Publications by authors named "K Hungerbuehler"

Food is an important source of human exposure to hazardous chemicals. Chemical concentration in a food item depends on local environmental contamination, production conditions, and, for animal-derived foods, on feed. Here, we investigate these influences on the accumulation of individual polybrominated diphenyl ether congeners (PBDEs) in farmed Atlantic salmon ( Salmo salar).

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Conventional banana cultivation in Costa Rica relies on heavy pesticide use. While pesticide residues in exported bananas do not generally represent a safety concern for consumers abroad, ecosystem and human health in producing regions are not likewise protected. In Costa Rica, most studies on pesticide residues in the environment are snapshots, limiting our ability to identify temporal dynamics that can inform risk mitigation strategies.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

In sterile drug product manufacturing, scratched and broken glass containers (i.e., vials) cause product losses, glass particles, equipment contamination and additional cleaning efforts.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: The use of gold nanoparticles (Au-NP) based medical applications is rising due to their unique physical and chemical properties. Diagnostic devices based on Au-NP are already available in the market or are in clinical trials and Au-NP based therapeutics and theranostics (combined diagnostic and treatment modality) are in the research and development phase. Currently, no information on Au-NP consumption, material flows to and concentrations in the environment are available.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Significant knowledge gaps exist regarding the fate and transport of persistent organic pollutants like dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT) in tropical environments. In Brazil, indoor residual spraying with DDT to combat malaria and leishmaniasis began in the 1950s and was banned in 1998. Nonetheless, high concentrations of DDT and its metabolites were recently detected in human breast milk in the community of Lake Puruzinho in the Brazilian Amazon.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF