Limitations of reverse polyethylene samplers (RePES) for evaluating toxicity of field contaminated sediments.
Passive samplers are used to measure dissolved nonionic organic contaminants (NOCs) in environmental media. More recently, reverse polyethylene samplers (RePES) have been used with spiked sediments to recreate interstitial water exposure concentrations and observed toxicity. In the present study, RePES were used with field contaminated sediments. The RePES was not capable of recreating the pattern of toxicity with the amphipod and mysid observed with intact field sediments. Decreased survival in the RePES exposures as compared to the whole sediment exposures was most likely caused by an overexposure to NOCs due to a lack of surrogate black carbon in the RePES system. As an alternative, aqueous phase studies were performed in which polyethylene was allowed to equilibrate with slurries of intact sediments for 3 weeks. Three weeks was found to be an insufficient amount of time for the polyethylene to equilibrate with the sediment. An additional study demonstrated 3 months was sufficient for lower contaminant concentrations, but might not be an adequate amount of time for more highly contaminated sediments. The aqueous phase transfer approach may be useful if equilibration is sufficiently long, although this length of time may be impractical for use in certain applications, such as toxicity identification evaluations (TIEs).
Harvard School of Public Health, Department of Environmental Health, 677 Huntington Ave. Boston, MA 02115, USA. mperron@post.harvard.edu
Monique M
MM
Perron
Robert M
RM
Burgess
Kay T
KT
Ho
Marguerite C
MC
Pelletier
Carey L
CL
Friedman
Mark G
MG
Cantwell
James P
JP
Shine
D033304:Amphipoda / Q000187:drug effects; D000818:Animals; D004784:Environmental Monitoring / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods; D019015:Geologic Sediments / Q000737:chemistry*; D009930:Organic Chemicals / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000633:toxicity; D020959:Polyethylene / Q000737:chemistry*; D053260:Soot / Q000737:chemistry; D018675:Toxicity Tests / Q000379:methods; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000633:toxicity
D009930:Organic Chemicals; D053260:Soot; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical; D020959:Polyethylene