Water quality criteria derivation and ecological risk assessment for triphenyltin in China.

Triphenyltin (TPT) is one of the most toxic chemicals artificially discharged into aquatic environment with human activities. Due to its intensive use in antifouling paints and adverse effects on non-target species, TPT has aroused wide concern in both saltwater and freshwater environment. Nevertheless, the water quality criteria (WQC) are not available in China, which impedes the risk assessment for this emerging pollutant. This study aims to establish the WQC of TPT for both freshwater and saltwater ecosystems. With the derived WQC, a four-level tiered ecological risk assessment (ERA) approach was employed to assess the ecological risks of this emerging pollutant in Chinese waters. Through the species sensitivity distribution (SSD) methodology, the freshwater criterion maximum concentration (CMC) and criterion continuous concentration (CCC) were derived as 396 ng Sn L-1 and 5.60 ng Sn L-1, respectively, whereas the saltwater CMC and CCC were 66.5 ng Sn L-1 and 4.11 ng Sn L-1, respectively. The ecological risk assessment for TPT demonstrated that the acute risk was negligible whereas the chronic risk was significant with HQ (Hazard Quotient) values of up to 5.669 and 57.1% of coastal waters in China facing clear risk. TPT contamination in coastal environment, therefore, warrants further concern.

Derivation of freshwater water quality criteria for dibutyltin dilaurate from measured data and data predicted using interspecies correlation estimate models.

Dibutyltin dilaurate (DBTL) is an organotin compound that has been widely detected in aquatic environments. However, the ecological risk assessment for DBTL is hard to perform due to the absence of water quality criteria (WQC) and lack of toxicity data. In this study, toxicity data were obtained from acute and chronic toxicity tests using aquatic species resident in China. Based on the species sensitivity distributions (SSDs) constructed from these test data, the acute water quality criterion (AWQC) and chronic water quality criterion (CWQC) were then derived to be 132 µg/L and 31.9 µg/L for DBTL. In order to valid the predicted data in the application to the protective criteria development and hazard assessment, the web-based interspecies correlation estimation (Web-ICE) system was used to estimate acute toxicities. Here two acute toxicity data groups for surrogate species were chosen from experimental data and QSAR Toolbox-predicted data separately, giving estimated data for prediction species using Web-ICE software. According to Kolmogorov-Smirnov test results, Web-ICE-based SSDs and measurement-based SSD were not significantly different. The results showed that the differences between measurement-based (132 µg/L) and Web-ICE-based AWQCs (39.7 µg/L and 58.5 µg/L) were statistically acceptable. Under certain conditions, it is therefore worth considering using the QSAR Toolbox plus Web-ICE method here to provide a beneficial supplement for developing preliminarily screen level toxicities in WQC when little or no relevant information are available. Besides, the geographic distribution of species was demonstrated not to be a significant factor in SSD establishment and WQC derivation.

Baseline of organotin pollution in fishes, clams, shrimps, squids and crabs collected from the west coast of India.

Organotins, especially tributyltins (TBT) are highly toxic to many marine organisms. These compounds are introduced in marine waters by ship trafficking, ship scrapping activities, as antifouling compounds and sewage disposal. Marine fishes, crustaceans and molluscans are easily prone to organotins contamination. In view of this, a baseline monitoring study was conducted in order to establish the levels of organotins in edible marine fishes, bivalves, shrimps, squids and crabs collected from Mumbai, Goa and Karwar on the west coast of India. At these locations average organotin concentration found in fishes, clams, shrimps, squids and crabs was 108, 852, 179, 70 and 89 ng Sn g(-1)dw, respectively. In all the samples butyltins dominated over phenyltins. The levels of organotins suggest that all the organisms were contaminated with organotins and their consumption may pose health problems to humans.

Organotin analysis by gas chromatography-pulsed flame-photometric detection (GC-PFPD).

Monobutyltin (MBuT), dibutyltin (DBuT), and tributyltin (TBuT) mixtures have been separated and quantified by gas chromatography with pulsed flame-photometric detection (GC-PFPD). The compounds were first derivatized with NaBEt4, then extracted with hexane and injected into the GC in splitless mode. Optimum GC and detector conditions were established. For GC, various injector temperatures and oven temperature programs were tested. For the PFPD detector, gate settings (gate delay and gate width) and detector temperature were optimized. A very good linearity was obtained up to 100-150 ppb for all organotin compounds. The detection limits obtained were: MBuT (0.7 ppb), DBuT (0.8 ppb), and TBuT (0.6 ppb). RSD for repeatability and reproducibility were well below 20% when the instrument was in routine operation. A biological sample (CRM 477) was also analyzed for organotins. Extraction from the biological matrix was performed with TMAH. Besides the increased risk of contamination, the derivatization step seemed to be critical. pH and amount of derivatizing agent were tested. When using an internal standard (TPrT) between 90% and 110% of the certified amounts of organotin were recovered.