Organic compounds in valley fogwater in North and Mount Lebanon during COVID-19 period.

Caltech Active Strand Cloudwater collectors are used to collect valley fog samples from Mount and North-Lebanon during 2021 for the speciation of organic matter for the first time ever. Numerous compounds including pesticides, phenols, acids, and persistent organic pollutants such as polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), organochlorine pesticides (OCPs), and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) have been identified in fogwater samples. They are extracted using the liquid-liquid extraction performed on the XTR chromabond columns.

Pesticide occurrence and distribution in fogwater collected at four sites at Strasbourg metropolitan between 2015 and 2021.

The presence of pesticides in fogwater plays a major role in accumulating relatively substantial levels of trace compounds due to their unique physico-chemical characteristics. The radiation wintertime fog in Alsace has been studied in the past few years (between 2015 and 2021) at four sites (Geispolsheim, Erstein, Strasbourg, and Cronenbourg). Fog samples are extracted using the liquid-liquid extraction (LLE) performed on the XTR Chromabond cartridge coupled with gas/liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (GC-MS/MS and LC-MS/MS).

Biomonitoring of PAHs and PCBs in industrial, suburban, and rural areas using snails as sentinel organisms.

There is a worldwide concern about the presence of persistent organic pollutants (POPs) in the environment because of their toxicity, bioaccumulation, and resistance to degradation. Various conventional monitoring techniques have been used to assess their presence in diverse environmental compartments. Most currently available methods, however, have limitations with regards to long-term monitoring.