Monitoring and environmental risk assessment of pesticide residues and some of their degradation products in natural waters of the Spanish vineyard region included in the Denomination of Origin Jumilla

[EN] Water pollution by pesticides used in agriculture is currently a major concern both in Spain and in Europe as a whole, prompting the need to evaluate water quality and ecological risk in areas of intensive agriculture. This study involved monitoring pesticide residues and certain degradation products in surface and ground waters of the Denomination of Origin (DO) Jumilla vineyard area in Spain. Sixty-nine pesticides were selected and evaluated at twenty-one sampling points using a multi-residue analytical method, based on solid-phase extraction (SPE) and analysis by liquid chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry (LC-MS), providing reliable results. Twenty-six compounds from those selected were detected in the samples analyzed (eleven insecticides including one degradation product, nine herbicides, and six fungicides) and fifteen of them were found in concentrations over 0.1 μg L−1 (upper threshold established by the EU for pesticides detected in waters for human consumption). Indoxacarb was present in more than 70% of the samples, being the most frequently detected compound in water samples. Some pesticides were ubiquitous in all the water samples. Ecotoxicological risk indicators, toxic units (TUs) and risk quotients (RQs), for algae, Daphnia magna and fish were calculated to estimate the environmental risk of the presence of pesticides in waters. The compounds with the highest risk were the herbicides pendimethalin, with RQ values > 1 for the three aquatic organisms, and diflufenican, posing a high risk for algae and fish, and the insecticide chlorpyrifos, with a high risk for Daphnia magna and fish. The ∑TUi determined for water at each sampling point posed only a high risk for the three aquatic organisms in a sample. These results are important for considering the selection of pesticides with less environmental risk in intensive agricultural areas

Behavior of Phenols and Phenoxyacids on a Bisphenol-A Imprinted Polymer. Application for Selective Solid-Phase Extraction from Water and Urine Samples

A molecularly imprinted polymer (MIP), obtained by precipitation polymerisation with 4-vinylpyridine as the functional monomer, ethylene glycol dimethacrylate as cross-linker, and bisphenol-A (BPA) as template, was prepared. The binding site configuration of the BPA-MIP was examined using Scatchard analysis. Moreover, the behaviour of the BPA-MIP for the extraction of several phenolic compounds (bisphenol-A, bisphenol-F, 4-nitrophenol, 3-methyl-4-nitrophenol) and phenoxyacid herbicides such as 2,4-D, 2,4,5-T and 2,4,5-TP has been studied in organic and aqueous media in the presence of other pesticides in common use. It was possible to carry out the selective preconcentration of the target analytes from the organic medium with recoveries of higher than 70%. In an aqueous medium, hydrophobic interactions were found to exert a remarkably non-specific contribution to the overall binding process. Several parameters affecting the extraction efficiency of the BPA-MIP were evaluated to achieve the selective preconcentration of phenols and phenoxyacids from aqueous samples. The possibility of using the BPA-MIP as a selective sorbent to preconcentrate these compounds from other samples such as urine and river water was also explored

Pasados y presente. Estudios para el profesor Ricardo García Cárcel

Ricardo García Cárcel (Requena, 1948) estudió Historia en Valencia bajo el magisterio de Joan Reglà, con quien formó parte del primer profesorado de historia moderna en la Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona. En esta universidad, desde hace prácticamente cincuenta años, ha desarrollado una extraordinaria labor docente y de investigación marcada por un sagaz instinto histórico, que le ha convertido en pionero de casi todo lo que ha estudiado: las Germanías, la historia de la Cataluña moderna, la Inquisición, las culturas del Siglo de Oro, la Leyenda Negra, Felipe II, Felipe V, Austrias y Borbones, la guerra de la Independencia, la historia cultural, los mitos de la historia de España... Muy pocos tienen su capacidad para reflexionar, ordenar, analizar, conceptualizar y proponer una visión amplia y llena de matices sobre el pasado y las interpretaciones historiográficas. A su laboriosidad inimitable se añade una dedicación sin límites en el asesoramiento de alumnos e investigadores e impulsando revistas, dosieres, seminarios o publicaciones colectivas. Una mínima correspondencia a su generosidad lo constituye este volumen a manera de ineludible agradecimiento

PRESENCIA DE RESIDUOS Y CONTAMINANTES EN LECHE HUMANA

La contaminación de la leche humana por xenobióticos es un problema generalizado a nivel mundial, que se ve afectado por las variaciones geográficas, climáticas, culturales y socioeconómicas de cada lugar. Las políticas de salud pública han enfrentado la situación mediante una vigilancia sostenida y legislaciones restrictivas con el objeto de reducir los efectos perjudiciales sobre las poblaciones y el ambiente, sin embargo se registran datos objetivables, sobre todo en los países en desarrollo. En esta revisión se destacan aspectos generales y particulares de los residuos y contaminantes organoclorados, organofosforados, antibióticos, metales pesados, bifenilos policlorados, dioxinas y furanos, valores de sus contenidos, efectos tóxicos estudiados y los límites máximos permitidos por las legislaciones internacionales

Presencia de residuos y contaminantes en leche humana

La contaminación de la leche humana por xenobióticos es un problema generalizado a nivel mundial, que se ve afectado por las variaciones geográficas, climáticas, culturales y socioeconómicas de cada lugar. Las políticas de salud pública han enfrentado la situación mediante una vigilancia sostenida y legislaciones restrictivas con el objeto de reducir los efectos perjudiciales sobre las poblaciones y el ambiente, sin embargo se registran datos objetivables, sobre todo en los países en desarrollo. En esta revisión se destacan aspectos generales y particulares de los residuos y contaminantes organoclorados, organofosforados, antibióticos, metales pesados, bifenilos policlorados, dioxinas y furanos, valores de sus contenidos, efectos tóxicos estudiados y los límites máximos permitidos por las legislaciones internacionales

Presencia de residuos y contaminantes en leche humana

La contaminación de la leche humana por xenobióticos es un problema generalizado a nivel mundial, que se ve afectado por las variaciones geográficas, climáticas, culturales y socioeconómicas de cada lugar. Las políticas de salud pública han enfrentado la situación mediante una vigilancia sostenida y legislaciones restrictivas con el objeto de reducir los efectos perjudiciales sobre las poblaciones y el ambiente, sin embargo se registran datos objetivables, sobre todo en los países en desarrollo. En esta revisión se destacan aspectos generales y particulares de los residuos y contaminantes organoclorados, organofosforados, antibióticos, metales pesados, bifenilos policlorados, dioxinas y furanos, valores de sus contenidos, efectos tóxicos estudiados y los límites máximos permitidos por las legislaciones internacionales

Presencia de residuos y contaminantes en leche humana

La contaminación de la leche humana por xenobióticos es un problema generalizado a nivel mundial, que se ve afectado por las variaciones geográficas, climáticas, culturales y socioeconómicas de cada lugar. Las políticas de salud pública han enfrentado la situación mediante una vigilancia sostenida y legislaciones restrictivas con el objeto de reducir los efectos perjudiciales sobre las poblaciones y el ambiente, sin embargo se registran datos objetivables, sobre todo en los países en desarrollo. En esta revisión se destacan aspectos generales y particulares de los residuos y contaminantes organoclorados, organofosforados, antibióticos, metales pesados, bifenilos policlorados, dioxinas y furanos, valores de sus contenidos, efectos tóxicos estudiados y los límites máximos permitidos por las legislaciones internacionales

Effects of Wood Amendments on the Degradation of Terbuthylazine and on Soil Microbial Community Activity in a Clay Loam Soil

12 páginas, 5 figuras.-- The original publication is available at www.springerlink.comThe herbicide terbuthylazine is widely used within the EU; however, its frequent detection in surface and groundwater, together with its intrinsic toxicological properties, may pose a risk both for human and environmental health. Organic amendments have recently been proposed as a possible herbicide sorbent in soil, in order to limit herbicide movement from soil to water. The environmental fate of terbuthylazine depends not only in its mobility but also in its persistence. The latter is directly dependent on microbial degradation. For this reason, the effects of pine and oak residues on terbuthylazine soil microbial community functioning and on the potential of this community for terbuthylazine degradation were studied. For this purpose, degradation kinetics, soil dehydrogenase activity and the number of live bacteria were assessed in a clay loam soil treated with terbuthylazine and either amended with pine or oak wood or unamended (sterilised and non-sterilised). At day 65, 85%of the herbicide applied still persisted in the sterile soil, 73 % in the pine-amended one and 63 % in the oak-amended and unamended ones. Pine residues increased the sorption of terbuthylazine to soil and hampered microbial degradation owing to its high terbuthylazine sorption capacity and a decrease in the bioavailability of the herbicide. On the contrary, in the presence of oak residues, the herbicide sorption did not increase significantly. The overall results confirm the active role of the soil microbial community in terbuthylazine degradation in amended and unamended soils and in a liquid enrichment culture performed using an aliquot of the same soil as the inoculum. In this clay loamsoil, in the absence of amendments, the herbicide was found to be quite persistent (t1/2>95 days), while in the enrichment culture, the same natural soil bacterial community was able to halve terbuthylazine in 24 days. The high terbuthylazine persistence in this soil was presumably ascribable to its texture and in particular to the mineralogy of the clay fraction.This work was funded by the CSIC/CNR Bilateral Agreement ‘Adsorption and degradation of pesticides in soils modified with low cost biomaterials: Study of the microbial communities responsible for the biodegradation’ (project reference 2006IT0022).Peer reviewe