28 research outputs found
Pharmaceutical pollution of the world's rivers
Environmental exposure to active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) can have negative effects on the health of ecosystems and humans. While numerous studies have monitored APIs in rivers, these employ different analytical methods, measure different APIs, and have ignored many of the countries of the world. This makes it difficult to quantify the scale of the problem from a global perspective. Furthermore, comparison of the existing data, generated for different studies/regions/continents, is challenging due to the vast differences between the analytical methodologies employed. Here, we present a global-scale study of API pollution in 258 of the world's rivers, representing the environmental influence of 471.4 million people across 137 geographic regions. Samples were obtained from 1,052 locations in 104 countries (representing all continents and 36 countries not previously studied for API contamination) and analyzed for 61 APIs. Highest cumulative API concentrations were observed in sub-Saharan Africa, south Asia, and South America. The most contaminated sites were in low- to middle-income countries and were associated with areas with poor wastewater and waste management infrastructure and pharmaceutical manufacturing. The most frequently detected APIs were carbamazepine, metformin, and caffeine (a compound also arising from lifestyle use), which were detected at over half of the sites monitored. Concentrations of at least one API at 25.7% of the sampling sites were greater than concentrations considered safe for aquatic organisms, or which are of concern in terms of selection for antimicrobial resistance. Therefore, pharmaceutical pollution poses a global threat to environmental and human health, as well as to delivery of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals
Factors affecting the atmospheric occurrence and deposition of polychlorinated biphenyls in the Southern Ocean
Persistent organic pollutants, such as polychlorinated biphenyls, reach the
Southern Ocean atmosphere through long-range atmospheric transport. In this
study we report the largest dataset available for the atmospheric
occurrence of PCBs in the Southern Ocean surrounding the Antarctic Peninsula
from samples obtained during three cruises in 2005, 2008 and 2009. The gas
phase concentrations of total PCBs (Σ25PCBs) ranged from 1 to
70 pg mâ3, while the aerosol phase concentrations were significantly
lower (0.04 to 0.4 pg mâ3). The aerosol phase is enriched in the more
hydrophobic congeners consistent with the model predictions of gas-particle
partitioning. There is a net air-to-water diffusive flux of PCBs to the
Southern Ocean, up to 100 times higher than the dry deposition flux of
aerosol-bound PCBs. The air-water disequilibrium is higher for the more
hydrophobic congeners consistent with the role of the biological pump
removing PCBs from the water column by settling of PCBs bound to organic
matter. The atmospheric half-lives of PCB 52 and 180 are of 3.8 and 1 days,
respectively, as calculated from the measured atmospheric concentration and
depositional fluxes. The volatilization of PCBs from Antarctic soils during
the austral summer drives higher gas phase concentrations in the atmosphere
over Antarctica during the warmer periods. This temperature dependence is
not observed for PCBs over the adjacent Southern Ocean, probably due to the
importance of long-range atmospheric transport and atmospheric deposition
modulating the atmospheric occurrence of PCBs
A protocol for wide-scope non-target analysis of contaminants in small amounts of biota using bead beating tissuelyser extraction and LC-HRMS
This work describes a robust and powerful method for wide-scope target and non-target analysis of xenobiotics in biota samples based on bead beating tissuelyser extraction, solid phase extraction (SPE) clean-up and further detection by liquid chromatography coupled to high resolution mass spectrometry (LC-HRMS). Unlike target methodologies, non-target methods usually aim at determining a wide range of still unknown substances with different physicochemical properties. Therefore, losses during the extraction process were minimised. Apart from that, the reduction of possible interferences showed to be necessary to expand the number of compounds that can be detected. This was achieved with an additional SPE clean-up step carried out with mixed-bed multi-layered cartridges. The method was validated with a set of 27 compounds covering a wide range of physicochemical properties, and further applied to the analysis of krill and fish samples.
âąThe bead beating extraction was efficient for a wide range of organic pollutants in small quantities of biota samples.
âąMulti-layered solid phase extraction clean-up yield a wide xenobiotics coverage reducing matrix effects.
âąMethod validation with 27 compounds led to a suitable method for non-target analysis of organic pollutants in biota.ICRA researchers thank funding from CERCA program. This work has been funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (MINECO): project PLAS-MED (CTM2017-89701-C3-2-R). SRM acknowledges the Ramon y Cajal program (RYC-2014-16707). This project has been funded by the Chilean Antarctic Institute through project RT_12_17. The Chilean Agency for Research and Development through the FONDAP initiative (grant no. 15150003) âCentro de InvestigaciĂłn DinĂĄmica de Ecosistemas Marinos de Altas Latitudes (IDEAL)â; and âAnillos de InvestigaciĂłn en Ciencia Antartica (grant no. ANID-PIA-ACT-INACH Anillo ACT192057). IDAEA researchers acknowledge the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (Severo Ochoa, Project CEX2018-000794-S).Peer reviewe
Multicompartmental analysis of POPs and PAHs in ConcepciÏn Bay, central Chile: Part II â Air-sea exchange during Austral summer
Air-sea exchange of POPs and PAHs was assessed in ConcepciĂłn Bay during January, summer 2015. Results showed low levels, in air and water, for POPs (1â20 pg mâ3, and 6â50 pg Lâ1, respectively) and for ÎŁPAHs (1â2 ng mâ3 and 1â2 ng Lâ1, respectively). The highest levels were found for PBDEs (200â20,000 pg Lâ1) in the water samples (3-fold times higher than PCBs and OCP) and PBDE209 accounted for 90% of total ÎŁPBDEs. Airâsea exchange fluxes (ng mâ2 dâ1) were low in general, with exception of PBDEs showing values up to 40,000 ng mâ2 dâ1. Net deposition was found for PAHs, HCB and some PBDEs; while, BDE99, and BDE100 showed net volatilization. These findings contribute with new data of diffusive air-sea exchange on the southern hemisphere Pacific coast
Occurrence, variability and human exposure to Polychlorinated Dibenzo-p-dioxins (PCDDs), Polychlorinated Dibenzofurans (PCDFs) and Dioxin-Like Polychlorinated Biphenyls (DL-PCBs) in dairy products from Chile during the 2011â2013 survey
ArtĂculo de publicaciĂłn ISILevels, congener profiles of PCDD/Fs, DL-PCBs and human exposure for these xenobiotics never have been reported in Chile. For that purpose 102 raw cow milk samples were collected from seven different regions of Chile during 2011 until 2013. The highest mean level for PCDD/Fs, corresponds to 0.32 pg WHO-TEQ(2005) g(-1) fat (2012) and for DL-PCBs 0.17 pg WHO-TEQ(2005) g(-1) fat (2011), using the upper bound approach. Penta and tetra chlorinated congeners dominated PCDD/Fs profiles in a WHO-TEQ(2005) basis during the survey. In the case of DL-PCBs, PCB 126 dominated the profiles with 89%. Statistical analysis showed significant difference among years only in DL-PCBs residues. Also dietary intake was estimated, and the highest level for total sum of PCDD/Fs and DL-PCBs for adult was 0.16 pg WHO-TEQ kg(-1) b.w d(-1) (2011) and for children correspond to 0.65 pg WHO-TEQ kg(-1) b.w d(-1) (2011). Concentrations and dietary intake for the studied compounds in milk and butter samples were below international and national regulations.MINAGRO R.E. 4315/201