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This study assesses for the first time the levels of PCDD/Fs and DL-PCBs in sea turtles coming from Tyrrhenian Sea. The concentrations measured in liver of the 24 specimens analysed were 6.90 vs 5.65 pg g -1 wet weight (ww) for PCDD/Fs and 10.95 vs 0.79 ng g -1 ww for DL-PCBs in Caretta caretta and Chelonia mydas, respectively. The DL-PCB levels resulted very higher in Caretta caretta than Chelonia mydas probably due to the different eating habits between the two species investigated. Furthermore, the highest levels of DL-PCBs were determined in livers of the adult Caretta caretta turtles of male sex. Positive correlations were found out between PCB-81 and the body mass (BM) of turtles (r 2  = 0.6561; p = 0.001) and between PCB-81 and the curved carapace length (CCL) (r 2  = 0.6250; p = 0.006) suggesting that the body burden of contaminants is related to the body size. The mean TEQ values, as a matter of risk assessment for turtles, were 3.64 vs 1.62 pg TEQ g -1 ww for PCDD/Fs and 8.72 vs 2.16 pg TEQ g -1 ww for DL-PCBs in Caretta caretta and Chelonia mydas, respectively. The results reported in this study increase the data available about the consequences of the Mediterranean Sea contamination by organochlorine pollutants and highlight an evident PCDD/F and PCB bioaccumulation in sea turtle tissues that threatens the survival of these marine organisms., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Non-essential toxic metals are environmental pollutants that contaminate the marine ecosystem due to their extensive use and long-range transport (by rivers and air). Their presence into the environment is often linked to the human activity, with an expected bioaccumulation in the food chain. Within the marine animals, sea turtles may be considered as potential sentinel species for environmental assessment because of their long lifetime, habitat use and migratory nature. In this study, non-essential toxic metals in the coastal of Tyrrhenian Sea were monitored, during the 2017-2018 period, using the Mediterranean loggerhead sea turtle (Caretta caretta) as indicator species. The levels of Cadmium (Cd), Arsenic (As), Mercury (Hg) and Lead, (Pb) were determined in 30 turtles stranded in different locations along the coasts of Campania region of Southern Italy. After morphometric analysis, the non- essential toxic metal accumulation in loggerhead sea turtle muscle and organs have been measured analysing the total concentrations of metals in samples of liver, kidney, and muscle by Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometry (AAS) after microwave assisted digestion with nitric acid and hydrogen peroxide. The pattern of contaminants revealed a similar distribution for Pb and total mercury, that were not significantly high in all the analysed matrices. On the contrary, elevated concentrations of total As were found out in all matrices, mainly in muscle (25.7 mg/kg w.w.), and of Cd in liver (1.23 mg/kg w.w.) and kidney (6.82 mg/kg w.w.). These studies allow us to estimate the exposure degree to which these species are subjected., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2020 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)