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More Information about Emerging Contaminants Research
Background
Urbanized estuaries are well-documented to have elevated contaminant levels in sediments, water and associated biota. The difficulty in making sound assessments of the distribution and bioeffects of these contaminants comes from a lack of detailed understanding of chemical and toxicological interactions in a very complex environment. Many contaminants entering the estuarine environment are not routinely included in existing monitoring programs because of the lack of robust analytical methods for their detection and quantification. This means that any risk to estuarine biota or human consumers associated with these unmeasured contaminants cannot be evaluated. The challenge for marine environmental analytical chemistry is to develop methodologies to identify and quantify these compounds, their degradation products, and biological metabolites as they enter estuarine waters and are deposited in sediments and⁄or accumulate in biota. In addition, the potential toxicity of many of the contaminants entering estuarine environments has not been evaluated in resident biota. The toxicological challenge will be to identify appropriate model estuarine organisms and develop sensitive endpoints for study.
Most previous research efforts examining the effects of anthropogenic contamination in urbanized estuaries has focused on persistent priority pollutants, such as trace metals, pesticides, PCBs and PAHs. Recently, concerns have been raised about the fate and effects of pharmaceuticals and other emerging contaminants of concern that are being released into coastal watersheds through upland runoff from both urban and agricultural lands, sewage discharges, industrial releases, and aquaculture. In some cases, these releases are pulsed, short-lived events, but they may also be nearly constant for non-persistent chemicals due to the nature of the various sources.
Initial work is underway on:
- Brominated flame retardants (PBDES);
- Commonly used biocides in antifouling paints (irgarol, diuron, Sea-nine 211, dichlofluanid, chlorothalonil and TC MTB);
- Simvastatin, the active ingredient in the commonly prescribed lipid reducing drug, Zocor®; and
- Evaluation of nuclear magnetic resonance-based metabonomics as a potential biomarker of contaminant exposure.