Screening organic micropollutants in surface waters by SPE extraction and ecotoxicological testing.
Complex mixtures of toxic substances occurring in surface waters are difficult to characterise by chemical analyses because each compound occurs at a very low concentration and requires a specific analytical method to be identified. Ecotoxicological tests on water extracts can be used as a screening tool to evaluate quickly and simply the overall quality of a water body with regard to micropollutant contamination. In this work, a pre-concentration procedure based on solid-phase extraction (SPE), suitable for both biological testing and analytical determination, is proposed. The extraction procedure is an improved version of a methodology used to evaluate the toxicity of organic micropollutants occurring in surface waters. It offers the advantage of using disposable commercial cartridges, which are easier to manage than the columns prepared with macromolecular resins. Water extracts from two representative Italian rivers, characterised by a different gradient of potential contamination and prepared according to the new concentration techniques, are used. The acute toxicity of the water extracts is tested on Daphnia magna and the bioluminescence inhibition in Vibrio fischeri. Criteria based on the concentration factor (CF) are proposed for assessing the hazard to aquatic life due to the exposure to toxic substances in surface waters. The aim of hazard ranking is to focus analytical efforts towards those samples that show the highest toxic potential.
Galassi
Silvana
S
Department of Chemical, Physical and Mathematical Sciences, University of Insubria, Via Valleggio 11, 22100 Como, Italy. silvana.galassi@unimi.it
Guzzella
Licia
L
Croce
Valeria
V
D000818:Animals; D003621:Daphnia / Q000187:drug effects; D004784:Environmental Monitoring / Q000379:methods*; D015386:Hazardous Substances / Q000633:toxicity*; D007558:Italy; D008163:Luminescent Measurements; D045483:Rivers; D023382:Toxicity Tests, Acute / Q000379:methods*; D014733:Vibrio / Q000187:drug effects; D014873:Water Pollutants / Q000032:analysis*; D014876:Water Pollution / Q000517:prevention & control*
D015386:Hazardous Substances; D014873:Water Pollutants