Bee bread collected by honey bees (Apis mellifera) as a terrestrial pesticide biomarker to complement water studies.

Background: Pesticides in aquatic environments are frequently studied, yet those in terrestrial environments remain relatively unexplored. This study monitored bee bread collected from two apiaries located in a typical agricultural environment in Switzerland from March to August 2022 as a proxy for terrestrial pesticide inputs. The temporal appearance of the selected pesticides was compared to their profiles in the water of a small catchment within this area.

Pesticides in soil, groundwater and food in Latin America as part of one health.

We here report of a conference about "Pesticides in Soil, Groundwater and Food in Latin America as part of One Health" that took place at the "IV Seminario Internacional de Sanidad Agropecuaria (SISA)" in Varadero, Cuba, 8-12 May 2023. Researchers of Latin America (Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Costa Rica, Colombia, Cuba, Mexico) and Switzerland (workshop initiator) held presentations about occurrence and effects of pesticides on the environment, human health, the replacement of highly hazardous pesticides (HHP) by agroecological alternatives and the agri-food value chain. In a subsequent round table discussion, the presenters identified deficits, needs, interests and opportunities.

Knowledge and practices of commercial banana farmers related to pesticide use in Chitwan district, Nepal; a cross-sectional study and meta-analyses.

The exposure of farmers to pesticides due to inadequate safety measures is a concern in low-income countries in Africa and Asia. However, until now, there have been limited studies on the farmers' risk due to pesticide application to fruit crops. The knowledge of farmers' exposure related to pesticide use and their safety practices was studied among 100 banana farmers in three areas (Padampur, Jagatpur, and Thimura) of Chitwan district, Nepal.

High-Resolution Historical Record of Plant Protection Product Deposition Documented by Target and Nontarget Trend Analysis in a Swiss Lake under Anthropogenic Pressure.

A multiproxy workflow was used to assess >60 plant protection products (PPPs) in sediment samples from a Swiss lake under heavy agricultural pressure. The results show the appearance of PPPs for the first time in the early 1960s with an overall detection of 34 PPPs and with herbicides and fungicides found in equal proportions. Paleolimnological data [e.

Target and suspect screening analysis reveals persistent emerging organic contaminants in soils and sediments.

An approach to identifying persistent organic contaminants in the environment was developed and executed for Switzerland as an example of an industrialized country. First, samples were screened with an in-house list using liquid chromatography high-resolution mass spectrometry (LC-HRMS/MS) and gas chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (GC-MS/MS) in 13 samples from the Swiss National Soil Monitoring Network and three sediment cores of an urban and agricultural contaminated lake. To capture a broader range of organic contaminants, the analysis was extended with a suspect screening analysis by LC-HRMS/MS of >500 halogenated compounds obtained from a Swiss database that includes industrial and household chemicals identified, by means of fugacity modeling, as persistent substances in the selected matrices.

Retrospective screening of high-resolution mass spectrometry archived digital samples can improve environmental risk assessment of emerging contaminants: A case study on antifungal azoles.

Environmental risk assessment associated with aquatic and terrestrial contamination is mostly based on predicted or measured environmental concentrations of a limited list of chemicals in a restricted number of environmental compartments. High resolution mass spectrometry (HRMS) can provide a more comprehensive picture of exposure to harmful chemicals, particularly through the retrospective analysis of digitally stored HRMS data. Using this methodology, our study characterized the contamination of various environmental compartments including 154 surface water, 46 urban effluent, 67 sediment, 15 soil, 34 groundwater, 24 biofilm, 41 gammarid and 49 fish samples at 95 sites widely distributed over the Swiss Plateau.

Tracing Urban Wastewater Contaminants into the Atlantic Ocean by Nontarget Screening.

Oceans are the ultimate sink for many of the over 100 million man-made substances. Until now, monitoring was limited to a reduced number of targeted persistent organic pollutants, reaching open waters mainly via atmospheric deposition. However, the composition and fate of the thousands of pollutants reaching the marine environment though wastewater discharges from coastal sources remain largely unexplored.

Suspect Screening of Hydrocarbon Surfactants in AFFFs and AFFF-Contaminated Groundwater by High-Resolution Mass Spectrometry.

Aqueous film-forming foams (AFFFs) are proprietary mixtures containing hydrocarbon surfactants and per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) that are used to extinguish hydrocarbon-based fuel fires. There is limited information on hydrocarbon surfactants in AFFFs and AFFF-contaminated groundwater even though hydrocarbon surfactants are more abundant (5-10% w/w) than PFASs (0.9-1.

Unravelling Contaminants in the Anthropocene Using Statistical Analysis of Liquid Chromatography-High-Resolution Mass Spectrometry Nontarget Screening Data Recorded in Lake Sediments.

The significant increase in traces of human activity in the environment worldwide provides evidence of the beginning of a new geological era, informally named the Anthropocene. The rate and variability of these human modifications at the local and global scale remain largely unknown, but new analytical methods such as high-resolution mass spectrometry (HRMS) can help to characterize chemical contamination. We therefore applied HRMS to investigate the contamination history of two lakes in Central Europe over the preceding 100 years.

Long-Term Persistence of Pesticides and TPs in Archived Agricultural Soil Samples and Comparison with Pesticide Application.

For polar and more degradable pesticides, not many data on long-term persistence in soil under field conditions and real application practices exist. To assess the persistence of pesticides in soil, a multiple-compound screening method (log K 1.7-5.

International Conference on Contaminated Sediments - ContaSed 2015 8-13 March 2015, Monte Verità, Ascona, Switzerland.

About 80 participants from 22 countries from industry and academia gathered at the International Conference on Contaminated Sediments (ContaSed 2015) held at the Congressi Stefano Franscini (CSF), the conference center of ETH Zurich, located at Monte Verità, Ascona, Switzerland. ContaSed 2015 provided a platform for top experts as well as for junior researchers from different scientific disciplines to present recent results and novel approaches on the analysis, assessment and remediation of contaminated sediments. ContaSed 2015 served as a unique communication and discussion opportunity for environmental scientists with an emphasis on chemistry, sedimentology, ecotoxicology or remediation engineering.

International Conference on Contaminated Sediments - ContaSed 2015 8-13 March 2015, Monte Verità, Ascona, Switzerland.

About 80 participants from 22 countries from industry and academia gathered at the International Conference on Contaminated Sediments (ContaSed 2015) held at the Congressi Stefano Franscini (CSF), the conference center of ETH Zurich, located at Monte Verità, Ascona, Switzerland. ContaSed 2015 provided a platform for top experts as well as for junior researchers from different scientific disciplines to present recent results and novel approaches on the analysis, assessment and remediation of contaminated sediments. ContaSed 2015 served as a unique communication and discussion opportunity for environmental scientists with an emphasis on chemistry, sedimentology, ecotoxicology or remediation engineering.

A mixture of environmental organic contaminants in lake sediments affects hatching from Daphnia resting eggs.

Despite the relevance of resting eggs for ecology and evolution of many aquatic organisms and their exposure to contaminants accumulating in sediments, ecotoxicological studies using resting eggs are vastly underrepresented. The authors established a method to perform exposure assays with resting eggs produced by the Daphnia longispina species complex, key species in large lake ecosystems. A mixture of organic contaminants previously detected in sediments of Lake Greifensee was selected to test the potential effect of organic contaminants present in sediments on the hatching process.

Suspect and nontarget screening approaches to identify organic contaminant records in lake sediments.

Sediment cores provide a valuable record of historical contamination, but so far, new analytical techniques such as high-resolution mass spectrometry (HRMS) have not yet been applied to extend target screening to the detection of unknown contaminants for this complex matrix. Here, a combination of target, suspect, and nontarget screening using liquid chromatography (LC)-HRMS/MS was performed on extracts from sediment cores obtained from Lake Greifensee and Lake Lugano located in the north and south of Switzerland, respectively. A suspect list was compiled from consumption data and refined using the expected method coverage and a combination of automated and manual filters on the resulting measured data.

Bioconcentration of organic contaminants in Daphnia resting eggs.

Organic contaminants detected in sediments from Lake Greifensee and other compounds falling in the log Dow range from 1 to 7 were selected to study the bioconcentration of organic contaminants in sediments in Daphnia resting eggs (ephippia). Our results show that octocrylene, tonalide, triclocarban, and other personal care products, along with pesticides and biocides can accumulate in ephippia with log BCF values up to 3. Data on the uptake and depuration kinetics show a better fit toward a two compartment organism model over a single compartment model due to the differences in ephippial egg content in the environment.

Screening of lake sediments for emerging contaminants by liquid chromatography atmospheric pressure photoionization and electrospray ionization coupled to high resolution mass spectrometry.

We developed a multiresidue method for the target and suspect screening of more than 180 pharmaceuticals, personal care products, pesticides, biocides, additives, corrosion inhibitors, musk fragrances, UV light stabilizers, and industrial chemicals in sediments. Sediment samples were freeze-dried, extracted by pressurized liquid extraction, and cleaned up by liquid-liquid partitioning. The quantification and identification of target compounds with a broad range of physicochemical properties (log K(ow) 0-12) was carried out by liquid chromatography followed by electrospray ionization (ESI) and atmospheric pressure photoionization (APPI) coupled to high resolution Orbitrap mass spectrometry (HRMS/MS).

Interpreting methamphetamine levels in a high-use community.

Introduction: Illicit drug use is a largely hidden phenomenon, and population measures are notoriously problematic. Reliable and valid data for local, regional, and national public health and other interventions are needed.

Methods: To address this information, we examined temporal trends within and across weeks in methamphetamine (MA) in a single location in order to inform a sampling plan for understanding long-term trends in MA use based on sampling raw influent to wastewater treatment plants.