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Toxics
Special Issues
Environmental Monitoring and Analysis of Persistent Organic Pollutants
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Environmental Monitoring and Analysis of Persistent Organic Pollutants

A special issue of Toxics (ISSN 2305-6304). This special issue belongs to the section "Emerging Contaminants".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (20 April 2023) | Viewed by 16962

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Vlasta Drevenkar

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Institut za Medicinska Istrazivanja i Medicinu Rada, Zagreb, Croatia
Interests: distribution of organic micropollutants (mainly pesticides and related compounds) in the environment (water, soil/sediments, air); sorption behaviour of organic micropollutants in soil interactions with humic substances and mineral sorbents; biochemical indicators of human exposure to pesticides; analytical methods for the determination of organic micropollutants in environmental and biological samples
Dr. Gordana Mendaš

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Institut za Medicinska Istrazivanja i Medicinu Rada, Zagreb, Croatia
Interests: pesticides and POPs analysis in environmental and biological samples; risk assessment; biomarkers of exposure; gas and liquid chromatography

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Persistent organic pollutants (POPs) are global pollutants of the biosphere with possible harmful effects on the ecosystem and human health. They comprise a group of 28 toxic compounds of different chemical classes listed in the Stockholm Convention on POPs, which aims to protect the environment and human health. POPs include chemicals used in agriculture (pesticides), industry (e.g., polychlorinated biphenyls, polybrominated diphenyl ethers, perfluorinated compounds), as well as unintentional industrial or combustion by-products, such as polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins and dibenzofurans. POPs are highly persistent, bioaccumulative and biomagnifying since they resist chemical, biological, and photolytic degradation. They have been identified worldwide (even in remote regions where they have never been used) in air, water, soils/sediments, and biota, not only as a consequence of local contamination sources, but also as a result of efficient long-distance transport by circulation of air masses and waters. POPs enter the aquatic environment through dry and wet atmospheric deposition and attach to soil particles in water runoffs or by waste waters. Due to their tendency to sorb to suspended particulate matter, POPs accumulate in aquatic (marine, river, lake) sediments as one of their main sinks.

For the trace determination of POPs in complex environmental and biological matrices, highly selective and sensitive analytical methods are fundamental. Most of these methods are based on the selective extraction of target compounds and analysis of purified extracts by high resolution instrumental techniques, such as gas or liquid chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry.

This Special Issue of Toxics will focus on a) the current state of environmental pollution with POPs, with an emphasis on their origin, temporal and spatial distribution, and long-term trends in different environmental compartments, and b) recent advances in analytical methods developed for the identification and quantification of POPs in different environmental and biological matrices, such as air, water, soils, sediments, and biota. Original research articles, reviews, and short communications are welcome.

Prof. Dr. Vlasta Drevenkar
Dr. Gordana Mendaš
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Toxics is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • persistent organic pollutants
  • environmental monitoring
  • temporal and spatial distribution
  • long-term trends
  • analytical methods
  • POPs quantitation
  • water
  • air
  • soil/sediments
  • biota

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Published Papers (7 papers)

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Editorial

Jump to: Research

3 pages, 174 KiB  
Editorial
Environmental Monitoring and Analysis of Persistent Organic Pollutants
by Vlasta Drevenkar and Gordana Mendaš
Toxics 2023, 11(6), 535; https://doi.org/10.3390/toxics11060535 - 15 Jun 2023
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 2217
Abstract
Persistent organic pollutants (POPs) are a group of 28 toxic compounds of different chemical classes listed in the Stockholm Convention on POPs, which aims to protect the environment and human health [...] Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Environmental Monitoring and Analysis of Persistent Organic Pollutants)

Research

Jump to: Editorial

25 pages, 14169 KiB  
Article
Potential of Coupling Metaheuristics-Optimized-XGBoost and SHAP in Revealing PAHs Environmental Fate
by Gordana Jovanovic, Mirjana Perisic, Nebojsa Bacanin, Miodrag Zivkovic, Svetlana Stanisic, Ivana Strumberger, Filip Alimpic and Andreja Stojic
Toxics 2023, 11(4), 394; https://doi.org/10.3390/toxics11040394 - 21 Apr 2023
Cited by 9 | Viewed by 2724
Abstract
Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) refer to a group of several hundred compounds, among which 16 are identified as priority pollutants, due to their adverse health effects, frequency of occurrence, and potential for human exposure. This study is focused on benzo(a)pyrene, being considered an [...] Read more.
Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) refer to a group of several hundred compounds, among which 16 are identified as priority pollutants, due to their adverse health effects, frequency of occurrence, and potential for human exposure. This study is focused on benzo(a)pyrene, being considered an indicator of exposure to a PAH carcinogenic mixture. For this purpose, we have applied the XGBoost model to a two-year database of pollutant concentrations and meteorological parameters, with the aim to identify the factors which were mostly associated with the observed benzo(a)pyrene concentrations and to describe types of environments that supported the interactions between benzo(a)pyrene and other polluting species. The pollutant data were collected at the energy industry center in Serbia, in the vicinity of coal mining areas and power stations, where the observed benzo(a)pyrene maximum concentration for a study period reached 43.7 ngm−3. The metaheuristics algorithm has been used to optimize the XGBoost hyperparameters, and the results have been compared to the results of XGBoost models tuned by eight other cutting-edge metaheuristics algorithms. The best-produced model was later on interpreted by applying Shapley Additive exPlanations (SHAP). As indicated by mean absolute SHAP values, the temperature at the surface, arsenic, PM10, and total nitrogen oxide (NOx) concentrations appear to be the major factors affecting benzo(a)pyrene concentrations and its environmental fate. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Environmental Monitoring and Analysis of Persistent Organic Pollutants)
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16 pages, 6714 KiB  
Article
Prediction of the Impact of Land Use and Soil Type on Concentrations of Heavy Metals and Phthalates in Soil Based on Model Simulation
by Nataša Stojić, Lato Pezo, Biljana Lončar, Mira Pucarević, Vladimir Filipović, Dunja Prokić, Ljiljana Ćurčić and Snežana Štrbac
Toxics 2023, 11(3), 269; https://doi.org/10.3390/toxics11030269 - 15 Mar 2023
Cited by 6 | Viewed by 1918
Abstract
The main objective of this study is to determine the possibility of predicting the impact of land use and soil type on concentrations of heavy metals (HMs) and phthalates (PAEs) in soil based on an artificial neural network model (ANN). Qualitative analysis of [...] Read more.
The main objective of this study is to determine the possibility of predicting the impact of land use and soil type on concentrations of heavy metals (HMs) and phthalates (PAEs) in soil based on an artificial neural network model (ANN). Qualitative analysis of HMs was performed with inductively coupled plasma–optical emission spectrometry (ICP/OES) and Direct Mercury Analyzer. Determination of PAEs was performed with gas chromatography (GC) coupled with a single quadrupole mass spectrometry (MS). An ANN, based on the Broyden–Fletcher–Goldfarb–Shanno (BFGS) iterative algorithm, for the prediction of HM and PAE concentrations, based on land use and soil type parameters, showed good prediction capabilities (the coefficient of determination (r2) values during the training cycle for HM concentration variables were 0.895, 0.927, 0.885, 0.813, 0.883, 0.917, 0.931, and 0.883, respectively, and for PAEs, the concentration variables were 0.950, 0.974, 0.958, 0.974, and 0.943, respectively). The results of this study indicate that HM and PAE concentrations, based on land use and soil type, can be predicted using ANN. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Environmental Monitoring and Analysis of Persistent Organic Pollutants)
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15 pages, 1803 KiB  
Article
Carcinogenic Activity and Risk Assessment of PAHs in Ambient Air: PM10 Particle Fraction and Bulk Deposition
by Ivana Jakovljević, Iva Smoljo, Zdravka Sever Štrukil and Gordana Pehnec
Toxics 2023, 11(3), 228; https://doi.org/10.3390/toxics11030228 - 27 Feb 2023
Cited by 9 | Viewed by 2261
Abstract
This paper present seasonal variation in the equivalent concentration (BaPeq) of PAHs in order to assess the potential cancer risk for two different groups of residents via ingestion, dermal contact and inhalation pathways. The possible ecological risk caused by PAH atmospheric [...] Read more.
This paper present seasonal variation in the equivalent concentration (BaPeq) of PAHs in order to assess the potential cancer risk for two different groups of residents via ingestion, dermal contact and inhalation pathways. The possible ecological risk caused by PAH atmospheric deposition based on risk quotient was also estimated. A bulk (total, wet and dry) deposition and PM10 particle fraction (particles with an equivalent aerodynamic diameter < 10 µm) were collected from June 2020 to May 2021 at an urban residential location in the northern part of Zagreb, Croatia. The monthly average of total equivalent BaPeq mass concentrations of PM10 varied from 0.057 ng m−3 in July to 3.656 ng m−3 in December; the annul ∑BaPeq average was 1.348 ng m−3. In bulk deposition, ∑BaPeq mass concentrations varied from 1.94 to 57.60 ng L−1. In both investigated media, BaP had the highest contribution in carcinogenic activity. For PM10 media, dermal absorption implied the greatest potential cancer risk, followed by ingestion and inhalation. For bulk media, a moderate ecological risk for BaA, BbF and BaP was observed according to the risk quotient approach. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Environmental Monitoring and Analysis of Persistent Organic Pollutants)
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15 pages, 412 KiB  
Article
Simultaneous Method for Selected PBDEs and HBCDDs in Foodstuffs Using Gas Chromatography—Tandem Mass Spectrometry and Liquid Chromatography—Tandem Mass Spectrometry
by Eva Lipičar, Danijela Fras, Nino Javernik and Helena Prosen
Toxics 2023, 11(1), 15; https://doi.org/10.3390/toxics11010015 - 24 Dec 2022
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1753
Abstract
Flame retardants are added to consumer products to retard the ignition of combustible materials. Technical mixtures of polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) and hexabromocyclododecane (HBCDD) were massively used for several decades. They are bioaccumulative, persistent, and have adverse effects on organisms. Recognised as persistent [...] Read more.
Flame retardants are added to consumer products to retard the ignition of combustible materials. Technical mixtures of polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) and hexabromocyclododecane (HBCDD) were massively used for several decades. They are bioaccumulative, persistent, and have adverse effects on organisms. Recognised as persistent organic pollutants, they are banned almost worldwide. Food is the principal source of human exposure. Yet, no maximum residue limits for food have been established in the EU. Nevertheless, monitoring of specific congeners is recommended. Simultaneous analysis of HBCDDs and PBDEs is rarely encountered, especially including BDE-209, as this thermally unstable congener is particularly challenging for analysis. We have developed a method for the simultaneous determination of all relevant PBDEs and HBCDDs recommended for monitoring by the EU. In the method, single sample preparation is used for different types of foodstuffs, applying ultrasound-assisted extraction, clean-up by gel permeation, and adsorption chromatography. Analyses were performed on the same extract, first by GC-MS/MS(EI) method for PBDEs and followed by LC-MS/MS(ESI) method for HBCDDs. The analytical method was validated on a blank sample of milk formula at 2–3 fortification levels, including recommended LOQ level of 0.01 µg/kg wet weight. Satisfactory accuracy with recoveries 85–119%, intra-day precision (1.5–11.3%), and inter-day precision (4.3–18.4%) was obtained. The method ensures LOQs that are compliant with the EU recommendations for all PBDEs and HBCDDs, including BDE-209. Method applicability was further confirmed on proficiency testing samples of baby food, fish, and citrus. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Environmental Monitoring and Analysis of Persistent Organic Pollutants)
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17 pages, 2723 KiB  
Article
Distribution and Relationships of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs) in Soils and Plants near Major Lakes in Eastern China
by Zhiwei Zhao, Wei He, Ruilin Wu and Fuliu Xu
Toxics 2022, 10(10), 577; https://doi.org/10.3390/toxics10100577 - 30 Sep 2022
Cited by 12 | Viewed by 2811
Abstract
The distributions and correlations among polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in soils and plants were analyzed. In this study, 9 soil samples and 44 plant samples were collected near major lakes (Hongze Lake, Luoma Lake, Chaohu, Changhu, Danjiangkou Reservoir, Wuhan East Lake, Longgan Lake, [...] Read more.
The distributions and correlations among polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in soils and plants were analyzed. In this study, 9 soil samples and 44 plant samples were collected near major lakes (Hongze Lake, Luoma Lake, Chaohu, Changhu, Danjiangkou Reservoir, Wuhan East Lake, Longgan Lake, Qiandao Lake and Liangzi Lake) in eastern China. The following results were obtained: The total contents of PAHs in soil varied from 99.17 to 552.10 ng/g with an average of 190.35 ng/g, and the total contents of PAHs in plants varied from 122.93 to 743.44 ng/g, with an average of 274.66 ng/g. The PAHs in soil were dominated by medium- and low-molecular-weight PAHs, while the PAHs in plants were dominated by low-molecular-weight PAHs. The proportion of high-molecular-weight PAHs was the lowest in both soil and plants. Diagnostic ratios and principal component analysis (PCA) identified combustion as the main source of PAHs in soil and plants. The plant PAH monomer content was negatively correlated with Koa. Acenaphthylene, anthracene, benzo[k]fluoranthene, benzo[b]fluoranthene and dibenzo[a,h]anthracene were significantly correlated in plants and soil. In addition, no significant correlation between the total contents of the 16 PAHs and the content of high-, medium-, and low-molecular-weight PAHs in plants and soil was found. Bidens pilosa L. and Gaillardia pulchella Foug in the Compositae family and cron in the Poaceae family showed relatively stronger accumulation of PAHs, indicating their potential for phytoremediation. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Environmental Monitoring and Analysis of Persistent Organic Pollutants)
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18 pages, 4041 KiB  
Article
Emerging Contaminant Imidacloprid in Mediterranean Soils: The Risk of Accumulation Is Greater than the Risk of Leaching
by Mirna Petković Didović, Tomasz Kowalkowski and Dalibor Broznić
Toxics 2022, 10(7), 358; https://doi.org/10.3390/toxics10070358 - 30 Jun 2022
Cited by 13 | Viewed by 2204
Abstract
Imidacloprid (IMI) is an extensively used neonicotinoid insecticide whose occurrence in the environment is a worldwide problem. Its sorption/transport properties are recognized as one of the key knowledge gaps hindering policymaking regarding its international routine monitoring in soils. Therefore, we studied IMI transport [...] Read more.
Imidacloprid (IMI) is an extensively used neonicotinoid insecticide whose occurrence in the environment is a worldwide problem. Its sorption/transport properties are recognized as one of the key knowledge gaps hindering policymaking regarding its international routine monitoring in soils. Therefore, we studied IMI transport behaviour in Croatian Mediterranean soils using column experiments. Breakthrough curves were analysed using the two-site adsorption model and compared against dimethoate (DIM). Transport parameters were correlated to soil physicochemical properties. The results indicate that IMI shows a high degree of preference for soil organic matter over any other soil constituent. For IMI, the clay did not exhibit any sorption activity, while hematite did act as an active sorbent. Contrarily, hematite increased the leachability of DIM by blocking the active sorption sites on clay platelets. Both hematite and clay sorption acted as type-2 (i.e., rate-limiting) sites. In all soils, IMI exhibited lower short-term leachability than DIM. Combined with a body of data concerning other aspects of IMI environmental behaviour, the results indicate that the risk of accumulation of IMI in the soil is greater than the risk of contamination by leaching. Thus, continuous monitoring of IMI in soils should be incorporated into future soil health protection programs. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Environmental Monitoring and Analysis of Persistent Organic Pollutants)
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