Chemical monitoring of Swedish coastal waters indicates common exceedances of environmental thresholds, both for individual substances as well as their mixtures
Journal article, 2017
Chemical pollution was monitored and assessed along the Swedish west coast. 62 of 172 analyzed organic chemicals were detected in the water phase of at least one of five monitored sites. A Concentration Addition based screening-level risk assessment indicates that all sites are put at risk from chemical contamination, with total risk quotients between 2 and 9. Only at one site did none of the individual chemicals exceeded its corresponding environmental threshold (PNEC, EQS). The monitoring data thus demonstrate a widespread blanket of diffuse pollution, with no clear trends among sites. Further issues critical for the environmental chemical risk assessment include the challenges to achieve sufficiently low levels of detection, especially for hormones and cypermethrin (a pyrethroid insecticide), the appropriate consideration of non-detects and the limited availability of reliable PNECs and EQS values.
Risk assessment
Pesticide
Joint Algal Toxicity
Marine Periphyton
Risk-Assessment
Chemical mixture
Multi-residue screening
Triclosan
Contamination
Pharmaceuticals
Mass-Spectrometry
Non-target screening
Mixtures
Surface Waters
Tridosan
Pollutants
Author
B. M. Gustaysson
University of Gothenburg
J. Magner
IVL Swedish Environmental Research Institute
B. C. Almroth
University of Gothenburg
Martin Eriksson
Mechanics and Maritime Sciences (M2)
Joachim Sturve
University of Gothenburg
Thomas Backhaus
University of Gothenburg
Marine Pollution Bulletin
0025-326X (ISSN) 1879-3363 (eISSN)
Vol. 122 1-2 409-419Subject Categories
Marine Engineering
Environmental Sciences
DOI
10.1016/j.marpolbul.2017.06.082