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PERSISTENT, BIOACCUMULATIVE, AND TOXIC POLLUTANTS (PBTS)
Citation:
Vallero, D A. PERSISTENT, BIOACCUMULATIVE, AND TOXIC POLLUTANTS (PBTS). Edition 1, Chapter 3, McGraw-Hill 2005 Yearbook of Science & Technology. McGraw-Hill Professional, New York, NY, , 252-257, (2005).
Impact/Purpose:
1) Develop methods of ecological exposure (e.g. rapid , sensitive analytical screening methods for a select list of antibiotics widely used in agriculture primarily in CAFOs (confined animal feeding operations).
2) Do Measurements & Provide data for multicompartment models of fate and transport.
3) Study biomagnification of specific chemicals and toxic metals.
4) Study specific pharmaceuticals:
*Determine the routes of entry and the impact of environmental factors such as rainfall on the movement and survivorability of selected antimicrobials in the environment.
*Determine if the entry of agriculture based antibiotics into the environment contributes to resistance in bacterial populations.
*Determine the contribution from municipal waste water treatment plants to antibiotic loading in the environment.
5) Develop methods for the analysis of alkylphenol ethoxylates and derivatives.
Description:
Article describes the class of compounds known as persistent, bioaccumulative, and toxic pollutants (known as PBTs), including the mechanisms responsible for ability to build up the food chain and for causing adverse health effects and ecosystem damage. Exposure to numerous PBTs have been associated with effects on the nervous system, endocrine dysfunction, reproductive and developmental problems, cancer, and genetic impacts. PBTs can travel long distances, moving among the "environmental compartments," i.e. biota, air, water, and land, and can persistent for decades, as evidenced by the polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) that are found in sediment, soil, water, and organic tissues several decades after these substances were banned. PBTs may be organic compounds like the PCBs or dioxins, as well as metallic compounds, such as those of mercury, chromium, lead, and cadmium.