Search

This paper compiles all the measured chemical warfare agent (CWA) concentrations found in relation to the Nord Stream pipeline work in Danish waters for the past 5 years. Sediment and biota sampling were performed along the pipeline route in four campaigns, prior to (in 2008 and 2010), during (in 2011) and after (in 2012) the construction work. No parent CWAs were detected in the sediments. Patchy residues of CWA degradation products of Adamsite, Clark I, phenyldichloroarsine, trichloroarsine and Lewisite II, were detected in a total of 29 of the 391 sediment samples collected and analyzed the past 5 years. The cumulative fish community risk quotient for the different locations, calculated as a sum of background and added risk, ranged between 0 and 0.017 suggesting a negligible acute CWA risk toward the fish community. The added risk from sediment disturbance in relation to construction of the pipelines represents less than 2% of the total risk in the areas with the highest calculated risk. The analyses of benthic infauna corroborate the finding of CWA related low risk across the years. There was no significant difference in CWA risk before (2008) and after the pipeline construction (2012)., (Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Urine is considered as a valuable plant fertiliser due to its high nutrient content. However, urine also contains pharmaceuticals. Currently, little is known regarding expected pharmaceutical concentrations in urine and the resulting risks. Through series of analyses in Hamburg and Berlin and results from the development of a concentration prediction model this knowledge gap was intended to be filled. To which extent the theoretical calculations can substitute analyses of pharmaceuticals was also tested. Results showed that the model fits well for bezafibrate, carbamazepine, diclofenac, ibuprofen, phenazone, and pentoxifylline. In Hamburg an R(2) value of 0.98 and in Berlin of 0.90 was achieved for correlations between predicted and analysed concentrations. Additionally, it was shown that a sufficient number of people discharging their urine to the respective collection system are important to allow for reasonable predictions via calculation. Also, comparisons of predicted pharmaceutical concentrations to those determined in other projects showed good correlations. Overall, it can be concluded that in any case the calculated concentrations exceed the measured ones and are therefore conservative. This overestimation can be explained by several factors discussed in this article.

Barbiturates have been widely used as sedative hypnotics in the mid-1960s and since then mainly as veterinary drugs. To monitor their presence and fate in the aquatic environment, a method based on gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) has been developed to quantify butalbital, secobarbital, hexobarbital, aprobarbital, phenobarbital, and pentobarbital, all with a limit of detection (LOD) down to 1 ng/L. From the various investigated waste and surface water samples, barbiturates were only, but regularly detected in the Mulde, a tributary of the river Elbe in Germany at relevant concentrations up to several microg/L. Investigations of groundwater being affected with wastewater infiltration several decades ago also revealed a barbiturate pattern, indicating a strong recalcitrance of these drugs. To confirm this hypothesis, studies were carried out on biotic and abiotic degradation. Both, the biodegradability under aerobic conditions and hydrolysis did not show any degradation, implementing, that the investigated barbiturates, once released into the aquatic environment, show high stability over a long period of time.

Chloramphenicol (CAP) is banned for use in food-producing animals and is, thus, controlled on the basis of the National Residue Control Plans in the European Union. Due to current problems with residues of CAP in shrimp, crayfish and prawns, a sensitive GC/NCI/MS method was optimised and in-house validated. The validation study resulted in a decision limit (CCalpha) of 0.07 microg kg-1, a recovery of 95% and a within-laboratory reproducibility of 9%. The method was used for preparing a proficiency test to assess the quality of residue control in Germany. The proficiency test involved analysis of five samples and the results were very satisfactory. The reproducibility standard deviation for five samples ranged from 17 to 24%, and the median concentrations lay between 0.43 and 0.51 microg kg-1 CAP. These values are clearly below the corresponding Horwitz standard deviation of about 50%. From the study, it can be concluded that there are, irrespective of the method applied, well-established and proper working analytical procedures for the control of CAP around the minimum required performance limit (MRPL) of 0.3 microg kg-1.

GC/MS-screening analyses of water samples from the Lippe River, Germany, revealed the presence of a wide spectrum of low-molecular weight organic compounds ranging from non-polar constituents like aliphatic hydrocarbons to polar constituents like n-carboxylic acids and phenols. Most of the identified compounds could be attributed to anthropogenic input and are used as plasticizers, flame retardants, pharmaceutical drugs or fragrances. Some of them had rarely been noticed as organic pollutants of aquatic environments before. These are, among others, 9-methylacridine, the plasticizer 2,2,4-trimethyl-1,3-pentandioldiisobutyrate (TXIB), the surfactant 2,4,7,9-tetramethyl-5-decyne-4,7-diol (TMDD), triphenylphosphinoxide and the flame retardant tris(chloropropyl)phosphate. On the other hand, most of the identified trialkyl phosphates, pharmaceutical drugs and synthetic fragrances have been reported in surface waters by several authors so far. Input pathways of the detected compounds were traced back by sampling various input sources of organic matter such as discharges of wastewater and Lippe River tributaries. Several contaminants were ubiquitous in Lippe River water and also occurred in sewage effluent from a municipal sewage treatment plant and in samples from the tributaries. This observation suggests that they are typical sewage derived contaminants and have the potential to be used as anthropogenic molecular markers.

The European Union established in the early 1990's a network of Community reference laboratories (CRL) for residues in living animals and their products. This field is regulated at present by the Council Directive 96/23/CE of 26 April 1996, adopted at the national level through the Decree DL.vo no. 336 of 4 August 1999. The four CRL are based in France, Germany, Italy and The Netherlands, respectively, each of them being responsible for different categories of residues. The CRL provides technical support to the European Commission in this matter as well as to the National reference laboratories (NRL) for residues in the member states. The four CRL bear responsibility also as regards the adoption of quality systems by NRL. In this respect, the revised principles of good laboratory practice recently issued by OECD demand that procedures be developed to inform and assist the NRL to implement them.

Medical substances (pharmaceuticals) are a group of substances that until recently have been exposed to the environment with very little attention. The reason why they may be interesting as environmental micropollutants, is that medical substances are developed with the intention of performing a biological effect. Especially antibiotics used as growth promoters, as feed additives in fish farms are anticipated to end up in the environment. Very little is known about the exposure routes of the medical substances to the environment. Only few investigations have reported findings of medical substances in other field samples than sediment or treated waste water samples. Several substances seem to be persistent in the environment. This paper outlines the different anticipated exposure routes to the environment, summarises the legislation on the subject and gives an outline of present knowledge of occurrence, fate and effect on both the aquatic and terrestrial environments of medical substances. Present knowledge does not reveal if regular therapeutic use may be the source of a substance carried by sewage effluent into the aquatic system, even though clofibrate, a lipid lowering agent, has been identified in ground and tap water samples from Berlin. Further research would be necessary to assess the environmental risk involved in exposing medical substances and metabolites to the environment.

Both, the oral and intravenous application of two trimethoprim-potentiated sulfonamides induced measurable antibacterial activities in the feces of horses. With regard to the risk of antibiotic-induced alterations of the gastrointestinal flora, the route of application of potentiated sulfonamides seems to be of minor importance. The antibiotics used were Sulfadimethoxine/Trimethoprim (Trafigal 30% ad us. vet.) for oral and Sulfadoxine/Trimethoprim (Borgal 24% ad us. vet., both Hoechst AG, Frankfurt) for intravenous application. As recommended, both drugs were given in a dose of 20 mg per kg bodyweight. The detection method is based on a procedure layed down in German laws for sulfonamide residues in meat-samples and has undergone some modifications for the examination of feces.

Fifty-four eel samples from 11 different countries were analysed by capillary gas chromatography for levels of the pesticides aldrin, endrin, hexachlorobenzene, alpha- and beta-BHC, lindane, heptachlor, octachlorostyrene, pp'-DDT, pp'-DDD, pp'-DDE, and for the levels of the PCB congeners 28, 52, 101, 138, 153, and 180. Wild eels, especially from the Baltic Sea area, had elevated contents compared to farmed eels. The mean contamination level reached only 1-5% of the allowable values given by German directives and never exceeded the official limits.

The modern industrial and agricultural production provides many contact points for the food animals with several toxic substances. After their ingestion by the way of feed or water they may endanger the human health as residues or environmental contaminants in food of animal origin. Currently meat, milk and eggs produced on farms in the new federal states of Germany are considered to be dangerous with respect to their xenobiotic burden by numerous consumers. The own trials have been made to give first information about lead, cadmium and arsenic concentrations in feedstuffs, meat and milk from different dairy farms in Saxonia. No serious problems could be detected referring to the metal contents in roughage, grain and crops. Only a few feed samples reached eg. exceeded the permissible upper limits for arsenic and cadmium. But none of the examined feedstuffs contained inadmissible lead concentration. Milk and muscle produced in a metal polluted and not polluted areas were very low in cadmium, lead and arsenic. Total different is the situation in the cases of liver and kidney. Both organs of cows held on farms near a smelter were rich in cadmium and lead. The cadmium concentration in liver and kidney often and the lead concentration sometimes exceeded the permissible upper limits for food. In this context cadmium in kidney of older cows seems to be a problem in general. The results of the own examinations give no information about differences in the mean metal burden of feed and food between new and old federal states of Germany.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

The chronicle of misuse of anabolics in veal calf production started with diethylstilbestrol, which was used until 1980. During the following years until 1988, illicit preparations contained various steroidal sex hormones, predominantly estradiol, 19-nortestosterone, testosterone and their esters. Since autumn 1988, the sex hormones have been replaced by anabolic beta-agonists such as clenbuterol and salbutamol. The real extent of misuse has not been determined. If sex hormones have been applied, most residue levels in the periphery apart from the injection site will remain less than 10(-9) ng/g. At the injection sites total residues may be in the mg range, and biological effects on the consumer cannot be excluded. The orally active beta-agonist clenbuterol is accumulated in most organs and a 0 d withdrawal period is not feasible. Immunoassays are approved methods for screening purposes, whereas confirmation is mostly carried out by gas chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry.