Industry and Competitiveness (MINECO) and FEDER funds and the Junta de Andalucía PAIDI, Excellence Research Group RNM306 for their supportPeer reviewe

Protocol for a multicentre and prospective follow-up cohort study of early detection of atrial fibrillation, silent stroke and cognitive impairment in high-risk primary care patients: the PREFA-TE study

Background Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most common type of cardiac arrhythmia. Future estimations suggest an increase in global burden of AF greater than 60% by 2050. Numerous studies provide growing evidence that AF is not only associated with stroke but also with cognitive impairment and dementia.Aim The main goal is to assess the impact of the combined use of cardiac rhythm monitoring devices, echocardiography, biomarkers and neuroimaging on the early diagnosis of AF, silent strokes and cognitive decline, in subjects at high risk of AF.Methods and analysis Two-year follow-up of a cohort of individuals aged 65–85 years at high risk for AF, with no prior diagnosis of either stroke or dementia. The study involves baseline echocardiography, biomarkers, and neuroimaging, yearly cardiac monitoring, and semiannual clinical assessments. Different parameters from these tests will be analysed as independent variables. Throughout the study period, primary outcomes: new diagnoses of AF, stroke and cognitive impairment, along with any clinical and therapeutic changes, will be registered. A first descriptive and bivariate statistical analysis, appropriate to the types of variables, will be done. The information obtained from the data analysis will encompass adjusted risk estimates along with 95% confidence intervals. Event risk predictions will rely on multivariate Cox proportional hazards regression models. The predictive value of the model will be evaluated through the utilisation of receiver operating characteristic curves for area under the curve calculation. Additionally, time-to-event analysis will be performed using Kaplan-Meier curves.Ethics and dissemination This study protocol has been reviewed and approved by the Independent Ethics Committee of the Foundation University Institute for Primary Health Care Research-IDIAP Jordi Gol (expedient file 22/090-P). The authors plan to disseminate the study results to the general public through various scientific events. Publication in open-access journals and presentations at scientific congresses, seminars and meetings is also foreseen.Trial registration number NCT05772806