Copper and zinc water quality standards under the EU Water Framework Directive: the use of a tiered approach to estimate the levels of failure.

Environmental quality standards are an important tool for assessing the chemical quality of water bodies under the Water Framework Directive. However, there must be confidence in assessments of any failure to avoid disproportionate investment in unnecessary risk reduction. Metals present a number of unique challenges for environmental regulators in that they are naturally occurring and their ecotoxicology is driven, in part, by the physico-chemical conditions of the water body in which they are present. This paper describes the use of a tiered approach that could be adopted to assess compliance with any future environmental quality standards for metals under the Water Framework Directive. Through this approach, the use of background concentrations is considered and also bioavailability via the use of biotic ligand models. This assessment is based on an analysis of routine Environment Agency chemical monitoring data combined with biological indices to support results of the approach. Using copper and zinc as examples, it is shown that it is important to take account of background concentrations and the bioavailability of metals, otherwise the risk of impact from metals may be significantly overestimated. The approach presented here provides a methodology by which regulators and the regulated community may implement surface water standards for metals under the Water Framework Directive.

Cytogenetic studies of PCB77 on brown trout (Salmo trutta fario) using the micronucleus test and the alkaline comet assay.

Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) are stable pollutants, which can be found in almost every compartment of terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. They are very lipophilic and therefore have the potency of accumulating in the fat stores of animals. The mechanisms by which PCBs exert their adverse effects are still unclear. It is known that PCBs induce some important biotransformation enzymes, but their mutagenic properties are still controversial. The DNA breakage and clastogenic potency of a planar PCB77 (3,3',4,4'-tetrachlorobiphenyl) was determined in vivo in fish, using the single cell gel electrophoresis or comet assay and the micronucleus test, on erythrocytes of the brown trout exposed for 3, 9 and 14 days to initial PCB concentrations of 780 and 918 pg/ml, dissolved in the water. Blood was taken by a caudal puncture and the erythrocytes were either deposited in an agarose gel (0.6%) for the comet assay or smeared directly on slides for the micronucleus test. Five fish were studied per treatment and 50 and 2000 erythrocytes per concentration and per animal were analysed for the comet assay and the micronucleus test respectively. Ethyl methanesulphonate (EMS) at a concentration of 25 mg/l water was used as a positive control. Although EMS induced a statistically significant increase of single strand breaks in the comet assay, in neither of the two tests used, were mutagenic effects due to PCB exposure observed.

PCBs do not induce DNA breakage in vitro in human lymphocytes.

Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) are classified by IARC as non-mutagenic in vivo. However, despite almost 20 years of research, their mutagenicity in vitro is still debatable. In this work the in vitro cytochalasin B micronucleus test and the alkaline comet assay applied to human lymphocytes were used to study the genotoxicity of a PCB. PCB77, at concentrations ranging from 0.01 to 100 microg/ml, was used in whole blood or isolated lymphocyte cultures, with final dimethylsulfoxide percentages of 0.5-2%. In the micro-nucleus test lymphocytes were exposed for 48 h, and in the alkaline comet assay for 30 min, 1 h and 3 h. No increases of single strand breaks or micronucleus frequencies was found, in contrast to previously reported data. Our data indicate that PCB77 has no clastogenic properties in human lymphocytes.

Organochlorines in different fractions of sediments and in different planktonic compartments of the Belgian continental shelf and the Scheldt estuary.

PCB levels in sediments (bulk and fraction <63 microm), suspended matter and zooplankton from the Belgian continental shelf of the North Sea and the Scheldt estuary were evaluated in relation to their organic carbon content, their lipid content and, for sediments, their particle size distribution. PCB accumulation mechanisms are discussed, considering the importance of direct contamination (adsorption onto the cell surfaces, absorption through the cell walls and partitioning into the cell lipids) for suspended matter and sediments, and of indirect contamination through the food for zooplankton. Geographical and seasonal variations are described.