Bioaccumulation factors for PCBs revisited

Bioaccumulation factors (BAFs)for individual polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) congeners in Barents Sea and White Sea marine calanoid copepods were 1-3 orders of magnitude higher than BAFs in the same species in Canadian and Alaskan Arctic Ocean areas, and in freshwater plankton (Lake Ontario) reported from the mid- to early 1980s. The present study reviews variability in PCB BAFs from the North American Great Lakes and the Arctic Ocean, and discusses possible explanations for the large variation among different studies. BAFs are higher in recent arctic marine and Great Lakes studies than previously reported, and they are at least 10 times higher than those predicted from the octanol-water partition coefficient (KOW). If the recent high BAFs are realistic, it means that earlier reported BAFs are too low. This is likely due to earlier erroneously high quantification of water PCB concentrations, and it implies that bioaccumulation in zooplankton is more efficient than previously assumed. Evidence is presented supporting that also trophic transfer and biomagnification of PCBs in zooplankton leads to BAFs well above those predicted by simple equilibrium partitioning. Overall, miss-measurement of water PCB concentrations and biomagnification contribute significantly to variability in BAFs for PCBs within and among studies. This large variability of BAFs for PCBs in zooplankton illustrated in the present study is of importance for future assessments of potential new bioaccumulative chemicals that rely on measured BAFs, such as the European Union Registration, Evaluation and Authorization of Chemicals program (REACH). © 2005 American Chemical Society

ES&T Guest Comment: Celebrating Bidleman’s 1988 “Atmospheric Processes”

Since its 1988 appearance in ES&T, Terry F. Bidleman’s article, “Atmospheric processes: wet and dry deposition of organic compounds are controlled by their vapor-particle partitioning”, has had a notable impact on the field of contaminant science. The paper has been cited in over 600 journal articles published by authors from every continent. Far from fading into obscurity, the paper’s influence has been remarkably consistent. Citations over the last year match the annual average attained since publication

Environmental Indicators for the Coastal Region of the U.S. Great Lakes

The goal of this research collaboration was to develop indicators that both estimate environmental condition and suggest plausible causes of ecosystem degradation in the coastal region of the U.S. Great Lakes. The collaboration consisted of 8 broad components, each of which generated different types of environmental responses and characteristics of the coastal region. These indicators included biotic communities of amphibians, birds, diatoms, fish, macroinvertebrates, and wetland plants as well as indicators of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) photo-induced toxicity and landscape characterization. These components are summarized below and discussed in more detailed in 5 separate reports (Section II). Stress gradients within the U.S. Great Lakes coastal region were defined from 207 variables (e.g., agriculture, atmospheric deposition, land use/land cover, human populations, point source pollution, and shoreline modification) from 19 different data sources that were publicly available for the coastal region. Biotic communities along these gradients were sampled with a stratified, random design among representative ecosystems within the coastal zone. To achieve the sampling across this massive area, the coastal region was subdivided into 2 major ecological provinces and further subdivided into 762 segment sheds. Stress gradients were defined for the major categories of human-induced disturbance in the coastal region and an overall stress index was calculated which represented a combination of all the stress gradients. Investigators of this collaboration have had extensive interactions with the Great Lakes community. For instance, the Lake Erie Lakewide Area Management Plan (LAMP) has adopted many of the stressor measures as integral indicators of the condition of watersheds tributary to Lake Erie. Furthermore, the conceptual approach and applications for development of a generalized stressor gradient have been incorporated into a document defining the tiered aquatic life criteria for defining biological integrity of the nation’s waters. A total of 14 indicators of the U.S. Great Lakes coastal region are presented for potential application. Each indicator is summarized with respect to its use, methodology, spatial context, and diagnosis capability. In general, the results indicate that stress related to agricultural activity and human population density/development had the largest impacts on the biotic community indicators. In contrast, the photoinduced PAH indicator was primarily related to industrial activity in the U.S. Great Lakes, and over half of the sites sampled were potentially at risk of PAH toxicity to larval fish. One of the indicators developed for land use/land change was developed from Landsat imagery for the entire U.S. Great Lakes basin and for the period from 1992 to 2001. This indicator quantified the extensive conversions of both agricultural and forest land to residential area that has occurred during a short 9 year period. Considerable variation in the responses were manifest at different spatial scales and many at surprisingly large scales. Significant advances were made with respect to development of methods for identifying and testing environmental indicators. In addition, many indicators and concepts developed from this project are being incorporated into management plans and U.S. 8 EPA methods documents. Further details, downloadable documents, and updates on these indicators can be found at the GLEI website - http://glei.nrri.umn.edu

Toward Identifying the Next Generation of Superfund and Hazardous Waste Site Contaminants

Reproduced with permission from Environmental Health Perspectives."This commentary evolved from a workshop sponsored by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences titled "Superfund Contaminants: The Next Generation" held in Tucson, Arizona, in August 2009. All the authors were workshop participants." doi:10.1289/ehp.1002497Our aim was to initiate a dynamic, adaptable process for identifying contaminants of emerging concern (CECs) that are likely to be found in future hazardous waste sites, and to identify the gaps in primary research that cause uncertainty in determining future hazardous waste site contaminants. Superfund-relevant CECs can be characterized by specific attributes: they are persistent, bioaccumulative, toxic, occur in large quantities, and have localized accumulation with a likelihood of exposure. Although still under development and incompletely applied, methods to quantify these attributes can assist in winnowing down the list of candidates from the universe of potential CECs. Unfortunately, significant research gaps exist in detection and quantification, environmental fate and transport, health and risk assessment, and site exploration and remediation for CECs. Addressing these gaps is prerequisite to a preventive approach to generating and managing hazardous waste sites.Support for the workshop, from which this article evolved, was provided by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences Superfund Research Program (P42-ES04940)

Toward Identifying the Next Generation of Superfund and Hazardous Waste Site Contaminants

Reproduced with permission from Environmental Health Perspectives."This commentary evolved from a workshop sponsored by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences titled "Superfund Contaminants: The Next Generation" held in Tucson, Arizona, in August 2009. All the authors were workshop participants." doi:10.1289/ehp.1002497Our aim was to initiate a dynamic, adaptable process for identifying contaminants of emerging concern (CECs) that are likely to be found in future hazardous waste sites, and to identify the gaps in primary research that cause uncertainty in determining future hazardous waste site contaminants. Superfund-relevant CECs can be characterized by specific attributes: they are persistent, bioaccumulative, toxic, occur in large quantities, and have localized accumulation with a likelihood of exposure. Although still under development and incompletely applied, methods to quantify these attributes can assist in winnowing down the list of candidates from the universe of potential CECs. Unfortunately, significant research gaps exist in detection and quantification, environmental fate and transport, health and risk assessment, and site exploration and remediation for CECs. Addressing these gaps is prerequisite to a preventive approach to generating and managing hazardous waste sites.Support for the workshop, from which this article evolved, was provided by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences Superfund Research Program (P42-ES04940)

The Minnesota water-sustainability framework: A plan for clean, abundant water for today and generations to come

Minnesota is at the headwaters of three of the largest North American river basins, which are replenished largely from rain and snow. Deborah Swackhamer describes the the Minnesota Water Sustainability Framework as providing a long-range plan that frames major water sustainability issues and provides strategies and recommendations for addressing them