Publications by authors named "Marco C Knobloch"

Article Synopsis
  • The study investigates human exposure to chlorinated paraffins (CPs) in sewage sludge from a Swiss wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) over several years, focusing on the regulation of short-chain CPs (SCCPs) since 2017 as persistent organic pollutants.
  • Using advanced liquid chromatography mass spectrometry, researchers detected thousands of ions related to CPs and chlorinated olefins (COs), identifying a range of homologues and their distributions in the sludge.
  • Results show a significant decrease in the levels of SCCPs (84%) and other chlorinated compounds from 1993 to 2020, indicating shifts in the presence of banned substances and suggesting that higher-chlorinated SCCPs have been replaced by
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Chlorinated paraffins (CPs) are complex mixtures consisting of various C homologues ( ≈ 10-30) and Cl homologues ( ≈ 2-20). Technical CP mixtures are produced on a large scale (>10 t/y) and are widely used such as plasticizers in plastic and coolants in metalwork. Since 2017, short-chain CPs (C-C) are classified as persistent organic pollutants (POPs) by the Stockholm Convention but longer-chain CPs are not regulated.

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Transformation studies of chlorinated paraffins (CPs) and the effects of CP transformation products on humans, biota and environment are rare. The focus here is on hydroxylation reactions. As for polyhalogenated persistent organic pollutants (POPs) in general, hydroxylation reactions convert lipophilic material to more polar compounds with increased mobility.

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Technical chlorinated paraffins (CPs) are produced via radical chlorination of n-alkane feedstocks with different carbon chain-lengths (∼C-C). Short-chain CPs (SCCPs, C-C) are classified as persistent organic pollutants (POPs) under the Stockholm Convention. This regulation has induced a shift to use longer-chain CPs as substitutes.

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Structure, reactivity and physico-chemical properties of polyhalogenated compounds determine their up-take, transport, bio-accumulation, transformation and toxicity and their environmental fate. In technical mixtures of chlorinated paraffins (CPs), these properties are distributed due to the presence of thousands of homologues. We hypothesized that roles of CP dehalogenation reactions, catalyzed by the haloalkane dehalogenase LinB, depend on structural properties of the substrates, e.

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Short-chain chlorinated paraffins (SCCPs) are listed as persistent organic pollutants (POPs) under the Stockholm Convention. Such substances are toxic, bioaccumulating, transported over long distances and degrade slowly in the environment. Certain bacterial strains of the Sphingomonadacea family are able to degrade POPs, such as hexachlorocyclohexanes (HCHs) and hexabromocyclododecanes (HBCDs).

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