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Advanced Mass Spectrometry for Food Safety and Quality provides information on recent advancements made in mass spectrometry-based techniques and their applications in food safety and quality, also covering the major challenges associated with implementing these technologies for more effective identification of unknown compounds, food profiling, or candidate biomarker discovery. Recent advances in mass spectrometry technologies have uncovered tremendous opportunities for a range of food-related applications. However, the distinctive characteristics of food, such as the wide range of the d

The Natural Park of the Albufera (Valencia, Spain) is a Mediterranean wetland where rice cultivation dominates the agricultural activity. The purpose of this study was to offer broader information about the current state of the wetland assessing the contamination by pesticides in four aquatic habitats during the rice cultivation period in 2016. Liquid chromatography with tandem mass spectrometer (UHPLC-MS/MS) was used to determine the pesticides in water and sediment samples from the rice fields, Lake Albufera and irrigation and outlet channels. 21 pesticides were detected in our samples (seven already forbidden by European legislation). Higher values than 10000 ng L of accumulated pesticides had been observed in the water samples of the midterm of the cultivation period (July). The sediment samples presented values ten times lower than the water samples. The habitat showed significant differences in the concentrations of the water and sediment samples (Two-way Permanova, p 1). The data provided in this work should show concern about the impact of pesticides in Mediterranean systems subjugated to agricultural pressure. ; The research that led to these results received funding from theSpanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities and the European Regional Development Fund through the project WETANDPAC (RTI2018-097158-B-C31) and from the Generalitat Valenciana through the project ANTROPOCEN@ (PROMETEO/2018/155).

AbstractPharmaceuticals and pesticides can be considered hazardous compounds for Mediterranean coastal wetland ecosystems. Although many of these compounds co-occur in environmental samples, only a few studies have been dedicated to assessing the ecotoxicological risks of complex contaminant mixtures. We evaluated the occurrence of 133 pharmaceuticals and pesticides in 12 sites in a protected Mediterranean wetland, the Albufera Natural Park (ANP), based on conventional grab sampling and polar organic chemical integrative samplers (POCIS). We assessed acute and chronic ecological risks posed by these contaminant mixtures using the multi-substance Potentially Affected Fraction (msPAF) approach and investigated the capacity of a constructed wetland to reduce chemical exposure and risks. This study shows that pharmaceuticals and pesticides are widespread contaminants in the ANP, with samples containing up to 75 different compounds. POCIS samplers were found to be useful for the determination of less predictable exposure profiles of pesticides occurring at the end of the rice cultivation cycle, while POCIS and grab samples provide an accurate method to determine (semi-)continuous pharmaceutical exposure. Acute risks were identified in one sample, while chronic risks were determined in most of the collected samples, with 5–25% of aquatic species being potentially affected. The compounds that contributed to the chronic risks were azoxystrobin, ibuprofen, furosemide, caffeine, and some insecticides (diazinon, imidacloprid, and acetamiprid). The evaluated constructed wetland reduced contaminant loads by 45–73% and reduced the faction of species affected from 25 to 6%. Our study highlights the need of addressing contaminant mixture effects in Mediterranean wetlands and supports the use of constructed wetlands to reduce contaminant loads and risks in areas with high anthropogenic pressure.

Measurements of chemical persistence in natural environments can provide insight into behavior not easily replicated in laboratory studies. However, it is difficult to find environmental situations suitable for such measurements, particularly for substances with half-lives exceeding several weeks. The objective of this study was to demonstrate that a strategic postflood monitoring campaign can be used to quantify transformation half-lives on the scale of months in a real aquatic system. Water samples were collected in the upper Brisbane River estuary on 36 occasions over 37 weeks and analyzed for 127 pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs), pesticides, and perfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs). High quality time trend data were obtained for 41 substances. For many of these, data on the input of a wastewater treatment plant to the upper estuary were also obtained. A mass balance model of the estuary stretch was formulated and parametrized using PFASs as persistent benchmarking chemicals. Transformation half-life estimates were obtained for 10 PPCPs and 7 pesticides ranging from 18 to 260 days. Furthermore, insight was obtained into dominant transformation processes as well as the magnitude of chemical inputs to the estuary and their sources. The approach developed shows that under certain conditions, estuaries can be used to quantify the persistence of organic contaminants with half-lives of the order of several months. ; R. Álvarez-Ruiz acknowledges the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities and the ERDF (European Regional Development Fund) for his FPI grant BES-2016−078612. This project was supported by an Australian Research Council (ARC) Linkage grant (LP180101128) and the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No 734522 (INTERWASTE project).

European legislation focusing on water quality is expected to broaden to encompass several pharmaceuticals as priority hazardous substances. This manuscript aims to challenge current regulatory approaches that do not recognize stereochemistry of chiral pharmaceuticals by testing the hypothesis that environmental transformation and effects of chiral pharmaceuticals are stereoselective. Our experiments revealed that, while degradation of chiral fluoxetine (FL) in river water occurs via non-enantioselective photochemical and mildly-enantioselective microbial processes favoring the (R)-enantiomer, a pronounced enantioselectivity favoring (S)-FL (leading to the formation of (S)-NFL (norfluoxetine)) is observed during activated sludge treatment. Toxicity tests proved strong enantiomer-specific toxicity in the case of Tetrahymena thermophila, protozoa that are utilized during activated sludge treatment ((R)-FL is 30× more toxic than (S)-FL; (S)-NFL is 10× more toxic than (S)-FL). This is of paramount importance as preferential degradation of (S)-FL in activated sludge microcosms leads to the enrichment of FL with 30× more toxic (R)-FL and formation of 10× more toxic (S)-NFL. It is commonly assumed that a decreased concentration of FL leads to decreased biological impact. Our study proves that despite the overall decrease in FL concentration, accumulation of toxic (R)-FL and formation of toxic (S)-NFL leads to much higher than presumed toxicological effects. ; The support of the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness and the ERDF (European Regional Development Fund) (Project No. CGL2015-64454-C2-1-R) (http://www.eco2tools.es)) and Natural Environment Research Council (NE/L009579/1) is greatly appreciated ; Peer reviewed