The bait-marker iophenoxic acid (IPA) and its derivatives are increasingly used for evaluating and optimizing the cost-effectiveness of baiting campaigns on wildlife, particularly on game species such as the wild boar. We aimed to determine whether concentrations of the three main IPA derivatives ethyl, methyl and propyl-IPA measured on thoracic liquid extracts (TLE) of hunted wild boars may be representative of two exposure doses, 40 and 200 mg, from 20 to 217 days after ingestion. Then we developed a method of detection of the three IPA derivatives by LC/ESI-MS-MS in muscle and liver to evaluate the suitability of these two other tissues for monitoring the marked bait consumption and for measuring available residues in the meat of marked animals. Three semi-captive wild boars received 40 mg of each IPA derivative, three received 200 mg, and three, as controls, did not receive IPA. Blood serum was sampled 20, 197 or 217 days after IPA exposure according to animals and to the derivative. Wild boars were shot by gun after the different times of serum sampling times, and TLE, muscle and liver were sampled. Our results suggest that TLE is not a relevant tissue for quantitatively expressing IPA exposure. Due to interference, no analytical method was validated on TLE containing digestive material. On the other hand, quantifications in the muscle and particularly in the liver could discriminate wild boars that had ingested the two IPA doses from 20 days until 7 months after exposure, especially for the two long term markers ethyl and propyl-IPA. So IPA quantifications in the liver sampled on hunted animals appear to be a reliable tool for monitoring bait consumption in the field at a large scale. Nevertheless, whatever the ingested dose, ethyl- and propyl-IPA concentrations measured in the muscle and the liver of tested animals until 217 days after exposure, remained higher than 0.01 mg/kg, the Maximal Residue Limit (MRL) is recommended for molecules for which no toxicological data are available. Based on the range of IPA residues available in these two tissues, implications for humans consuming marked animals are discussed.

This study deals with the evaluation of water quality of the Three Gorges Reservoir (TGR) in order to assess its suitability as a raw water source for drinking water production. Therefore, water samples from (1) surface water, (2) tap water, and (3) wastewater treatment plant effluents were taken randomly by 2011-2012 in the area of the TGR and were analyzed for seven different organic contaminant groups (207 substances in total), applying nine different analytical methods. In the three sampled water sources, typical contaminant patterns were found, i.e., pesticides and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) in surface water with concentrations of 0.020-3.5 μg/L and 0.004-0.12 μg/L, disinfection by-products in tap water with concentrations of 0.050-79 μg/L, and pharmaceuticals in wastewater treatment plant effluents with concentrations of 0.020-0.76 μg/L, respectively. The most frequently detected organic compounds in surface water (45 positives out of 57 samples) were the pyridine pesticides clopyralid and picloram. The concentrations might indicate that they are used on a regular basis and in conjunction in the area of the TGR. Three- and four-ring PAH were ubiquitously distributed, while the poorly soluble five- and six-ring members, perfluorinated compounds, polychlorinated biphenyls, and polybrominated diphenyl ethers, were below the detection limit. In general, the detected concentrations in TGR are in the same range or even lower compared to surface waters in western industrialized countries, although contaminant loads can still be high due to a high discharge. With the exception of the two pesticides, clopyralid and picloram, concentrations of the investigated organic pollutants in TGR meet the limits of the Chinese Standards for Drinking Water Quality GB 5749 (Ministry of Health of China and Standardization Administration of China 2006) and the European Union (EU) Council Directive 98/83/EC on the quality of water intended for human consumption (The Council of the European Union 1998), or rather, the EU Directive on environmental quality standards in the field of water policy (The European Parliament and The Council of the European Union 2008). Therefore, the suggested use of surface water from TGR for drinking water purposes is a valid option. Current treatment methods, however, do not seem to be efficient since organic pollutants were detected in significant concentrations in purified tap water.

Recently, great attention has been paid to the environmental problems in mining industry. At present there are different ways of mineral processing, as well as various methods of wastewater treatment, most of them are expensive. Work is ongoing to find low-cost treatments. In this article, low-cost adsorbents, potentially useful for wastewater treatment on mining and metallurgical plants, are reviewed; their characteristics, advantages, and disadvantages of their application are compared. Also adsorption of different metals and radioactive compounds from acidic environment similar to composition of mining and metallurgical wastewaters is considered.

In order to evaluate the water quality at the surface/groundwater interface (hyporheic zone), the pattern of microcrustacean assemblages in response to environmental stress caused by urban industrial contamination was studied in the Jarama River basin (central Spain) during high water discharges (March and April 2011). The clustering of biological variables and the concentration of urban contaminants in hyporheic waters showed that pristine hyporheic waters have moderate species diversity (two to seven species) and dominance of k strategist stygobites, whereas excessively contaminated sites are devoid by crustaceans. An intermediate level of disturbance in hyporheic waters is associated with a peak of species taxonomic diversity (four to nine species) and proliferation of r strategist more tolerant species. Typical species found in hyporheic zone, e.g., Paracyclops imminutus (Copepoda, Cyclopoida), Cryptocandona vavrai (Ostracoda) and Herpetocypris chevreuxi (Ostracoda), were good indicators of high concentrations of Cr, Mn, Ni, Cd, Pb and VOCs; whereas the stygobites do not show any significant correlation. The effectiveness of hyporheic crustaceans as efficient bioindicators for assessing the current ecological status of river ecosystems is emphasised.

Contaminants in settled indoor dust are potentially health hazardous to human. Thus, identification and quantification of toxic chemicals in settled indoor dust is of great concern. In this study, the levels of major anions ([Formula: see text]), trace metals (Cr, Mn, Fe, Co, Ni, Cu, Zn, Cd, As and Pb) and polybromodiphenyl ethers (PBDEs) in settled office and home dust were determined and correlations between the contaminants investigated. Depending on the available materials in both microenvironments, the most possible sources were identified. The results showed that the settled office dusts (n = 6 pooled samples from 85 offices) were more contaminated than home dusts (n = 8 homes). For anions, [Formula: see text] and Cl(-) accounted for 87 and 97 % of the total office and home dust contaminants, respectively. For trace metals, Fe, Cu, Zn and Mn, accounted for 98 % of the contaminants in both office and home dust samples. Fe exhibited the highest percentage of 76.7 and 87.3 % in office and home dust samples, respectively. For PBDEs, the mean concentrations detected in office and home dust ranged between 5.8-86.3 and 1.5-20.6 ng g(-1), respectively. The log-transformed correlation between the total concentrations of trace metals and major anions detected in offices and homes was positive for offices and negative for homes with a statistically significant values (r = 0.73, p < 0.01; r = -0.22, p < 0.01, respectively). The daily exposure rates determined for the most hazardous such as As, Cd, Pb and PBDEs congeners, relative to the individual concentrations reported in the literature in settled indoor dust, were found very lower. Therefore, maybe it is possible to expect less potential health risk. Investigation of formation of coordination compounds between trace metals and PBDEs congeners is possible; however, this requires further study.

Dissolved and particulate Ag concentrations (AgD and AgP, respectively) were measured in surface water and suspended particulate matter (SPM) along the salinity gradient of the Gironde Estuary, South West France, during three cruises (2008–2009) covering contrasting hydrological conditions, i.e. two cruises during intermediate and one during high freshwater discharge (~740 and ~2,300 m³/s). Silver distribution reflected non-conservative behaviour with 60–70 % of AgP in freshwater particles being desorbed by chlorocomplexation. The amount of AgP desorbed was similar to the so-called reactive, potentially bioavailable AgP fraction (60 ± 4 %) extracted from river SPM by 1 M HCl. Both AgP (0.22 ± 0.05 mg/kg) and AgP/ThP (0.025–0.028) in the residual fraction of fluvial and estuarine SPM were similar to those in SPM from the estuary mouth and in coastal sediments from the shelf off the Gironde Estuary, indicating that chlorocomplexation desorbs the reactive AgP. The data show that desorption of reactive AgP mainly occurs inside the estuary during low and intermediate discharge, whereas expulsion of partially AgP-depleted SPM (AgP/ThP ~0.040) during the flood implies ongoing desorption in the coastal ocean, e.g. in the nearby oyster production areas (Marennes-Oléron Bay). The highest AgD levels (6–8 ng/L) occurred in the mid-salinity range (15–20) of the Gironde Estuary and were decoupled from freshwater discharge. In the maximum turbidity zone, AgD were at minimum, showing that high SPM concentrations (a) induce AgD adsorption in estuarine freshwater and (b) counterbalance AgP desorption in the low salinity range (1–3). Accordingly, Ag behaviour in turbid estuaries appears to be controlled by the balance between salinity and SPM levels. The first estimates of daily AgD net fluxes for the Gironde Estuary (Boyle’s method) showed relatively stable theoretical AgD at zero salinity (Ag D ⁰ = 25–30 ng/L) for the contrasting hydrological situations. Accordingly, AgD net fluxes were very similar for the situations with intermediate discharge (1.7 and 1.6 g/day) and clearly higher during the flood (5.0 g/day) despite incomplete desorption. Applying Ag D ⁰ to the annual freshwater inputs provided an annual net AgD flux (0.64–0.89 t/year in 2008 and 0.56–0.77 t/year in 2009) that was 12–50 times greater than the AgD gross flux. This estimate was consistent with net AgD flux estimates obtained from gross AgP flux considering 60 % desorption in the estuarine salinity gradient.

The purpose of this study was to investigate ozone, variations, and its correlation with meteorological parameters at a remote location on the Mali Lošinj Island, which has been a tourist and health resort area in the northern Adriatic. The measured data are discussed in relation to the EU guidelines (Directive 2002/3/EC; Directive 2008/50/EC). In order to characterize ambient air with respect to ozone vegetation injury and photochemical pollution, we calculated accumulated dose over a threshold of 40 parts per billion index and two photochemical pollution indicators. The influence of local meteorological parameters on the measured ozone volume fractions was also investigated. We used the multivariate technique principal component analysis to trace correlations between measured ozone concentration and meteorological parameters.

Since the publication of the first version of European standard EN-1948 in 1996, long-term sampling equipment has been improved to a high standard for the sampling and analysis of polychlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (PCDD)/polychlorodibenzofuran (PCDF) emissions from industrial sources. The current automated PCDD/PCDF sampling systems enable to extend the measurement time from 6-8 h to 15-30 days in order to have data values better representative of the real pollutant emission of the plant in the long period. EN-1948:2006 is still the European technical reference standard for the determination of PCDD/PCDF from stationary source emissions. In this paper, a methodology to estimate the measurement uncertainty of long-term automated sampling is presented. The methodology has been tested on a set of high concentration sampling data resulting from a specific experience; it is proposed with the intent that it is to be applied on further similar studies and generalized. A comparison between short-term sampling data resulting from manual and automated parallel measurements has been considered also in order to verify the feasibility and usefulness of automated systems and to establish correlations between results of the two methods to use a manual method for calibration of automatic long-term one. The uncertainty components of the manual method are analyzed, following the requirements of EN-1948-3:2006, allowing to have a preliminary evaluation of the corresponding uncertainty components of the automated system. Then, a comparison between experimental data coming from parallel sampling campaigns carried out in short- and long-term sampling periods is realized. Long-term sampling is more reliable to monitor PCDD/PCDF emissions than occasional short-term sampling. Automated sampling systems can assure very useful emission data both in short and long sampling periods. Despite this, due to the different application of the long-term sampling systems, the automated results could not be directly compared with manual results, not even in terms of measurement uncertainty. This investigation focuses on both uncertainty and repeatability of the automated sampling method. The standard 20988, developed by Internarional Organization of Standardization (ISO) can be used to estimate the measurement uncertainty. The results confirm that the uncertainties of manual and automated methods are comparable. At the same time, it is not appropriate to consider the manual method as a reference for the evaluation of the uncertainty of the automated sampling system, due to the high variability of both systems.

The planktonic diatom genus Pseudo-nitzschia contains several genetically closely related species. Some of these can produce domoic acid, a potent neurotoxin. Thus, monitoring programs are needed to screen for the presence of these toxic species. Unfortunately, many are impossible to distinguish using light microscopy. Therefore, we assessed the applicability of microarray technology for detection of toxic and non-toxic Pseudo-nitzschia species in the Gulf of Naples (Mediterranean Sea). Here, 11 species have been detected, of which at least 5 are potentially toxic. A total of 49 genus- and species-specific DNA probes were designed in silico against the nuclear LSU and SSU rRNA of 19 species, and spotted on the microarray. The microarray was tested against total RNA of monoclonal cultures of eight species. Only three of the probes designed to be species-specific were indeed so within the limits of our experimental design. To assess the effectiveness of the microarray in detecting Pseudo-nitzschia species in environmental samples, we hybridized total RNA extracted from 11 seasonal plankton samples against microarray slides and compared the observed pattern with plankton counts in light microscopy and with expected hybridization patterns obtained with monoclonal cultures of the observed species. Presence of species in field samples generally resulted in signal patterns on the microarray as observed with RNA extracted from cultures of these species, but many a-specific signals appeared as well. Possible reasons for the numerous cross reactions are discussed. Calibration curves for Pseudo-nitzschia multistriata showed linear relationship between signal strength and cell number.

The concentrations of heavy metals (Cd, Cr, Cu, Ni, Pb, and Zn) and organic carbon in surface sediments, collected from the southern Bohai Bay, were determined to assess the potential contamination and determine the environmental risks associated with heavy metals. Results showed that heavy metal concentrations in the sediments generally met the China Marine Sediment Quality criteria. Both the ecotoxicological index and the potential ecological risk index suggest that the combined ecological risk of the six studied metals may be low, with the highest ecotoxicological potential zones located in the offshore area. The methods of enrichment factor and geoaccumulation index suggested that elevated concentrations of Cd, Cr, and Ni are presented in the region. Multivariate analysis also indicated that the lithogenic factor dominates the distribution of most part of the considered metals in the study area, whereas Cd and Cr are clearly influenced by anthropogenic inputs. The results of this study are likely to be a useful tool to authorities in charge of sustainable marine management.