State of knowledge on current exposure, fate and potential health effects of contaminants in polar bears from the circumpolar Arctic

Routti, Heli; Atwood, Todd C.; Bechshøft, Thea; Boltunov, Andrei N.; Ciesielski, Tomasz Maciej; Desforges, Jean‐Pierre; Dietz, Runé; Gabrielsen, Geir Wing; Jenssen, Bjørn Munro; Letcher, Robert J.; McKinney, Melissa A.; Morris, Adam; Rigét, Frank; Sonne, Christian; Styrishave, Bjarne; Tartu, Sabrina

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.02.030

Cited by 118 publications

(55 citation statements)

References 266 publications

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“…It is thus highly probable that PFOS and PFNA exposure in free ranging polar bears can activate PPARA and induce transcription of PPARA target genes. As the levels of PFOS and PFNA are very high in some polar bear subpopulations, such as in the Barents Sea subpopulation 9 , PPARA function is likely to be disrupted by these compounds. Converted to liver equivalents, PFOS concentrations range from 1.4 to 21.2 μM 47 , whereas the measured 95% confidence intervals for the other contaminant hotspot subpopulations in the Hudson Bay and East Greenland range from 1.3 to 2.8 μM and 1.03 and 3.22 μM, respectively (confidence intervals for East Greenland subpopulations are estimated from 2 x standard deviation) 69,70 .…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…To assess if our results were environmentally relevant, we compared our exposure concentrations to contaminant concentrations in polar bear liver 66,69,70 . Additionally, as PFASs are not routinely measured in liver of polar bears from Svalbard, we estimated liver concentrations for this population based on concentrations reported for plasma 47 as reported elsewhere 9 . We converted PFAS concentrations from plasma to whole blood to liver using PFAS mass fractions determined for human plasma 94 , (haematocrit for polar bears is similar to humans) 95 and PFAS concentration ratios of whole blood/liver in polar bears 96 .…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Numerous metabolites of OHCs, such as hydroxyl (OH) PCBs and MeSO 2 -PCBs/DDE, are also found in polar bear tissues, as the species is capable of efficient biotransformation of xenobiotic compounds 3,4 . Contaminant exposure in polar bears has been related to multiple health effects, such as endocrine and metabolic disruption, immune deficiency, and pathological disorders 5–9 . A recent correlative field study using biomarkers from transcriptome to metabolome indicates that contaminants also target polar bear lipid metabolism 7 .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Environmental contaminants modulate the transcriptional activity of polar bear (Ursus maritimus) and human peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor alpha (PPARA)

Routti

Berg

Lille-Langøy

et al. 2019

Sci Rep

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Peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor alfa (PPARA/NR1C1) is a ligand activated nuclear receptor that is a key regulator of lipid metabolism in tissues with high fatty acid catabolism such as the liver. Here, we cloned PPARA from polar bear liver tissue and studied in vitro transactivation of polar bear and human PPARA by environmental contaminants using a luciferase reporter assay. Six hinge and ligand-binding domain amino acids have been substituted in polar bear PPARA compared to human PPARA. Perfluorocarboxylic acids (PFCA) and perfluorosulfonic acids induced the transcriptional activity of both human and polar bear PPARA. The most abundant PFCA in polar bear tissue, perfluorononanoate, increased polar bear PPARA-mediated luciferase activity to a level comparable to that of the potent PPARA agonist WY-14643 (~8-fold, 25 μM). Several brominated flame retardants were weak agonists of human and polar bear PPARA. While single exposures to polychlorinated biphenyls did not, or only slightly, increase the transcriptional activity of PPARA, a technical mixture of PCBs (Aroclor 1254) strongly induced the transcriptional activity of human (~8-fold) and polar bear PPARA (~22-fold). Polar bear PPARA was both quantitatively and qualitatively more susceptible than human PPARA to transactivation by less lipophilic compounds.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Environmental contaminants modulate the transcriptional activity of polar bear (Ursus maritimus) and human peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor alpha (PPARA)

Routti

Berg

Lille-Langøy

et al. 2019

Sci Rep

Self Cite

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“…As apex predators, polar bears are among the most chemically contaminated species on the planet. 58 The three most predominant compounds in polar bears were PFOS, 7:3 FTCA and PFNA, which made up 45-51%, 23-28% and 9-13% of the Σ36PFAS, respectively. 7:3 FTCA has not been reported in polar bears before and it is therefore particularly surprising that this compound makes up such a large fraction of the total PFAS concentration.…”

Section: Overview Of Pfas Concentrations In Marine Mammalsmentioning

confidence: 98%

Fluorine Mass Balance and Suspect Screening in Marine Mammals from the Northern Hemisphere

Spaan¹,

Noordenburg²,

Plassmann³

et al. 2019

Preprint

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There is increasing evidence that the ~20 routinely monitored per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) account for only a fraction of extractable organofluorine (EOF) occurring in the environment. To assess whether PFAS exposure is being underestimated in marine mammals from the Northern Hemisphere, we performed a fluorine mass balance on liver tissues from 11 different species using a combination of targeted PFAS analysis, EOF and total fluorine determination, and suspect screening. Samples were obtained from the east coast United States (US), west and east coast of Greenland, Iceland, and Sweden from 2000-2017. Of the 36 target PFASs, perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) dominated in all but one Icelandic and three US samples, where the 7:3 fluorotelomer carboxylic acid (7:3 FTCA) was prevalent. This is the first report of 7:3 FTCA in polar bears (~1000 ng/g, ww) and cetaceans (<6-190 ng/g, ww). In 18 out of 25 samples, EOF was not significantly greater than fluorine concentrations derived from sum target PFASs. For the remaining 7 samples (mostly from the US east coast), 30-75% of the EOF was unidentified. Suspect screening revealed an additional 33 PFASs (not included in the targeted analysis) bringing the total to 59 detected PFASs from 12 different classes. Overall, these results highlight the importance of a multi-platform approach for accurately characterizing PFAS exposure in marine mammals.

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“…The additives based on halogenated compounds have been the most used ones as flame retardants for thermoplastics until the entry of new environmental regulations that restrict their use. This is due to these flame retardants being found at increasing levels in household dust, human blood and breast milk, and wild animals [15][16][17]. All these circumstances have led to the development of regulations in Europe such as REACH, WEE or ROHS that limit and even prevent the use of many of these substances [12].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Study and fire test of banana fibre reinforced composites with flame retardance properties

et al. 2020

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AbstractThe interest in natural fibre reinforced composites is growing in industrial applications due to natural fibres being an attractive alternative to synthetic fibres. However, it is necessary to improve the fire behaviour of the material because natural fibres have a high combustibility. The objective of this work is to evaluate the fire resistance of polymer composites reinforced with natural fibre fabric, using magnesium hydroxide as flame retardant for the polymeric matrix and alkali treatment for the fibre. The types of fabric are banana, banana with cotton and linen; and long banana fibre has been used for the formation of a nonwoven. The fire test is carried out based on ISO 9773 standard and the effect of the additive has been studied, chemical treatment, type of fabric and number of layers. Through statistical analysis, it is concluded that the flame propagation speed has a decreasing relation with respect to the percentage, but it decreases the mechanical properties considerably. In addition, the number of layers and type of fabric influence the fire properties. Finally, it is concluded that composites reinforced with linen fabric have the best mechanical properties, but banana nonwoven with 60% additive has the best fire behaviour.

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State of knowledge on current exposure, fate and potential health effects of contaminants in polar bears from the circumpolar Arctic

Cited by 118 publications

References 266 publications

Environmental contaminants modulate the transcriptional activity of polar bear (Ursus maritimus) and human peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor alpha (PPARA)

Environmental contaminants modulate the transcriptional activity of polar bear (Ursus maritimus) and human peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor alpha (PPARA)

Fluorine Mass Balance and Suspect Screening in Marine Mammals from the Northern Hemisphere

Study and fire test of banana fibre reinforced composites with flame retardance properties

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