Persistent organic pollutants in muscle of fish collected from the Nové Mlýny reservoir in Southern Moravia, Czech Republic

Assessment of PCBs in Surface Waters at Ultratrace Levels: Traditional Approaches and Biomonitoring (Lake Baikal, Russia)

This article presents the results of the assessment of PCB concentrations in surface waters at ultratrace level of concentrations. The assessment of PCB concentrations is based on data from monitoring PCBs in Baikal water within the conventional approach as well as from biomonitoring of PCBs using Baikal omul, Coregonus migratorius, Georgi, 1775 (C. migratorius), as a bioindicator. The time cycle of the monitoring covered the period from 2014 to 2021. The concentrations of PCBs in the water were estimated from the concentrations of seven indicator congeners: 28, 52, 101, 118, 138, 153, and 180, and from congeners of dioxin-like (dl) PCBs in the tissues of C. migratorius. The average value and the statistically significant range of the detected total concentrations (Ʃ7PCBs) in Baikal water were 0.30 and 0.26–0.34 ng/L, respectively. In the tissues of C. migratorius, the average value and the range of Ʃ7PCB concentrations were 5.6 and 4.9–6.3 ng/g (ww), respectively, and for dl-PCBs, 1.5 and 1.3–1.7 ng/g (ww), respectively. The total toxicity equivalent of the detected dl-PCBs was in the WHO-TEQ (2005) range from 0.03 to 0.06 pg/g (ww). The concentrations of Ʃ7PCBs in Baikal water and dl-PCBs in the tissues of C. migratorius corresponded to the concentration levels in the European alpine lakes and the tissues of S. trutta fish inhabiting these lakes.

Bioaccumulation of persistent organic pollutants in the gonads of Barbus barbus (Linnaeus, 1758)

Maps with grey or even white spaces are still present in spite of the fact that persistent organic pollutants (POPs) are at the forefront of research in aquatic toxicology and environmental safety. This is also the case for the Mureș River basin. The intensive use of industrial substances such as polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and pesticides such as organochlorine compounds (OCPs) has caused global contamination of the aquatic environment. In our study we have found very high concentrations of both PCBs (2110-169,000 ng/g lipid weight ΣPCB, 1950-166,000 ng/g lipid weight ΣPCB₇) and OCPs (1130-7830 ng/g lipid weight ΣDDT, 47.6-2790 ng/g lipid weight ΣHCH, 5.53-35.6 ng/g lipid weight ΣChlordane, and 6.74-158 ng/g lipid weight HCB) in the gonad tissue of Barbus barbus (Linnaeus, 1758) males and females. Contrary to most studies where the weight, length, and lipid percentage are positively correlated with the concentration of POPs from different tissue types, we observed a downward trend for the lipid normalized concentrations of some pollutants in gonads while these indices were actually increasing. The decrease of lipid normalized POPs with the increase of CF and lipid percentage may be due to the fact that individuals are eliminating hard and soft roes every year during reproduction which could mean that some quantities of pollutants are also eliminated along with the hard and soft roes. The high POPs concentrations found in our study should be a needed wakeup call for environmentalists and a starting point in developing monitoring and management measures for these pollutants.

The state of bisphenol research in the lesser developed countries of the EU: a mini-review

Bisphenol compounds are a class of chemical epoxy resins that are found throughout the world in food packaging, thermal paper products, dental materials, and more. These compounds were deemed to be safe until recently, when some studies noticed adverse effects at very low doses, due to the fact that bisphenol acts as an endocrine disruptor. Over the last ten years, studies have been performed to detect bisphenols (especially BPA) in serum and blood samples throughout the world. Essentially, the majority of the earth's population seems to have significantly measurable levels of bisphenol in their blood plasma or urine. However, the majority of the population is unaware that a potential danger may exist. The purpose of this mini-review is to report upon the state of bisphenol research in the lesser developed member-states of the European Union and to increase awareness of the exposure level and possible adverse health effects of this endocrine disruptor. The results show that only three of the most newly admitted members of the European Union have published research concerning the health effects and/or environmental exposure of EU citizens to bisphenol compounds. Those countries were Slovenia, Poland and the Czech Republic. The rest of the surveyed member-states had little or no published research in relation to bisphenol compounds. Furthermore, even the three nations referred to above still lagged far behind the more advanced EU member-states. The lack of research could translate into a lack of awareness amongst the citizenry of nearly half of the EU, and may be unnecessarily putting those EU citizens at an increased risk of exposure.