Publication

Passive sampling for monitoring organic contaminants in aquatic systems

Abstract

Passive sampling has been shown to be a good alternative to grab sampling. Because of the in-situ accumulation in samplers, limits of quantitation are low enough to measure organic pollutants in water. In addition, integrative passive samplers enable to sequester pollutants from episodic pollution and provide time weighted average (TWA) concentrations. Finally, they do not require a power supply in the field and are flexible enough to be deployed at sites that are difficult to access. This study will present the interest and efficiency of passive sampling to reveal industrial and agricultural pollution trends. Two practical applications for nonpolar and polar contaminants are presented. Low-density polyethylene (LDPE) and Silicon rubber (SR) samplers were deployed in rivers to monitor indicator PCBs (iPCBs, IUPAC nos. 28, 52, 101, 138, 153 and 180). The results showed that the impact of PCBs emissions into the river is higher in summer than other seasons due to the low flow rate of the river during the summer period. Polar organic chemical integrative samplers (POCIS) were deployed in another river to investigate herbicides coming from vineyards. The results showed an increase of water contamination due to the studied agricultural area. The maximal contamination was observed in April and corresponds to the period of herbicide application on the crops. The use of performance reference compounds (PRCs) to estimate aqueous concentrations is also presented and illustrated by examples.

About this result
This page is automatically generated and may contain information that is not correct, complete, up-to-date, or relevant to your search query. The same applies to every other page on this website. Please make sure to verify the information with EPFL's official sources.
Related concepts (33)
Environmental monitoring
Environmental monitoring describes the processes and activities that need to take place to characterize and monitor the quality of the environment. Environmental monitoring is used in the preparation of environmental impact assessments, as well as in many circumstances in which human activities carry a risk of harmful effects on the natural environment. All monitoring strategies and programs have reasons and justifications which are often designed to establish the current status of an environment or to establish trends in environmental parameters.
Water pollution
Water pollution (or aquatic pollution) is the contamination of water bodies, usually as a result of human activities, so that it negatively affects its uses. Water bodies include lakes, rivers, oceans, aquifers, reservoirs and groundwater. Water pollution results when contaminants mix with these water bodies. Contaminants can come from one of four main sources: sewage discharges, industrial activities, agricultural activities, and urban runoff including stormwater. Water pollution is either surface water pollution or groundwater pollution.
Low-density polyethylene
Low-density polyethylene (LDPE) is a thermoplastic made from the monomer ethylene. It was the first grade of polyethylene, produced in 1933 by Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI) using a high pressure process via free radical polymerization. Its manufacture employs the same method today. The EPA estimates 5.7% of LDPE (resin identification code 4) is recycled in the United States. Despite competition from more modern polymers, LDPE continues to be an important plastic grade.
Show more
Related publications (49)

Process-Induced Structures of Injection-Molded High-Density Polyethylene-Combining X-ray Scattering and Finite Element Modeling

Marianne Liebi, Manuel Guizar Sicairos

The success of plastics heavily relies on fast melt processing methods used for large-scale industrial manufacturing, including injection molding. The hierarchical structure of the solid polymer depends on material selection combined with processing condit ...
Amer Chemical Soc2024

The Bioaccumulation of Ionizable Organic Compounds in Fish Cell Lines

Fabian Gerhard Peter Balk

Bioaccumulation is defined as the enrichment of a compound in an organism relative to the surrounding water or its food, and is an important endpoint in chemical risk assessment. Under laboratory conditions, bioaccumulation is measured as bioconcentration ...
EPFL2023

Sunshine and a pinch of tropical soils: A natural, low-cost photo-Fenton variation for safer water, assisted by H2O2 or percabonate

César Pulgarin, Michaël Bensimon, Stefanos Giannakis, Thomas Guillaume, Jérémie Decker

Clean water is essential for human survival, but access to safe drinking water remains a challenge in resource -limited regions. Herein, we explored a low-cost but effective solution for water potabilization using natural iron sources from soils along with ...
ELSEVIER2023
Show more
Related MOOCs (5)
Water quality and the biogeochemical engine
Learn about how the quality of water is a direct result of complex bio-geo-chemical interactions, and about how to use these processes to mitigate water quality issues.
Analyse du cycle de vie environmental
MOOC introduction à la pensée du cycle de vie et aux concepts théoriques pour réaliser et critiquer une analyse du cycle de vie.
Sorption and transport in cementitious materials
Learn how to study and improve the durability of cementitious materials.
Show more

Graph Chatbot

Chat with Graph Search

Ask any question about EPFL courses, lectures, exercises, research, news, etc. or try the example questions below.

DISCLAIMER: The Graph Chatbot is not programmed to provide explicit or categorical answers to your questions. Rather, it transforms your questions into API requests that are distributed across the various IT services officially administered by EPFL. Its purpose is solely to collect and recommend relevant references to content that you can explore to help you answer your questions.