Microplastics (MPs) represent a matter of growing concern for the marine environment. Their ingestion has been documented in several species worldwide, but the impact of specific anthropogenic activities remains largely unexplored. In this study, MPs were characterized in different benthic fish sampled after 2.5 years of huge engineering operations for the parbuckling project on the Costa Concordia wreck at Giglio Island. Fish collected in proximity of the wreck showed a high ingestion of microplastics compared to both fish from a control area and values reported worldwide. Also the elevated percentage of nylon, polypropylene lines and the presence of polystyrene are quite unusual for marine organisms sampled in natural field conditions, thus supporting the possible relationship of ingested microplastics with maritime operations during wreck removal. On the other hand, the use of transplanted mussels revealed a lower frequency of ingested MPs, and did not discriminate differences between the wreck and the control area. Some variations were observed in terms of typology and size of particles between surface- and bottom-caged mussels highlighting the influence of a different distribution of MPs along the water column. In conclusion, this study demonstrated that MPs pollution in the area of Costa Concordia was more evident on benthonic environment than on seawater column, providing novel insights on the possibility of using appropriate sentinel organisms for monitoring specific anthropogenic sources of MPs pollution in the marine environment.

Disruption of non-reproductive endocrine systems in wildlife by chemicals has received little attention but represents a potentially significant problem. Nitrate is a major anthropogenic contaminant in the freshwater aquatic environment and has been identified as a potential disrupter of endocrine function in aquatic animals. This study was conducted to investigate the relationship between the function of the neuroendocrine stress axis in fish and inorganic N loading along reaches of rivers receiving cumulative point source and diffuse chemical inputs. To accomplish this, the responsiveness of the stress axis, quantified as the rate of release of cortisol to water across the gills during exposure to a standardised stressor, was measured in three-spined sticklebacks (Gasterosteus aculeatus L.) resident at three sites on each of four rivers in north-west England. The magnitude of the stress response in fish captured at the sites furthest downstream on all rivers was more than twice that of fish captured at upstream sites. Site-specific variation in stress axis reactivity was better explained by between-site variation in concentrations of dissolved nitrate, nitrite, and ammonia than by the concentration of wastewater treatment works effluent. An increase in the magnitude of the stress response was seen among sticklebacks at sites where long-term averaged concentrations of NH3-N, NO3-N and NO2-N exceeded 0.6, 4.0 and 0.1 mg/L respectively. These data suggest that either (i) inorganic N is a better surrogate than wastewater effluent concentration for an unknown factor or factors affecting stress axis function in fish, or (ii) dissolved inorganic N directly exerts a disruptive influence on the function of the neuroendocrine stress axis in fish, supporting concerns that nitrate is an endocrine-modulating chemical.

The effects of wastewater irrigation and sewage sludge on the dissipation behavior of the fungicide benalaxyl and its primary metabolite benalaxyl acid in soil were studied on an enantiomeric level during a 148-day exposure experiment. Chiral separation and analysis of the two pairs of enantiomers were achieved using HPLC-MS/MS with a chiralpak IC chiral column. Benalaxyl decreased with half-life of 16.1 days in soil under tap water irrigation with preferential residue of S-benalaxyl. Benalaxyl acid was formed with great preference of R-enantiomer before 21 days while enriched in S-enantiomer afterwards. The degradation of benalaxyl was restrained by both wastewater and treated wastewater irrigation, but the enantioselectivity in S-benalaxyl residue was enhanced. Benalaxyl acid was also formed with similar enantioselectivity as in tap water irrigation. Sewage sludge could accelerate benalaxyl degradation with shorter half-life. Surprisingly, the enantioselectivity with preference degradation of S-enantiomer in sewage sludge was opposite to that in soil. More benalaxyl acid was generated with EF values always lower than 0.5 and remained longer in sewage sludge than in soil. A sterilization experiment indicated that the conversion of benalaxyl to benalaxyl acid and the enantioselectivity were determined by the microorganisms in soil or sewage sludge. Farming practices like wastewater irrigation and sewage sludge application might not only influence the fate of pesticide, but also the enantioselectivity of chiral pesticide enantiomers and thus the risks of pesticide residues posed to the environment.

Due to concerns regarding the release of pharmaceuticals into the environment and the understudied impact of stereochemistry of pharmaceuticals on their fate and biological potency, we focussed in this paper on stereoselective transformation pathways of selected chiral pharmaceuticals (16 pairs) at both microcosm (receiving waters and activated sludge wastewater treatment simulating microcosms) and macrocosm (wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) utilising activated sludge technology and receiving waters) scales in order to test the hypothesis that biodegradation of chiral drugs is stereoselective. Our monitoring programme of a full scale activated sludge WWTP and receiving environment revealed that several chiral drugs, those being marketed mostly as racemates, are present in wastewater and receiving waters enriched with one enantiomeric form (e.g. fluoxetine, mirtazapine, salbutamol, MDMA). This is most likely due to biological metabolic processes occurring in humans and other organisms. Both activated sludge and receiving waters simulating microcosms confirmed our hypothesis that chiral drugs are subject to stereoselective microbial degradation. It led, in this research, to preferential degradation of S-(+)-enantiomers of amphetamines, R-(+)-enantiomers of beta-blockers and S-(+)-enantiomers of antidepressants. In the case of three parent compound – metabolite pairs (venlafaxine – desmethylvenlafaxine, citalopram – desmethylcitalopram and MDMA - MDA), while parent compounds showed higher resistance to both microbial metabolism and photodegradation, their desmethyl metabolites showed much higher degradation rate both in terms of stereoselective metabolic and non-stereoselective photochemical processes. It is also worth noting that metabolites tend to be, as expected, enriched with enantiomers of opposite configuration to their parent compounds, which might have significant toxicological consequences when evaluating the metabolic residues of chiral pollutants.

Data on the health impacts of heatwaves in infants are limited, and this study aimed to examine how heatwaves affect hospital admissions in infants.A quasi-Poisson generalized additive model was used to assess the effects of heatwaves on hospital admissions in infants from 1st January 2005 to 31st December 2015 in Brisbane, Australia, using a series of heatwave definitions after controlling for possible confounders. A case-only analysis was conducted to examine the possible modification effects of personal and community characteristics on the heatwaves effects on infants' hospital admissions.There was no significant increase in infants' hospital admissions when heatwave intensity was defined as mean temperature ≥90th percentile or ≥95th percentile of the mean temperature across the study period. When heatwave intensity increased to ≥97th percentile, infants' hospital admissions increased significantly (RR: 1.05, 95% CI: 1.01, 1.10), and this increase raised with the increase of heatwave duration. No modification effect of gender, indigenous status, or Socio-Economic Indexes for Areas (SEIFA) level on heatwave effect was observed.Infants in Brisbane were sensitive to intense heatwaves, and future heat early warning system based on a local evidence-based heatwave definition is needed to protect infants from heatwave impacts. Community-based heatwave adaptation programs aiming at raising the awareness of the adverse health impacts of intense heatwaves among infants' caregivers may relieve the postnatal health care demand in infants.

During biological effect monitoring studies of endocrine active compounds with the snail Assiminea grayana in 2007-2013, reproductive disorders including atresia, transformation of capsule/albumen glands into prostates in females and ovotestis, transformation of prostates to capsule/albumen glands, disruption of spermatogenesis, and calcification of tubules in males, were encountered in several years. The search of sources of endocrine active substances was first directed to antifouling biocides from paint particles and extended to leaching compounds from polymeric materials. In contrast to the reference sites, most of the observed disorders occurred at a station near harbors and dockyards polluted with residues from antifouling paints and polymeric materials. Beside of investigations about the potential ingestion of polymer particles by the snails, further investigations of compounds of polymeric materials with endocrine potential should follow.

Fate and effect of pollutants in rivers: from analysis to modeling

International audience | At present, some triazine herbicides occurrence in European groundwater, 13 years after their use ban in the European Union, remains of great concern and raises the question of their persistence in groundwater systems due to several factors such as storage and remobilization from soil and unsaturated zone, limited or absence of degradation, sorption insaturated zones, or to continuing illegal applications. In order to address this problem and to determine triazine distribution in the saturated zone, their occurrence is investigated in the light of the aquifer hydrodynamic on the basis of a geochemical approach using groundwater dating tracers (3H/3He). In this study, atrazine, simazine, terbuthylazine, deethylatrazine, deisopropylatrazine, and deethylterbuthylazine are measured in 66 samples collected between 2011 and 2013 from 21 sampling points, on the Vistrenque shallow alluvial aquifer (southern France), covered by a major agricultural land use. The frequencies of quantification range from 100 to 56 % for simazine and atrazine, respectively (LQ = 1 ng L−1). Total triazine concentrations vary between 15 and 350 ng L−1 and show three different patterns with depth below the water table : (1) low concentrations independent of depth but related to water origin, (2) an increase in concentrations with depth in the aquifer related to groundwater residence time and triazine use prior to their ban, and (3) relatively high concentrations at low depths in the saturated zone more likely related to a slow desorption of these compounds from the soil and unsaturated zone. The triazine attenuation rate varies between 0.3 for waters influenced by surface water infiltration and 4.8 for water showing longer residence times in the aquifer, suggesting an increase in these rates with water residence time in the saturated zone. Increasing triazine concentrations with depth is consistent with a significant decrease in the use of these pesticides for the last 10 years on this area and highlights the efficiency of their ban.