Investigation of pharmaceutical metabolites in environmental waters by LC-MS/MS

Pharmaceuticals, once ingested, are commonly metabolized in the body into more polar and soluble forms. These compounds might not be completely removed in the wastewater treatment plants and consequently being discharged into the aquatic ecosystem. In this work, a multi-class sensitive method for the analysis of 21 compounds, including 7 widely consumed pharmaceuticals and 14 relevant metabolites, has been developed based on the use of UHPLC-MS/MS in selected reaction monitoring (SRM) mode. The method was validated in six surface waters (SW) and six effluent wastewaters (EWW) at realistic concentration levels that can be found in waters. The optimized method was applied to the analysis of different types of water samples (rivers, lakes and effluent wastewater), detecting nearly all the parent compounds and metabolites investigated in this work. This fact illustrates that not only pharmaceuticals but also their metabolites are commonly present in these types of waters. Analytical research and monitoring programs should be directed not only towards parent pharmaceuticals but also towards relevant metabolites to have a realistic overview of the impact of pharmaceuticals in the aquatic environment.     

Concentrations of mobile source air pollutants in urban microenvironments

Human exposures to criteria and hazardous air pollutants (HAPs) in urban areas vary greatly due to temporal-spatial variations in emissions, changing meteorology, varying proximity to sources, as well as due to building, vehicle, and other environmental characteristics that influence the amounts of ambient pollutants that penetrate or infiltrate into these microenvironments. Consequently, the exposure estimates derived from central-site ambient measurements are uncertain and tend to underestimate actual exposures. The Exposure Classification Project (ECP) was conducted to measure pollutant concentrations for common urban microenvironments (MEs) for use in evaluating the results of regulatory human exposure models. Nearly 500 sets of measurements were made in three Los Angeles County communities during fall 2008, winter 2009, and summer 2009. MEs included in-vehicle, near-road, outdoor, and indoor locations accessible to the general public. Contemporaneous 1- to 15-min average personal breathing zone concentrations of carbon monoxide (CO), carbon dioxide (CO₂), volatile organic compounds (VOCs), nitric oxide (NO), nitrogen oxides (NO_x), particulate matter (<2.5 μm diameter; PM_2.5) mass, ultrafine particle (UFP; <100 nm diameter) number, black carbon (BC), speciated HAPs (e.g., benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, xylenes [BTEX], 1,3-butadiene), and ozone (O₃) were measured continuously. In-vehicle and inside/outside measurements were made in various passenger vehicle types and in public buildings to estimate penetration or infiltration factors. A large fraction of the observed pollutant concentrations for on-road MEs, especially near diesel trucks, was unrelated to ambient measurements at nearby monitors. Comparisons of ME concentrations estimated using the median ME/ambient ratio versus regression slopes and intercepts indicate that the regression approach may be more accurate for on-road MEs. Ranges in the ME/ambient ratios among ME categories were generally greater than differences among the three communities for the same ME category, suggesting that the ME proximity factors may be more broadly applicable to urban MEs.

Implications:Estimates of population exposure to air pollutants extrapolated from ambient measurements at ambient fixed site monitors or exposure surrogates are prone to uncertainty. This study measured concentrations of mobile source air toxics (MSAT) and related criteria pollutants within in-vehicle, outdoor near-road, and indoor urban MEs to provide multipollutant ME measurements that can be used to calibrate regulatory exposure models.     

Potential Interference Bias in Ozone Standard Compliance Monitoring

Abstract

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has established a federal reference method (FRM) for ozone (O₃) and allowed for designation of federal equivalent methods (FEMs). However, the ethylene‐chemiluminescence FRM for O₃ has been replaced by the UV photometric FEM by most state and local monitoring agencies because of its relative ease of operation. Accumulating evidence indicates that the FEM is prone to bias under the hot, humid, and stagnant conditions conducive to high O₃ formation. This bias may lead to overreporting hourly O₃ concentrations by as much as 20–40 ppb. Measurement bias is caused by contamination of the O₃ scrubber, a problem that is not detected by dry air calibration. An adequate wet test has not been codified, although a procedure has been proposed for agency consideration. This paper includes documentation of laboratory tests quantifying specific interferant responses, collocated ambient FRM/FEM monitoring results, and smog chamber comparisons of the FRM and FEMs with alternative scrubber designs. As the numbers of reports on monitor interferences have grown, interested parties have called for agency recognition and correction of these biases.     

Pesticide use among smallholder rice farmers in Tanzania

In an interview study conducted among smallholder rice farmers in Rufiji, Tanzania coastal mainland, and in Cheju, Zanzibar, farmer??s pesticide use and risk awareness were assessed. The farmers generally lacked knowledge or possibilities to manage the pesticides as prescribed by the manufacturers. Few farmers knew what kind of pesticides they were using and had never seen the original packages, as pesticides were usually sold per weight or already diluted without labeling. Protective equipment was rarely used since they were not aware of risks associated with pesticides or did not know where to purchase protective gear. Only half of the farmers were aware of pesticides?? health hazards and few associated pesticides with environmental problems. The pesticide use was relatively low, but based on farmers?? pesticide handling and application practices, health risks were a major concern. Most farmers did not believe in successful rice cultivation without using pesticides to control pests. However, estimated yields did not differ between pesticide users or farmers using conventional methods or neem tree extract. To avoid negative effects on human health and the environment, the farmers need basic education and better assistance in their farming practices and pesticide management.     

Research priorities for managing the impacts and dependencies of business upon food,energy, water and the environment

Delivering access to sufficient food, energy and water resources to ensure human wellbeing is a major concern for governments worldwide. However, it is crucial to account for the ‘nexus’ of interactions between these natural resources and the consequent implications for human wellbeing. The private sector has a critical role in driving positive change towards more sustainable nexus management and could reap considerable benefits from collaboration with researchers to devise solutions to some of the foremost sustainability challenges of today. Yet opportunities are missed because the private sector is rarely involved in the formulation of deliverable research priorities. We convened senior research scientists and influential business leaders to collaboratively identify the top forty questions that, if answered, would best help companies understand and manage their food-energy-water-environment nexus dependencies and impacts. Codification of the top order nexus themes highlighted research priorities around development of pragmatic yet credible tools that allow businesses to incorporate nexus interactions into their decision-making; demonstration of the business case for more sustainable nexus management; identification of the most effective levers for behaviour change; and understanding incentives or circumstances that allow individuals and businesses to take a leadership stance. Greater investment in the complex but productive relations between the private sector and research community will create deeper and more meaningful collaboration and cooperation.     

Local government,political decentralisation and resilience to natural hazard-associated disasters

Natural hazards affect development and can cause significant and long-term suffering for those affected. Research has shown that sustained long-term disaster preparedness combined with appropriate response and recovery are needed to deliver effective risk reductions. However, as the newly agreed Sendai framework recognises, this knowledge has not been translated into action. This research aims to contribute to our understanding of how to deliver longer term and sustained risk reduction by evaluating the role of political decentralisation in disaster outcomes. Specifically, we investigate whether countries which devolve power to the local level experience reduced numbers of people affected by storms and earthquakes, and have lower economic damage. Using regression analysis and cross-country data from 1950 to 2006, we find that, in relation to both storms and earthquakes, greater transfers of political power to subnational tiers of government reduce hazard impacts on the population. The downside is that more politically decentralised countries, which are usually wealthier countries, can increase the direct economic losses associated with a natural hazard impact after the storm or earthquake than those which are more centralised. However, overall, it seems advantageous to give subnational governments more authority and autonomy in storm and earthquake risk planning.     

Land use influences macroinvertebrate community composition in boreal headwaters through altered stream conditions

Land use is known to alter the nature of land–water interactions, but the potential effects of widespread forest management on headwaters in boreal regions remain poorly understood. We evaluated the importance of catchment land use, land cover, and local stream variables for macroinvertebrate community and functional trait diversity in 18 boreal headwater streams. Variation in macroinvertebrate metrics was often best explained by in-stream variables, primarily water chemistry (e.g. pH). However, variation in stream variables was, in turn, significantly associated with catchment-scale forestry land use. More specifically, streams running through catchments that were dominated by young (11–50 years) forests had higher pH, greater organic matter standing stock, higher abundance of aquatic moss, and the highest macroinvertebrate diversity, compared to streams running through recently clear-cut and old forests. This indicates that catchment-scale forest management can modify in-stream habitat conditions with effects on stream macroinvertebrate communities and that characteristics of younger forests may promote conditions that benefit headwater biodiversity.     

Occurrence of alternative flame retardants in indoor dust from New Zealand: indoor sources and human exposure assessment

Due to worldwide restrictions on polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs), the demand for alternative flame retardants (AFRs), such as organophosphate flame retardants (OPFRs), novel brominated FRs (NBFRs) and hexabromocyclododecanes (HBCDs), has recently increased. Little is known about human exposure to NBFRs and OPFRs and that their levels in dust have been scarcely evaluated worldwide. To increase the knowledge regarding these chemicals, we measured concentrations of five major NBFRs, ten OPFRs and three HBCD isomers in indoor dust from New Zealand homes. Dust samples were taken from living room floors (n=34) and from mattresses of the same houses (n=16). Concentrations (ngg(-1)) of NBFRs were: 1,2-bis(2,4,6-tribromophenoxy)ethane (BTBPE) (<2-175), decabromodiphenyl ethane (DBDPE) (<5-1430), 2-ethylhexyl-2,3,4,5-tetrabromobenzoate (TBB) (<2-2285) and bis(2-ethylhexyl)-3,4,5,6-tetrabromophthalate (TBPH) (<2-640). For OPFRs, concentrations (ngg(-1)) ranged between: tri-ethyl-phosphate (TEP) (<10-235), tri-n-butyl-phosphate (TnBP) (<20-7545), tris-(2-chloroethyl)-phosphate (TCEP) (<20-7605), tris-(1-chloro-2-propyl) phosphate (TCPP) (20-7615), tri-(2-butoxyethyl)-phosphate (TBEP) (50-27325), tris-(2,3-dichloropropyl)-phosphate (TDCPP) (20-16560), tri-phenyl-phosphate (TPhP) (20-35190), and tri-cresyl-phosphate (TCP) (<50-3760). HBCD concentrations fell in the range <2-4100ngg(-1). BTBPE, DBDPE, TBPH, TBEP, and TnBP showed significant positive correlation (p<0.05) between their concentrations in mattresses and the corresponding floor dust (n=16). These data were used to derive a range of plausible exposure scenarios. Although the estimated exposure is well below the corresponding reference doses (RfDs), caution is needed given the likely future increase in use of these FRs and the currently unknown contribution to human exposure by other pathways such as inhalation and diet.     

Identification and Characterization of Potential Discharge Areas for Radionuclide Transport by Groundwater from a Nuclear Waste Repository in Sweden

This paper describes solute transport modeling carried out as a part of an assessment of the long-term radiological safety of a planned deep rock repository for spent nuclear fuel in Forsmark, Sweden. Specifically, it presents transport modeling performed to locate and describe discharge areas for groundwater potentially carrying radionuclides from the repository to the surface where man and the environment could be affected by the contamination. The modeling results show that topography to large extent determines the discharge locations. Present and future lake and wetland objects are central for the radionuclide transport and dose calculations in the safety assessment. Results of detailed transport modeling focusing on the regolith and the upper part of the rock indicate that the identification of discharge areas and objects considered in the safety assessment is robust in the sense that it does not change when a more detailed model representation is used.