EN CORE® Sampler Performance: Storing Soil for VOC Analysis

The En Core® sampler is designed to collect and store soil samples in a manner that minimizes loss of contaminants due to volatilization and/or biodegradation. Use of this device is described in American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) Practice D 6418, Standard Practice for Using the Disposable En Core Sampler for Sampling and Storing Soil for Volatile Organic Analysis. Two studies were performed to evaluate the performance of the En Core sampler to store VOC-contaminated soil for analysis. One study involved spiking soil samples with low concentrations of VOCs (less than 200?µg/kg) and storing them under various conditions prior to analysis. Results from this study show that the En Core sampler gives 80% or greater recoveries of low concentrations of VOCs from soil samples stored under a number of conditions. The second study was performed to generate data on the performance of the 25-g En Core sampler to store soil samples spiked with EPA Method 1311, Toxicity Characteristic Leaching Procedure (TCLP), volatile organic analytes. Results show that the En Core device gives 80% or greater recoveries of most of the Method 1311 volatile organic analytes from soil stored under various conditions for 14 days.     

Aboveground plant production and nutrient content of the vegetation in six peatlands in Alberta,Canada

We examined the effects of water level, surface water chemistry, and climatic parameters on aboveground primary plant production, and the tissue nutrient concentrations in the dominant herb species in a bog, three fens, and two marshes. In the fens, total NPP correlated best with NO ₃ ^- and total phosphorus surface water concentrations in 1993 and 1994. Total NPP in the marshes correlated best with alkalinity in 1993, and with soluble reactive phosphorus in 1994. Climatic parameters, such as mean annual growing season temperature, growing degree days, and precipitation, had the most notable effect on moss growth, whereas shrub and herb production correlated significantly with the water level relative to the moss surface. Herb production correlated positively and shrub production correlated negatively with the water level relative to the moss surface. Tissue nutrient concentrations of carbon (C), nitrogen (N), and total phosphorus (TP), and the C:N quotient in Carex lasiocarpa exhibited similar trends in the fens and the marshes. Carbon tissue concentrations in C. lasiocarpa remained unchanged, whereas N and TP tissue levels decreased throughout the growing season. In the site with the highest NPP and presumably the highest stand density, C. lasiocarpa exhibited the highest tissue N and TP levels. Furthermore, TP tissue concentrations in C. lasiocarpa were substantially higher in the marshes than in the fens. Tissue nutrient concentrations in Eriophorum vaginatum in the bog showed variable response patterns. N tissue levels increased, whereas tissue TP concentrations decreased from late June to late August. In the bog, E. vaginatum exhibited similar tissue TP levels to C. lasiocarpa in the fens; however, they were both substantially lower than those found in C. lasiocarpa from the marshes.     

Local environmental risk assessment of anticancer drugs in a developing country

Abstract

Anticancer drugs used in cancer treatment are excreted unchanged or as metabolites by feces and urine in hospitals and households. These drugs enter the municipal sewage system but wastewater treatment plants are not capable of removing all of these micro pollutants. In many countries such as Brazil, sanitation departments do not provide service, nor have access to all of the population, therefore most sewage is still released into untreated receiving bodies. This study analyzes the consumption of anticancer drugs in a Brazilian hospital located in one of the 10 municipalities with the best sanitation index in the country. It estimates its environmental risk in aquatic matrixes by the European Guideline on the Environmental Risk Assessment of Medicinal Products for Human Use. Among the 20 drugs analyzed, the three most consumed (cyclophosphamide, 5-fluoruracil, and cytarabine) show a predicted environmental concentration value greater than the action limit of 0.01?µg/L recommended by the guideline. The risk assessment was performed on all pharmaceuticals consumed to get a greater awareness of risk. Results do not indicate local environmental risk but, considering that the study was performed under the best sanitation scenario, it cannot be extrapolated in the other municipalities. The study highlights that development of suitable methodologies should be considered to perform environmental risk assessment of pharmaceuticals in developing countries sanitation conditions.