Environmental Risk Assessment Resulting from Sediment Contamination with Perfluoroalkyl Substances

Due to wide use of perfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) (e.g., in metal-plating, in fire-fighting foam, lubricants) and their resistance to degradation, they occur widely in the environment. The aim of this study was to estimate the environmental risk resulting from the presence of PFASs in the Gulf of Gdansk. Therefore, 17 PFASs concentrations were determined using ultra performance liquid chromatography with tandem mass spectrometry detection (UPLC-MS/MS). Additionally, sediment ecotoxicity was investigated. The results of the chemical analysis were used to asses environmental risk of PFASs. In samples collected around discharge collectors from a wastewater treatment plant and the Vistula mouth, Σ17PFASs values were 0.00403 ÷ 40.6 and 0.509 ÷ 614 ng/g d.w., respectively. In samples collected around discharge collectors, PFHxA, PFPeA, PFHpA, and PFOA were dominating, while at the Vistula River mouth, PFHxS, PFDS, and PFBS were prevalent. For most sediments, no toxic effect was observed in the toxicity tests with Heterocypris inconguens and Aliivibrio ficsheri. There was no observed correlation between the PFASs level and their ecotoxicity. Generally, the results of environmental risk assessment indicate that the PFASs would not generate high impact on the aquatic life (five water samples have shown medium risk related to PFBS and PFDoA).

Ship breaking or scuttling? A review of environmental, economic and forensic issues for decision support

In a globalized world, the world trade fleet plays a pivotal role in limiting transport costs. But, the management of obsolete ships is an acute problem, with most Ship Recycling Facilities (SRF) situated in developing countries. They are renowned for their controversial work and safety conditions and their environmental impact. Paradoxically, dismantlement is paid for by the shipowners in accordance with international conventions therefore it is more profitable for them to sell off ships destined for scrapping. Scuttling, the alternative to scrapping, is assessed in the present review to compare the cost/benefit ratios of the two approaches. Although scrapping provides employment and raw materials - but with environmental, health and safety costs - scuttling provides fisheries and diving tourism opportunities but needs appropriate management to avoid organic and metal pollution, introduction of invasive species and exacerbation of coastal erosion. It is also limited by appropriate bottom depth, ship type and number. The present review inventories the environmental, health, safety, economic, and forensic aspects of each alternative.

Elemental sulfur in sediments: analytical problems

In the paper, a modified method for elemental sulfur (S₈) determining using gas chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry (GC-MS) is proposed with estimation of selected validation parameters. The aim of this work was a review of problems associated with the determination of S₈ and selection of the most optimal conditions for S₈ analysis with GC-MS. The presented studies have shown that the temperature of the injector and the chromatographic column during S₈ determination should not exceed 180 °C. At temperatures over 180 °C, the sulfur S₈ is decomposed to the other sulfur species such as S₂, S₃, S₄, S₅, and S₆. During decreasing injector and column temperature below 180 °C the chromatographic peak eluted as S₈ is badly extended and asymmetric. To minimize the problems of S₈ decomposition to other sulfur species during chromatographic process also other parameters of the GC-MS have been selected. In order to apply the proposed method for real sediments samples, determination of sulfur S₈ in bottom sediments, collected in the Gulf of Gdansk (southern Baltic Sea), has been performed. The concentration of S₈ fell in the range from below the limit of detection to 0.1432 ± 0.0095 mg/g d.w. The research has also shown that addition of approx. 200 mg of activated copper is effective for removing sulfur from bottom sediment extracts.

Bioassays as one of the Green Chemistry tools for assessing environmental quality: A review

For centuries, mankind has contributed to irreversible environmental changes, but due to the modern science of recent decades, scientists are able to assess the scale of this impact. The introduction of laws and standards to ensure environmental cleanliness requires comprehensive environmental monitoring, which should also meet the requirements of Green Chemistry. The broad spectrum of Green Chemistry principle applications should also include all of the techniques and methods of pollutant analysis and environmental monitoring. The classical methods of chemical analyses do not always match the twelve principles of Green Chemistry, and they are often expensive and employ toxic and environmentally unfriendly solvents in large quantities. These solvents can generate hazardous and toxic waste while consuming large volumes of resources. Therefore, there is a need to develop reliable techniques that would not only meet the requirements of Green Analytical Chemistry, but they could also complement and sometimes provide an alternative to conventional classical analytical methods. These alternatives may be found in bioassays. Commercially available certified bioassays often come in the form of ready-to-use toxkits, and they are easy to use and relatively inexpensive in comparison with certain conventional analytical methods. The aim of this study is to provide evidence that bioassays can be a complementary alternative to classical methods of analysis and can fulfil Green Analytical Chemistry criteria. The test organisms discussed in this work include single-celled organisms, such as cell lines, fungi (yeast), and bacteria, and multicellular organisms, such as invertebrate and vertebrate animals and plants.

Novel approach to ecotoxicological risk assessment of sediments cores around the shipwreck by the use of self-organizing maps

Marine and coastal pollution plays an increasingly important role due to recent severe accidents which drew attention to the consequences of oil spills causing widespread devastation of marine ecosystems. All these problems cannot be solved without conducting environmental studies in the area of possible oil spill and performing chemometric evaluation of the data obtained looking for similar patterns among pollutants and optimize environmental monitoring during eventual spills and possible remediation actions - what is the aim of the work presented. Following the chemical and ecotoxicological studies self-organising maps technique has been applied as a competitive learning algorithm based on unsupervised learning process. Summarizing it can be stated that biotests enable assessing the impact of complex chemical mixtures on the organisms inhabiting particular ecosystems. Short and simple application of biotests cannot easily explain the observable toxicity without more complex chemometric evaluation of datasets obtained describing dependence between xenobiotics and toxicological results.

Toxicity cutoff of aromatic hydrocarbons for luminescence inhibition of Vibrio fischeri

Effects of individual petroleum hydrocarbons on the luminescence inhibition of Vibrio fischeri were evaluated according to a standard protocol to develop a quantitative structure-activity relationship and identify the apparent toxicity cutoff. Eighteen aromatic hydrocarbons, including benzene and its derivatives and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), were chosen as model compounds with their log K(ow) values between 2.7 and 6.4. The obtained values of 50 percent luminescence inhibition (EC50) showed a good linear correlation with log K(ow) up to ~5. However, toxic effects were not observed for more hydrophobic chemicals with log K(ow) value >5. The calculated chemical activities that caused EC50 were mostly between 0.01 and 0.1. This agrees with an earlier hypothesis concerning a chemical activity resulting the critical membrane concentration of aromatic hydrocarbons. The highest chemical activities for aromatic hydrocarbons with log K(ow) value >5 or melting point >100°C are <0.01 when they are spiked at their water solubility level according to the standard test protocol; this occurs for two primary reasons: (1) partitioning between organism and the test solution and (2) decreasing fugacity ratio with increasing melting point. Accordingly, luminescence inhibition by petroleum hydrocarbons is well explained by the baseline toxicity model. However, the apparent toxicity cutoff observed for single chemicals is not necessarily valid in a complex mixture, because baseline toxicity is regarded concentration additive.