Chemical Munitions Search &amp; Assessment—An evaluation of the dumped munitions problem in the Baltic Sea

Bełdowski, Jacek; Klusek, Z.; Szubska, Marta; Turja, Raisa; Bulczak, Anna; Rak, Daniel; Brenner, Matthias; Lang, Thomas; Kotwicki, Lech; Grzelak, Katarzyna; Jakacki, Jaromir; Fricke, Nicolai; Östin, Anders; Olsson, Ulf; Fabisiak, Jacek; Garnaga, Galina; Nyholm, Jenny Rattfelt; Majewski, Piotr; Broeg, Katja; Söderström, Martin; Vanninen, Paula; Popiel, Stanisław; Nawała, Jakub; Lehtonen, Kari K.; Berglind, Rune; Schmidt, Beata

doi:10.1016/j.dsr2.2015.01.017

Cited by 74 publications

(33 citation statements)

References 16 publications

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“…Occurrence of elevated Hg levels in sediments in individual regions of the Baltic Sea depends on the localization of the sampling station (Bełdowski et al 2014). It can be connected with the distance from the coastline or the mouth of the rivers but also with the content of fine grains and organic matters (Pempkowiak 1997).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A lot of factors, such as type of chemical, contact with sea water, mechanic erosion, and type of ammunition dumped have an impact on this. Due to the dynamic processes (i.e., currents, sediment oxidation, and mixing), containers corrosion rates depend on the thickness of the walls and environmental conditions (Bełdowski et al 2014; Korzeniewski 1998). It has been showed that ammunition which are buried in silty sediments are not rapidly degraded.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…After that, samples were put into the string bags and frozen.

Fig. 1Sampling location ( red color —marks of CWA; black color —no marks of CWA; the dotted line —dumping zones for chemical munitions) (Bełdowski et al 2014) …”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The official dumpsites are located in the east of Bornholm and southeast of Gotland. Research conducted in the framework of CHEMSEA project showed that munitions were dumped also in unofficial sites such as Gdansk Deep and Slupsk Furrow (Bełdowski et al 2014). Factors such as mechanical erosion, contact with sea water, biotic and abiotic processes, environmental conditions, etc.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…have a deep impact on corrosion of munitions and degradation of its constituents. Depending on type of ammunition, thickness of material it was made of, the ammunition starts to corrode (Korzeniewski 1994; Bełdowski et al 2014). The ammunition can be a new potential source of Hg in the Baltic Sea because of the usage of mercury in primers—as mercury fulminate (Della Torre et al 2010; Pichtel 2012).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The impact of military activities on the concentration of mercury in soils of military training grounds and marine sediments

Gębka

Bełdowski

Bełdowska

2016

Environ Sci Pollut Res

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Military activities have been conducted on land and at sea. Both during conflicts and in peace time, some regions served as a military training ground which included firing positions and bunkers. Mercury fulminate has been used in ammunition primers and detonators. Certain amount of ammunition was dumped into the Baltic Sea after the Second World War. Because of corroded containers, mercury can be released into the marine environment. The soil and sediment samples were taken from military training grounds, southern Baltic in 2014 and 2015. The concentration of mercury was determined by AMA-254 analyzer. Hg concentration was higher in the places of military activities, as compared to other areas. Ten times increased concentration of Hg was determined in soil sample collected in area of active gun range compared to the reference station. The significant higher concentration of mercury was detected in stations where chemical warfare agents were found.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…After that, samples were put into the string bags and frozen.

Fig. 1Sampling location ( red color —marks of CWA; black color —no marks of CWA; the dotted line —dumping zones for chemical munitions) (Bełdowski et al 2014) …”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The impact of military activities on the concentration of mercury in soils of military training grounds and marine sediments

Gębka

Bełdowski

Bełdowska

2016

Environ Sci Pollut Res

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Munitions in the Sea

Carniel

Bełdowski

2019

Energetic Materials and Munitions

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Development and comparison of HPLC and MEKC methods for the analysis of cyclic sulfur mustard degradation products

2017

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In this study, novel, fast, and simple methods based on RP-HPLC and MEKC with DAD are developed and validated for the qualitative and quantitative determination of five cyclic sulfur mustard (HD) degradation products (1,4-thioxane, 1,3-dithiolane, 1,4-dithiane, 1,2,5-trithiepane, and 1,4,5-oxadithiepane) in water samples. The HPLC method employs a C18 column and an isocratic water-ACN (55:45, v/v) mobile phase. This method enables separation of all five cyclic compounds within 8 min. With the CE method, the baseline separation of five compounds was achieved in less than 11 min by applying a simple BGE composed of a 10 mM borate buffer and 90 mM SDS (pH 9.15). Both methods showed good linear correlation (R > 0.9904). The detection limits were in the range of 0.08-0.1 μM for the HPLC method and 10-20 μM for MEKC. The precision tests resulted in RSDs for migration times and peak areas less than 0.9 and 5.5%, respectively, for the HPLC method, and less than 1.1 and 7.7% for the MEKC method, respectively. The developed methods were successfully applied to the analysis of five cyclic HD degradation products in water samples. With the HPLC method, the LODs were lowered using the SPE for sample purification and concentration.

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Chemical Munitions Search & Assessment—An evaluation of the dumped munitions problem in the Baltic Sea

Cited by 74 publications

References 16 publications

The impact of military activities on the concentration of mercury in soils of military training grounds and marine sediments

The impact of military activities on the concentration of mercury in soils of military training grounds and marine sediments

Munitions in the Sea

Development and comparison of HPLC and MEKC methods for the analysis of cyclic sulfur mustard degradation products

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