L1-7544 — Final report
1.
Disk-based solid phase extraction for the determination of diclofenac and steroidal estrogens E1, E2 and EE2 listed in the WFD watch list by GC-MS

The aim of this study was to develop and validate an analytical method for determining estrone, 17ß-estradiol, 17?-ethynyl estradiol and diclofenac in whole surface water samples at or below the limits of quantification as set out in Decision 2015/495/EU. The method is based on solid-phase extraction of 10 L of whole surface water samples using Atlantic® HLB disks in a semi-automated system (SPE-DEX® 4790) and analysis by GC-MS. Extraction recoveries ranged between 75.9% and 120%, with limits of quantification at 0.290 ng L- 1 for estrone, 1.37 ng L- 1 for 17ß-estradiol, 0.724 ng L- 1for 17?-ethynyl estradiol and 0.119 ng L- 1 for diclofenac. Despite extracting 10 L of sample, obtained limits of quantification for 17ß-estradiol and 17?-ethynyl estradiol were above those set in the Decision 2015/495/EU, while limits of quantification for estrone and diclofenac were lower. The method was applied to six Slovene surface waters, among which four contained detectable concentrations of only diclofenac (0.313 ng L- 1–5.69 ng L- 1). To our knowledge, this is the first study reporting a large volume solid-phase extraction using disks for the determination of estrone, 17ß-estradiol, 17?-ethynyl estradiol and diclofenac in whole surface waters.

COBISS.SI-ID: 30322727
2.
Seasonal and spatial variations in the occurrence, mass loadings and removal of compounds of emerging concern in the Slovene aqueous environment and environmental risk assessment

This study reports the development of a method for determining 48 compounds of emerging concern (CEC) including three diclofenac transformation products (TP) in Slovenian surface (SW) and wastewater (WW). The validated method was applied to 43 SW and 52 WW samples collected at nine locations. Ten bisphenols in WW and 14 bisphenols in SW were traced in Europe for the first time. Among all of the 48 targeted CEC, 21 were )LOQ in the influents and 20 in the effluents. As expected, based on mass loads in the wastewater treatment plant influents, caffeine is consumed in high amounts (105,000?mg day-11000 inhab.-1) in Slovenia, while active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) are consumed in lower amounts compared to other European countries. Removal was lower in winter in the case of four bisphenols (17–78%), one preservative (36%) and four APIs (-14–91%). Overall, a constructed wetland showed the lowest (0–80%) and most inconsistent removal efficiencies (SD?)?40% for some CECs) compared to other treatment technologies. The method was also able to quantify Bisphenol S in SW ((36.2?ng?L-1). Environmental risk was assessed via risk quotients (RQs) based on WW and SW data. Two UV-filters (oxybenzone and dioxybenzone), estrone and triclosan, despite their low abundance posed a medium to high environmental risk with RQs between 0.282 (for HM-BP) and 15.5 (for E1).

COBISS.SI-ID: 31503911
3.
Use of hydrodynamic cavitation in (waste)water treatment

Acoustic cavitation is a known water treatment, whereas hydrodynamic cavitation (HC) has only recently been addressed. Firstly, a general overview of HC as water treatment is presented. In the second part we represent the outcomes of our work, where HC was assessed in terms of removal of selected pharmaceuticals, cyanobacteria, green microalgae, bacteria and viruses from water. We have shown that HC can manifest itself in various forms, each having its own distinctive mechanism. Since this was neglected in the past, it has led to poor performance of HC. We intend to show in our future work that a different type of HC (different removal mechanism) is required for successful removal of various pollutants. HC is not the method of choice for routine water cleaning at present. Regardless, our the recent results have shown its great potential as the optimization could lead to a low energy water treatment technique.

COBISS.SI-ID: 3649871
4.
Ecotoxicity and genotoxicity of cyclophospamide, ifosfamide, their metabolites/transformation products and their mixtures

The present study reports the ecotoxicity and genotoxicity of cyclophosphamide (CP), ifosfamide (IF), carboxy-cyclophosphamide (CPCOOH), keto-cyclophosphamide (ketoCP) and N-dechloroethyl-cyclophosphamide (NdCP). Only CPCOOH (EC50 = 17.1 mg L-1) was toxic towards cyanobacteria Synecococcus leopoliensis. The measured mixture toxicity was lower than the predicted one. The SOS/umuC assay revealed genotoxic activity of CP, CPCOOH and the mixture in the presence of metabolic activation. CPCOOH was genotoxic also in the absence of metabolic activation. This finding is important as CPCOOH can directly affect DNA of non-target organisms in the environment. The UV irradiation of samples containing CP and IF showed efficient degradation of both compounds and samples remained non-toxic towards S. leopoliensis. This is the first study describing the ecotoxicity and genotoxicity of the investigated cytostatics and their mixture. The results indicate the importance of toxicological evaluation and future monitoring of also other metabolites/TPs as they may be more hazardous than parent compounds.

COBISS.SI-ID: 3706959
5.
The occurrence and source identification of bisphenol compounds in wastewaters

This study reports the occurrence of eight bisphenols (BPs): bisphenol AF (BPAF), bisphenol AP (BPAP), bisphenol B (BPB), bisphenol C (BPC), bisphenol E (BPE), bisphenol F (BPF), bisphenol S (BPS) and bisphenol Z (BPZ) in wastewaters (WWs). Sample preparation involved pre-concentration with SPE cartridges (Oasis HLB), followed by derivatization using N-(tert-butyldimethylsilyl)-N-methyltrifluoroacetamide with 1% tertbutyldimethylchlorosilane. Chemical analysis was based on gas chromatography%mass spectrometry. A validated method with limits of detection (LODs) at ng L%1 range was applied toWWs collected at five Slovene wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) andWWinflows from industrial, commercial and residential sources entering the sewerage systems of two catchments (Domžale-Kamnik (DK) and Ljubljana (LJ)). The presence of all BPs was confirmed in three inflows in DK and two inflows in the LJ catchments. High cumulative concentrations of all BPs were determined inWWfrom food processing facilities (LJ: 3030 ng L%1 and DK: 599 ng L%1). A high detection frequencywas observed in theWWfromtwo textile cleaning companies (6 BPs for LJ and 8 BPs for DK). The analysis ofWWfrom WWTPs revealed that only BPF (36.7 ng L%1) and BPS (40.6 ng L%1) were NLODs in the influents, whereas other BPs were detected also in the effluents. BPZ was found in the highest concentration (403 ng L%1 at WWTP-DK). WW collected at this WWTP also contained the highest amount of BPE (238 ng L%1). Although BPs...

COBISS.SI-ID: 30884135