A comparative study of surfactant distribution and fate (western and eastern) Egyptian Mediterranean coasts focusing on its environmental toxicity.

One of the most difficult-to-manage new contaminants constantly released into the environment is linear alkylbenzene sulphonate (LAS), an anionic surfactant. Significant volumes of LAS are received by the Mediterranean coast of Egypt. The current study is a comprehensive assessment of the environmental fate of the LAS 1505 km off the Mediterranean coast of Egypt in the fall of 2023 in order to track its geographic spread and eventual demise in the water column. Critical analysis of LAS revealed that it is vertically distributed in various ways according to sources, uses, production amounts, and salinity levels. The vertical variation of LAS can be explained by its amphiphilic structure. A significant increase in surfactant concentration (>300 µg/L) was recorded in 66% and 43% of the total samples, ranging from 301.128 to 455.36 and from 304.556 to 486.135 for the western and eastern sides along the Egyptian Mediterranean coast, respectively. Evaluation of the average acute and chronic risk quotient (RQ) along the investigated locations revealed that fish were the most susceptible to LAS in both long and short exposure periods. The presented results also indicated significant LAS toxicity to three trophic levels (RQ values > 1). LAS toxicity to marine organisms was greater in the western than in eastern coastal regions according to acute and chronic mixture risk characterization ratios (RCRmix). The three trophic levels in the study area had the following order of acute relative contribution (RC) to LAS toxicity: fish > invertebrates > algae. The ANOVA test results showed that in both the western and eastern regions, LAS varied significantly (p < 0.05) with salinity (1.04E-60 and 5.44E-42) and depth (6.02E-65 and 1.59E-47), respectively. In addition, a significant difference was observed using the ANOVA test between the eastern and western regions of the Egyptian Mediterranean coast.

Activity levels of some radionuclides in Mariout and Brullus lakes, Egypt.

Mariout and Brullus are two of the highly fish-productive lakes in the northern coast of Egypt along the Mediterranean Sea. They are widely used to drain industrial wastes, sewage and agriculture drainage. The activities of (238)U, (232)Th, (40)K and (137)Cs were measured in the uppermost part of the surface sediments of the two lakes, using gamma-ray spectrophotometry. Brullus Lake recorded significantly higher (238)U and (232)Th and lower (40)K (17.22±2.49, 10.03±0.56 and 299.70±17.78 Bq kg(-1)) than Mariout Lake (12.65±1.53, 7.24±0.76 and 518.75±46.24 Bq kg(-1), respectively). Cesium-137 shows nearly equal activities in both lakes (3.33±0.46 and 3.68±0.70 Bq kg(-1), respectively). Activity distributions of (238)U and (232)Th in the sediments of Mariout Lake show a significant increase to the west, southwest and northeast, (40)K activity increased westwards, while the (137)Cs level was increased to the east and northeast, indicating agriculture drainage, industrial wastes and lands reclamation around the lake. At Brullus Lake, the activity trends of (238)U, (232)Th, (40)K and(137)Cs were increasing to the west and south towards the agriculture and industrial waste-water-feeding drains.

Some radioactive-elements in the coastal sediments of the Mediterranean Sea.

The radioactivities of (234+235)U, (232)Th, (40)K and (137)Cs were measured in the coastal sediments of the western Mediterranean Sea between Alexandria and Salloum, Egypt. The recorded activities of the natural radionuclides were within the range of those measured worldwide. The highest activities of (234+235)U and (40)K (166.5 ± 7.7; 365.8 ± 2.3 Bq kg(-1) dry weight) were measured at Sidi Krir station while El-Max station recorded the highest (232)Th activity (22.7 ± 0.6 Bq kg(-1) dry weight) indicating that these radionuclides may accumulate in ionic and particulate forms from the drainage systems of the fertiliser, petrochemical and paper industries and from agricultural drains and also as the drifted particulates from longshore currents and accretion processes. The lowest (234+235)U activities were recorded at Salloum and the lowest (232)Th and (40)K activities were recorded at El-Hammam, indicating that the accretion process is more active in the eastern Mediterranean. Salloum recorded the highest activity levels for (137)Cs (7.9 ± 0.4 Bq kg(-1) dry weight) showing significant increases of the artificial (137)Cs westwards that may be indicative of to the anthropogenic sources from the northern Mediterranean.