Organochlorine contamination (PCBs, DDTs, HCB, HCHs) in sediments from Cienfuegos bay, Cuba

Historical trends of organochlorine pesticides in a sediment core from the Gulf of Batabanó, Cuba

“…RDDT in the Gulf of Batabano core were lower than those reported in coastal sediments from Cienfuegos Bay, Cuba (0.2-12.7 ng g À1 , (Tolosa et al, 2010). Furthermore, the observed concentrations are similar to those reported for remote and pristine environments, such as the Gulf of Alaska, Kara sea (Iwata et al, 1994); (Sericano et al, 2001), Norwegian Artic (Jiao et al, 2009) and deep Mediterranean sea (Tolosa et al, 1995).…”

“…Extraction and clean up of the OCPs was made following those described by Tolosa et al (2010). Approximately 8 g of sediment was spiked with internal standards (198 for the first fraction and e-HCH for the second fraction), and extracted with a hexane:methylene chloride mixture (50/50, v/v) in a microwave oven at 1200 W and 115°C for 20 min.…”

Steroid markers to assess sewage and other sources of organic contaminants in surface sediments of Cienfuegos Bay, Cuba

“…Approximately 8-g portion of each sediment was spiked with surrogate standards (n-C24D50, anthracene-d10, pyrene-d10, perylene-d12, PCB 29, PCB 198, e-HCH, friedeline, 5a-androstan-3b-ol), and extracted with a hexane: methylene chloride mixture (50/50, v/v) in a microwave at 1200w and 115°C for 20 min. Sulphur was removed with activated copper and four different fractions were obtained from silica/alumina columns, to analyze hydrocarbons (Tolosa et al, 2009), organochlorinated (Tolosa et al, 2010) and sterol compounds. Sterols eluted in the fourth fraction with 40 ml methylene chloride/metanol (70:30) and they were treated with bis-(trimethylsilyl)-trifluoroacetamide (BSTFA) (200 ll, 70°C, 1 h) prior to GC analyses (Tolosa and de Mora (2004).…”

“…In addition, a comparison of our results with those from other environments is included to evaluate the relative significance of the faecal contamination. Also, evaluation of the inter-correlations of the spatial distribution among organic contaminants (petroleum hydrocarbons and organochlorine compounds, Tolosa et al, 2009Tolosa et al, , 2010 and sewage sterols was investigated to infer further insights in the sources of these contaminants into the bay.…”

Baseline occurrence of organochlorine pesticides and other xenobiotics in the marine environment: Caribbean and Pacific collections

“…These include chlorinated benzenes, hexachlorocyclohexanes, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and organochlorine pesticides such as DDTs and metabolites, chlordane related compounds and other cyclodiene pesticides. Although many of the studied compounds have already been banned worldwide, they are still present in several environmental compartments around the world due to their resistance to degradation in the environment; long-range transportation, bioaccumulation in human and animal tissues and biomagnification through the food chains (Hoekstra et al, 2002;Maskaoui et al, 2005;Tolosa et al, 2010;Wurl and Obbard, 2004).…”