Socioeconomic status and public health in Australia: A wastewater-based study.

Analysis of untreated municipal wastewater is recognized as an innovative approach to assess population exposure to or consumption of various substances. Currently, there are no published wastewater-based studies investigating the relationships between catchment social, demographic, and economic characteristics with chemicals using advanced non-targeted techniques. In this study, fifteen wastewater samples covering 27% of the Australian population were collected during a population Census. The samples were analysed with a workflow employing liquid chromatography high-resolution mass spectrometry and chemometric tools for non-target analysis. Socioeconomic characteristics of catchment areas were generated using Geospatial Information Systems software. Potential correlations were explored between pseudo-mass loads of the identified compounds and socioeconomic and demographic descriptors of the wastewater catchments derived from Census data. Markers of public health (e.g., cardiac arrhythmia, cardiovascular disease, anxiety disorder and type 2 diabetes) were identified in the wastewater samples by the proposed workflow. They were positively correlated with descriptors of disadvantage in education, occupation, marital status and income, and negatively correlated with descriptors of advantage in education and occupation. In addition, markers of polypropylene glycol (PPG) and polyethylene glycol (PEG) related compounds were positively correlated with housing and occupation disadvantage. High positive correlations were found between separated and divorced people and specific drugs used to treat cardiac arrhythmia, cardiovascular disease, and depression. Our robust non-targeted methodology in combination with Census data can identify relationships between biomarkers of public health, human behaviour and lifestyle and socio-demographics of whole populations. Furthermore, it can identify specific areas and socioeconomic groups that may need more assistance than others for public health issues. This approach complements important public health information and enables large-scale national coverage with a relatively small number of samples.

Screening the baseline fish bioconcentration factor of various types of surfactants using phospholipid binding data.

Fish bioconcentration factors (BCFs) are commonly used in chemical hazard and risk assessment. For neutral organic chemicals BCFs are positively correlated with the octanol-water partition ratio (KOW), but KOW is not a reliable parameter for surfactants. Membrane lipid-water distribution ratios (DMLW) can be accurately measured for all kinds of surfactants, using phospholipid-based sorbents. This study first demonstrates that DMLW values for ionic surfactants are more than 100 000 times higher than the partition ratio to fish-oil, representing neutral storage lipid. A non-ionic alcohol ethoxylate surfactant showed almost equal affinity for both lipid types. Accordingly, a baseline screening BCF value for surfactants (BCFbaseline) can be approximated for ionic surfactants by multiplying DMLW by the phospholipid fraction in tissue, and for non-ionic surfactants by multiplying DMLW by the total lipid fraction. We measured DMLW values for surfactant structures, including linear and branched alkylbenzenesulfonates, an alkylsulfoacetate and an alkylethersulfate, bis(2-ethylhexyl)-surfactants (e.g., docusate), zwitterionic alkylbetaines and alkylamine-oxides, and a polyprotic diamine. Together with sixty previously published DMLW values for surfactants, structure-activity relationships were derived to elucidate the influence of surfactant specific molecular features on DMLW. For 23 surfactant types, we established the alkyl chain length at which BCFbaseline would exceed the EU REACH bioaccumulation (B) threshold of 2000 L kg-1, and would therefore require higher tier assessments to further refine the BCF estimate. Finally, the derived BCFbaseline are compared with measured literature in vivo BCF data where available, suggesting that refinements, most notably reliable estimates of biotransformation rates, are needed for most surfactant types.

Bioconcentration of cedarwood oil constituents in rainbow trout.

Cedarwood oil is an essential oil used as a fragrance material and insect repellent. Its main constituents are sesquiterpenes which are potentially bioaccumulative according to the REACH screening criteria. Cedarwood oil is a complex mixture of hydrophobic and volatile organic chemicals. The volatility and limited water solubility of its constituents are a challenge for standard bioconcentration factor (BCF) test methods using aqueous exposure. We used an abbreviated dietary exposure in vivo testing protocol with internal benchmark substances as "internal standards" to derive the BCF of cedarwood oil constituents using rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss). Internal benchmarking proved to be a useful tool to control for inter-individual variability, enabling us to calculate the BCF for all major cedarwood oil constituents as a mixture. We found that the BCF of two out of six analysed cedarwood oil constituents exceed a BCF of 5000 and two others exceed a BCF of 2000 (90% confidence level) even though we found evidence for biotransformation for individual constituents. The results of this study indicate that more work is warranted to study the bioaccumulation of essential oils and highlights the utility of internal benchmarking in in vivo dietary exposure BCF tests to increase robustness and allow for the BCF measurement of complex mixtures.

Cytokine expression and lymphocyte proliferative capacity in diseased harbor porpoises (Phocoena phocoena) - Biomarkers for health assessment in wildlife cetaceans.

Harbor porpoises (Phocoena phocoena) in the North and Baltic Seas are exposed to anthropogenic influences including acoustic stress and environmental contaminants. In order to evaluate immune responses in healthy and diseased harbor porpoise cells, cytokine expression analyses and lymphocyte proliferation assays, together with toxicological analyses were performed in stranded and bycaught animals as well as in animals kept in permanent human care. Severely diseased harbor porpoises showed a reduced proliferative capacity of peripheral blood lymphocytes together with diminished transcription of transforming growth factor-ß and tumor necrosis factor-α compared to healthy controls. Toxicological analyses revealed accumulation of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), dichlorodiphenyldichloroethylene (DDE), and dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT) in harbor porpoise blood samples. Correlation analyses between blood organochlorine levels and immune parameters revealed no direct effects of xenobiotics upon lymphocyte proliferation or cytokine transcription, respectively. Results reveal an impaired function of peripheral blood leukocytes in severely diseased harbor porpoises, indicating immune exhaustion and increased disease susceptibility.

Decabromodiphenyl ethane and decabromodiphenyl ether in Swedish background air.

Decabromodiphenyl ethane (DPDPE) is a flame retardant that has been on the market for more than 20 years and is used as a replacement for decabromodiphenyl ether (BDE-209). Environmental data on DPDPE are scarce but for BDE-209, studies have shown that long-range transport in the atmosphere leads to contamination of remote regions. Given their similar physical-chemical properties, we hypothesized that this is also true for DPDPE. In this study we explored the European continent as a source for DBDPE by collecting air samples at a back-ground location in southern Sweden. Twelve samples with stable air mass back trajectories over the 24 h sampling period were analysed. BDE-209 and 5 polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) were also included in the study. The concentration ranges of DBDPE and BDE-209 were similar, 0.077-7.9 and 0.093-1.8 pg m(-3) air, respectively. The highest concentrations were detected when the air originated from the European continent and the lowest during periods with rather stagnant air over southern Scandinavia. The concentrations of DBDPE and BDE-209 did not co-vary, indicating that there are different major sources of the two compounds. In air, the compounds measured in this study are predominantly associated with particles. PAHs in the atmosphere are known to originate primarily from combustion processes and their concentrations were highly correlated with several measures of atmospheric particle concentration, i.e. PM 10, PM 2.5, soot, and N 450 (number of particles in the size range approximately 420-450 nm). No clear correlations were found between the concentrations of DBDPE or BDE-209 and any of the measures of particle concentrations, indicating that the emissions of these are not related to the major sources of emissions of soot or small particles.

Levels and potential sources of decabromodiphenyl ethane (DBDPE) and decabromodiphenyl ether (DecaBDE) in lake and marine sediments in Sweden.

Decabromodiphenyl ethane (DBDPE) is a brominated flame retardant (BFR) used as a replacement for the structurally similar decabromodiphenyl ether (decaBDE), which is a regulated environmental contaminant of concern. DBDPE has been found in indoor dust, sewage sludge, sediment, and biota, but little is known about its occurrence and distribution in the environment In this paper, sediment was analyzed from 11 isolated Swedish lakes and along a transect running from central Stockholm through the Stockholm archipelago to the Baltic Sea. DBDPE was present in all samples. In lake sediment, the levels ranged from 0.23 to 11 ng/g d.wt. and were very similar to the levels of decaBDE (0.48-11 ng/g d.wt.). Since the lakes have no known point sources of BFRs, their presence in the sediments provides evidence for long-range atmospheric transport and deposition. In the marine sediment, the DBDPE and decaBDE levels decreased by a factor of 20-50 over 40 km from the inner harbor to the outer archipelago. There the DBDPE and decaBDE levels were similar to the levels in nearby isolated lakes. The results indicate that contamination of the Swedish environment with DBDPE has already approached that of decaBDE, and that this contamination is primarily occurring via the atmosphere.

Mass balance of decabromodiphenyl ethane and decabromodiphenyl ether in a WWTP.

The additive flame retardant decabromodiphenyl ethane (deBDethane) has been identified in the environment, but little is known about its environmental behaviour. It is structurally similar to decabromodiphenyl ether (decaBDE), making it conceivable that it may also become an environmental contaminant of concern. In this study a mass balance of deBDethane and decaBDE was undertaken in a modern WWTP in Stockholm serving 7.05x10(5) inhabitants. Flow proportional samples of plant influent and effluent as well as daily grab samples of digested sludge were collected during two 7-day periods. All samples were analyzed with GC/HRMS using isotope labelled internal standards. The mean mass flows of deBDethane and decaBDE to the WWTP were 6.0 g per day and 55 g per day, respectively. Of this, less than 1% of both BFRs left the WWTP via the effluent, while the bulk was sequestered into the digested sludge, where the mean concentrations of deBDethane and decaBDE were 81 and 800 ng g(-1)d.wt., respectively. It is concluded that the transfer efficiency of deBDethane from the technosphere to the environment via WWTPs is similar to that of decaBDE.

An international survey of decabromodiphenyl ethane (deBDethane) and decabromodiphenyl ether (decaBDE) in sewage sludge samples.

Decabromodiphenyl ethane (deBDethane) is an additive flame retardant marketed as a replacement for decabromodiphenyl ether (decaBDE). The structures of the two chemicals are similar, and hence deBDethane may also become an environmental contaminant of concern. Environmental data on deBDethane are scarce. Since sewage sludge is an early indicator of leakage of these chemicals into the environment, an international survey of deBDethane and decaBDE levels in sludge was conducted. Samples were collected from 42 WWTPs in 12 different countries and analyzed with GC/LRMS. DeBDethane was present in sludge from all countries and may therefore be a worldwide concern. The levels of deBDethane in sludge samples from the Ruhr area of Germany were the highest so far reported in the literature (216 ng g(-1)d.wt.). The [deBDethane]/[decaBDE] quotient for the whole data set ranged from 0.0018 to 0.83. High ratios were found in and around Germany where deBDethane imports are known to have been high and substitution of decaBDE with deBDethane is likely to have occurred. Low ratios were found in the USA and the UK, countries that have traditionally been large users of decaBDE. An estimate of the flux of deBDEthane from the technosphere via WWTPs to the environment within the European Union gave 1.7+/-0.34 mg annually per person. The corresponding value for decaBDE was 41+/-22 mg annually per person.