Search results for " Contaminants"
showing 10 items of 43 documents
An environmental forensic procedure to analyse anthropogenic pressures of urban origin on surface water of protected coastal agro-environmental wetla…
2013
Detection and spatial distribution of 14 drugs of abuse and 17 pharmaceuticals in surface waters was investigated to determine transport hydrological connectivity between urban, agriculture and natural environments. Solid-phase extraction and liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry was applied to all samples. To determine spatial incidence of contaminants, analytical results of target compounds were georeferenced and integrated into a geographical information systems structure together with layers of municipal population, location of sewage water treatment plants and irrigation channels and sectors. The methodology was applied to L'Albufera Natural Park in Valencia (Spain). A total o…
Bisphenol-A impairs insulin action and up-regulates inflammatory pathways in human subcutaneous adipocytes and 3T3-L1 cells.
2013
Current evidence indicates that chemical pollutants may interfere with the homeostatic control of nutrient metabolism, thereby contributing to the increased prevalence of metabolic disorders. Bisphenol-A (BPA) is a lipophilic compound contained in plastic which is considered a candidate for impairing energy and glucose metabolism. We have investigated the impact of low doses of BPA on adipocyte metabolic functions. Human adipocytes derived from subcutaneous adipose tissue and differentiated 3T3-L1 cells were incubated with BPA, in order to evaluate the effect on glucose utilization, insulin sensitivity and cytokine secretion. Treatment with 1 nM BPA significantly inhibited insulin-stimulate…
El control de plagas en ambientes urbanos: criterios básicos para un diseño racional de los programas de control
2007
Josefa Moreno Marí, María Teresa Oltra Moscardó, José Vicente Falcó Garí y Ricardo Jiménez Peydró (josefa.moreno@uv.es) El objetivo del control de plagas urbanas es la mejora del bienestar de los residentes urbanos, la reducción de las enfermedades transmisibles, el mantenimiento de ambientes sanos, la creación de infraestructuras urbanas que reduzcan los riesgos, así como la reducción de la exposición a contaminantes biológicos, físicos y químicos y de sus efectos sobre la salud en el ambiente laboral y en la comunidad. En este sentido, y en relación con el control de plagas, es necesario diseñar programas de control adecuados contra aquellas especies que adquieren la consideración de plag…
Detection of a synthetic sex steroid in the American crocodile (Crocodylus acutus): Evidence for a novel environmental androgen
2017
Endocrine-disrupting contaminants (EDC's) are well known to alter sexual differentiation among vertebrates via estrogenic effects during development, particularly in organisms characterized by temperature-dependent sex determination. However, substances producing androgenic effects typically lack potency when tested in laboratory settings and are virtually unstudied in field settings. Here, we assay levels of a synthetic androgen, 17a-methyltestosterone (MT), in a heavily male-biased population of American crocodiles in the Tempisque River Basin of Costa Rica based on the recent hypothesis that this chemical is an EDC in developing crocodilian embryos. The presence of MT was documented in a…
Individual variation of persistent organic pollutants in relation to stable isotope ratios, sex, reproductive phase and oxidative status in Scopoli's…
2017
Abstract: Little is known about the accumulation of persistent organic pollutants (POPs) and its consequences for seabirds in the Mediterranean basin. We characterised the plasma contaminant profile (polychlorinated biphenyls ΣPCBs; organochlorine pesticides ΣOCPs; polybrominated diphenyl ethers ΣPBDEs) of a population of the seabird Scopoli's shearwater (Calonectris diomedea) that breeds in the southern Mediterranean (Linosa Island) and investigated (i) whether sex, stable isotope ratios (related to diet), reproductive phase (early incubation vs. late breeding season) and body mass explained variation in contaminant burden and (ii) whether they predict health-related variables. The predomi…
Human Biomonitoring of food contaminants in Spanish children: Design, sampling and lessons learned
2017
Abstract Human Biomonitoring (HBM) studies are highly useful for evaluating population exposure to environmental contaminants and are being carried out in increasing numbers all over the world. The use of HBM in the field of food safety, in a risk assessment context, presents a growing interest as more health-based guidance values (HBGV) in biological matrices are derived, and can be used in a complementary way to the external exposure approaches such as total diet studies or surveillance programmes. The aims of the present work are: i) to describe the methodological framework of the BIOVAL study, a cross-sectional HBM program carried out by the Health Department of the Regional Government …
Influence of sol counter-ions on the visible light induced photocatalytic behaviour of TiO2 nanoparticles
2014
Titanium dioxide (TiO2) nanoparticles are attracting increasing interest because of their superior photocatalytic and antibacterial properties. Here, aqueous titanium oxy-hydroxide sols were made, using a green synthesis method, from the controlled hydrolysis/peptisation of titanium isopropoxide. Three different mineral acids were used to peptise the sol (HNO3, HBr and HCl), and provide counter-ions. The influence of nitrate or halide sol counter-ions on size distributions of the starting sols were measured via photon correlation spectroscopy (PCS). Semi-quantitative phase composition analysis (QPA), on the gels thermally treated at 450 and 600 degrees C, was carried out via Rietveld refine…
Perfluoroalkyl substances in the Ebro and Guadalquivir river basins (Spain).
2015
Mediterranean rivers are characteristically irregular with changes in flow and located in high population density areas. This affects the concentration of pollutants in the aquatic environments. In this study, the occurrence and sources of 21 perfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) were determined in water, sediment and biota of the Ebro and Guadalquivir river basins (Spain). In water samples, of 21 analytes screened, 11 were found in Ebro and 9 in Guadalquivir. In both basins, the most frequents were PFBA, PFPeA and PFOA. Maximum concentration was detected for PFBA, up to 251.3ngL-1 in Ebro and 742.9ngL-1 in Guadalquivir. Regarding the sediments, 8 PFASs were detected in the samples from Ebro an…
Impacts of weathered microplastics on bioavailability of pollutants in Paracentrotus lividus and Danio rerio: molecular and ecotoxicological approach…
2022
Plastic materials provide countless applications in every sector of human life, from food and health preservation to textiles and electronics industry (Cole et al., 2011;Thompson et al., 2009) which is resulting in huge amount of plastic waste. Recently, it was estimated that plastics account for the 80-90% of the whole marine litter (Derraik, 2002) and over 5 trillion microscopic plastic fragments are floating on the surface of the World Oceans (Eriksen et al., 2014). The predominant form of marine plastic litter is called “Microplastics (MPs)", terminology by Thompson et al. 2004, used to indicate small plastic fragments, fibers and granules of microscopic size (1 μm to 5 mm in diameter).…
Characterization of trace elements in thermal and mineral waters of Greece
2023
: Natural thermal and mineral waters are widely distributed along the Hellenic region and are related to the geodynamic regime of the country. The diverse lithological and tectonic settings they are found in reflect the great variability in their chemical and isotopic composition. The current study presents 276 (published and unpublished) trace element water data and discusses the sources and processes affecting the water by taking into consideration the framework of their geographic distribution. The dataset is divided in groups using temperature- and pH-related criteria. Results yield a wide range of concentrations, often related to the solubility properties of the individual elements and…