Change in the chemical content of untreated wastewater of Athens, Greece under COVID-19 pandemic

Alygizakis, Nikiforos; Galani, Aikaterini; Rousis, Nikolaos I.; Aalizadeh, Reza; Dimopoulos, Meletios-Athanasios; Thomaidis, Nikolaos S.

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.149230

Cited by 75 publications

(50 citation statements)

References 67 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“… 53 High levels of the disinfectant Benzododecinium (up to 118 ng/g (placenta) and 86 ng/mL (serum)) were detected in greater than 60% of the samples. This chemical is present in products such as Sterinol, widely used as disinfectant before and during the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic 46 and have been found to cross skin with intensive usage, reaching levels in plasma of up to 141.2 ng/L after an intensive five day usage. 54 Additional chemicals used in personal care products were also present in human matrices ( Table 1 ) including N,N-dimethyldodecylamine-N-oxide, bis(2-ethylhexyl)amine, N-(2-hydroxyethyl)-tetradecanamide, and lauryl diethanolamine.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

The Potential of Sewage Sludge to Predict and Evaluate the Human Chemical Exposome

Gil-Solsona

Nika

Villanueva

et al. 2021

Environ. Sci. Technol. Lett.

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Chemicals are part of our daily lives, and we are exposed to numerous chemicals through multiple pathways. Relevant scientific evidence contributing to the regulation of hazardous chemicals require a holistic approach to assess simultaneous exposure to multiple compounds. Biomonitoring provides an accurate estimation of exposure to chemicals through very complex and costly sampling campaigns. Finding efficient proxies to predict the risk of chemical exposure in humans is an urgent need to cover large areas and populations at a reasonable cost. We conducted an exploratory study to characterize the human chemical exposome in maternal blood and placenta samples of a population-based birth cohort in Barcelona (2018–2021). Ultimate HRMS-based approaches were applied including wide-scope target, suspect, and nontarget screening. Forty-two chemicals were identified including pesticides, personal care products, or industrial compounds, among others, in the range of ng/mL and ng/g. In parallel, sewage sludge from the wastewater treatment plants serving the residence areas of the studied population were also screened, showing correlations with the type and concentrations of chemicals found in humans. Our findings were suggestive for the potential use of sewage sludge as a proxy of the human exposure and its application in early warning systems to prevent bioaccumulation of hazardous chemicals.

show abstract

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…When the standard was not available, chemicals remained with a lower confidence level . Concentrations for the newly confirmed chemicals and the tentatively identified ones were estimated , (SI-7).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Potential of Sewage Sludge to Predict and Evaluate the Human Chemical Exposome

Gil-Solsona

Nika

Villanueva

et al. 2021

Environ. Sci. Technol. Lett.

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Droplet digital PCR (ddPCR) has recently emerged as an alternative that shows much lower detection limit and higher sensitivity, allows absolute quantification without requiring the use of a standard curve since it uses external calibration and is less affected by PCR inhibitors. However, it is more costly than quantitative PCR (Alygizakis et al ., 2021; Buonerba et al ., 2021; Hamouda et al ., 2021; Li et al ., 2021; Patel et al ., 2021). While it has only been used for clinical applications, the recently developed CRISPR‐based assays can be advantageous for WW‐based epidemiological studies due to its high sensitivity and rapidity (Broughton et al ., 2020).…”

Section: Figmentioning

confidence: 99%

Monitoring COVID‐19 through SARS‐CoV‐2 quantification in wastewater: progress, challenges and prospects

Alhama

Maestre

Martín

et al. 2021

Microbial Biotechnology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

SummaryWastewater‐Based Epidemiology (WBE) is widely used to monitor the progression of the current SARS‐CoV‐2 pandemic at local levels. In this review, we address the different approaches to the steps needed for this surveillance: sampling wastewaters (WWs), concentrating the virus from the samples and quantifying them by qPCR, focusing on the main limitations of the methodologies used. Factors that can influence SARS‐CoV‐2 monitoring in WWs include: (i) physical parameters as temperature that can hamper the detection in warm seasons and tropical regions, (ii) sampling methodologies and timetables, being composite samples and Moore swabs the less variable and more sensitive approaches, (iii) virus concentration methodologies that need to be feasible and practicable in simpler laboratories and (iv) detection methodologies that should tend to use faster and cost‐effective procedures. The efficiency of WW treatments and the use of WWs for SARS‐CoV‐2 variants detection are also addressed. Furthermore, we discuss the need for the development of common standardized protocols, although these must be versatile enough to comprise variations among target communities. WBE screening of risk populations will allow for the prediction of future outbreaks, thus alerting authorities to implement early action measurements.

show abstract

“…For compounds that the corresponding reference standards were not available in the lab (e.g., suspect list), a semi-quantification methodology was performed using other "similar" compounds. A 2D-based chemical similarity in-house model was applied to calculate the concentrations [28].…”

Section: Quantification and Quality Assurance-quality Control Measuresmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Therefore, samples spiked with various standards at two different concentration levels were injected at the end of any analytical sequence and procedural blanks were included during the analysis. Furthermore, all samples were spiked with internal standards [28]. This process facilitated the evaluation of the system performance (e.g., reproducibility of the method) and corrected the obtained data for any undesired variation due to contamination, carry over, stability issues and extraction efficiency.…”

Section: Quantification and Quality Assurance-quality Control Measuresmentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessment of Environmental Pollution and Human Exposure to Pesticides by Wastewater Analysis in a Seven-Year Study in Athens, Greece

Rousis

Denardou

Alygizakis

et al. 2021

Toxics

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Pesticides have been used in large amounts around the world for decades and are responsible for environmental pollution and various adverse effects on human health. Analysis of untreated wastewater can deliver useful information on pesticides’ use in a particular area and allow the assessment of human exposure to certain substances. A wide-scope screening method, based on liquid chromatography coupled to quadrupole-time-of-flight mass spectrometry, was applied, using both target and suspect screening methodologies. Daily composite influent wastewater samples were collected for seven or eight consecutive days in Athens between 2014 and 2020 and analyzed for 756 pesticides, their environmental transformation products and their human metabolites. Forty pesticides were quantified at mean concentrations up to 4.9 µg/L (tralkoxydim). The most abundant class was fungicides followed by herbicides, insect repellents, insecticides and plant growth regulators. In addition, pesticide transformation products and/or metabolites were detected with high frequency, indicating that research should be focused on them. Human exposure was evaluated using the wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) approach and 3-ethyl-carbamoyl benzoic acid and cis-1,2,3,6-tetrahydrophthalimide were proposed as potential WBE biomarkers. Wastewater analysis revealed the presence of unapproved pesticides and indicated that there is an urgent need to include more transformation products in target databases.

show abstract

Change in the chemical content of untreated wastewater of Athens, Greece under COVID-19 pandemic

Cited by 75 publications

References 67 publications

The Potential of Sewage Sludge to Predict and Evaluate the Human Chemical Exposome

The Potential of Sewage Sludge to Predict and Evaluate the Human Chemical Exposome

Monitoring COVID‐19 through SARS‐CoV‐2 quantification in wastewater: progress, challenges and prospects

Assessment of Environmental Pollution and Human Exposure to Pesticides by Wastewater Analysis in a Seven-Year Study in Athens, Greece

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About