Flame retardants, surfactants and organotins in sediment and mysid shrimp of the Scheldt estuary (The Netherlands)

Abstract

Abstract. Sediment and mysids from the Scheldt estuary, one of the largest and most polluted estuaries in Western Europe, were analyzed for a number of contaminants that have shown to possess endocrine-disrupting activity, i.e. organotins, polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs), hexabromocyclododecane (HBCD), tetrabromobisphenol A (TBBPA), nonylphenol ethoxylates (NPE) and transformation products nonylphenol (NP) and nonylphenol ether carboxylates (NPEC). In addition, in vitro estrogenic and androgenic potencies of water and sediment extracts were determined. Total organotin concentrations ranged from 84 to 348 ng/g dw in sediment and 1110 to 1370 ng/g dw in mysid. Total PBDE (excluding BDE-209) concentrations ranged from 14 to 22 ng/g dw in sediment and from 1765 to 2962 ng/g lipid in mysid. High concentrations of BDE-209 (240-1650 ng/g dw) were detected in sediment and mysid (269-600 ng/g lipid). Total HBCD concentrations in sediment and mysid were 14-71 ng/g dw and 562-727 ng/g lipid, respectively. Total NPE concentrations in sediment were 1422 ng/g dw, 1222 ng/g dw for NP and 80 ng/g dw for NPEC and ranged from 430 to 1119 ng/g dw for total NPE and from 206 to 435 ng/g dw for NP in mysid. Significant estrogenic potency, as analyzed using the yeast estrogen assay, was detected in sediment and water samples from the Scheldt estuary, but no androgenic activity was found. This study is the first to report high levels of endocrine disruptors in estuarine mysids.Capsule. Field populations of mysid shrimp (Neomysis integer) of the Scheldt estuary (The Netherlands) are exposed to high concentrations of endocrine disruptors.

Aquatic bioaccumulation and trophic transfer of tetrabromobisphenol-A flame retardant introduced from a typical e-waste recycling site

“…The mean concentration of TBBP-A in our Chinese mystery snail was eightfold higher than that (45 ng/g lw) reported in another type of mollusk, common whelk, collected from the North Sea (Morris et al 2004). Also, the mean TBBP-A concentration in our prawn was nearly two orders of magnitude higher than those reported in another crustacean, mysid shrimp, from two sites in the Scheldt estuary, The Netherlands (0.8 and 0.9 ng/g lw) (Verslycke et al 2005). For fish species, the current mud carp (730 pg/g ww) and northern snakehead (350 pg/g ww) showed similar concentrations with those detected in the two species (840 and 380 pg/g ww for mud carp and northern snakehead, respectively) sampled from the same e-waste recycling site as the present study (Tang et al 2015).…”

Occurrence of Halogenated Flame Retardants in Sediment off an Urbanized Coastal Zone: Association with Urbanization and Industrialization

“…The global market demand for these emerging chemicals has rapidly increased in recent years, 2,3 resulting in the widespread occurrence of AHFR residues in sediment, 4 air, 5,6 sludge, 7 and organisms. 8,9 The economic development patterns in China have continuously evolved in recent decades. 10 Since the establishment of Special Economic Zones in 1978, China's coastal zones have become the primary sites for industrial production, due to their convenience for shipping traffics and favorable pollutantdissipating conditions.…”

Reductive transformation of hexabromocyclododecane (HBCD) by FeS

“…Due to the frequent co-occurrence of TBBPA, decaBDE and HBCD in various anoxic sediments (Chen et al, 2013;Feng et al, 2012;Lee et al, 2015;Verslycke et al, 2005), studying their transformation patterns under the same conditions is important not only for a better understanding of their environmental fates, but also for the development of suitable remediation approaches for sediments cocontaminated by these BFRs. Surprisingly, little such empirical research has been done.…”