Special Issue "Occurrence, Effects and Ecological Risk Assessment of Emerging Contaminants in Rivers"
A special issue of Toxics (ISSN 2305-6304). This special issue belongs to the section "Risk Assessment and Management".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 October 2021.
Special Issue Editors
Interests: endocrine disruptors; PAHs; pesticides; PCBs; pharmaceuticals; industrial pollutants; risk assessment
Interests: ecotoxicological and ecological effects; risk assessment; microplastics; nanomaterials; pharmaceuticals; mixtures; alterations from global changes
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
The quality and quantity of freshwater available worldwide is becoming scarcer due to climate changes, inappropriate agricultural practices, and/or to deficient/absent wastewater treatment of the impacted streams. Additionally, since human occupation of riverine and estuarine areas has increased exponentially, the evaluation of the risks caused by anthropogenic contaminants in both biota and humans has become an emergent issue, accordingly to several criteria, such as those established by the Water Frame Directive and the World Health Organization.
Keeping these aspects in mind, this Special Issue aims to provide updated insights about the impacts of emergent contaminants on the riverine ecosystems through monitoring and risk assessment strategies. Surely, studying the interaction of the pollutants amongst each other (mixtures), their presence in diverse matrices (water, sediments and biota) and considering different trophic levels, will provide further comprehension about these vital issues.
In this Special Issue, it is expected that authors advance with studies presenting a critical view or that illustrate the occurrence and implementation of risk assessment analysis, indicating their respective advantages and/or constraints, ideally offering a global (worldwide) panorama of river contamination and its impacts on health.
Prof. Dr. Maria João Rocha
Prof. Dr. Lúcia Guilhermino
Dr. Tânia Vieira Madureira
Guest Editor
Manuscript Submission Information
Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All papers will be peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.
Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Toxics is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.
Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.
Keywords
- endocrine disruptors
- human and ecosystem health
- industrial pollutants
- microplastics
- nanomaterials
- metals
- pesticides
- PAHs
- PCBs
- pharmaceuticals
Planned Papers
The below list represents only planned manuscripts. Some of these manuscripts have not been received by the Editorial Office yet. Papers submitted to MDPI journals are subject to peer-review.
Title: Heavy metals in the fish Tenualosa ilisha Hamilton, 1822 in the Padma-Meghna River confluence: potential risks to public health
Authors: Jahangir H. Sarker
Affiliation: Department of Fisheries and Marine Science, Noakhali Science and Technology University
Abstract: The hilsa shad (Tenualosa ilisha; Hamilton, 1822) is available mainly in Bangladesh, India, Myanmar, and other areas in the Indo-Pacific region owing to its anadromous migration. As fishery of this single species contributes 1% to the national GDP, several plans have been actioned to ensure its sustainability in Bangladesh. However, heavy metals (HMs) toxicity in the edible organs of hilsa and their plausible public health threats have received weak attention. To provide insights on this issue, we determined, using ICP-MS, the concentration of Cu, Zn, Pb, Cd, and Cr (VI) in the edible organs of five different sizes (S1–S5) of hilsa and the surface water collected from the Padma-Meghna River confluence, Chandpur (Bangladesh). Principal component analysis (PCA) indicated that hilsa was influenced by HMs and the concentration in surface water was below the safety limits. The order of average concentrations of the HMs (µg g-1) and different organs was as follows: Zn (102.71) > Cr (VI) (53.63) > Cu (14.97) > Cd (0.049) > Pb (0.0194) and gills > liver > muscles, respectively. Although Zn and Cr exceeded both national and international guidelines (e.g. CEPA, FAO, WHO), Cu met the national guidelines (MOFL). The hierarchy of bioaccumulation was as follows: Cr (1532.2) > Zn (1467.3) > Cu (258.0) > Cd (19.6) > Pb (9.7). The study revealed that HMs bioaccumulated in the gills and liver, and the highest bioaccumulation (9332.6) was measured in the smallest first (size S1). Target hazard quotient (THQ) and carcinogenic (CR) risk were calculated to assess the risks to human health. No health risk to adults was identified, except for the gills in the largest size (S5) of fish. Comparatively, the liver and gills carried higher non-carcinogenic and carcinogenic risks for children than the muscles. An almost linear and isometric (R² = 0.99, n = 125, b = 3.02) length-weight relationship was determined for all hilsa sizes studied, whereas negative allometric (b <3) growth was measured for the individual size groups. The relationship between HMs concentration and size was not significant (p >0.05), but the relationships between tissue type HMs concentration were significant (p <0.05). Therefore, our study suggests that the HMs concentration and accumulation does not depend on the size of hilsa; instead, it depends on the habitat, food and feeding habits, migratory routes, and other physical and chemical properties of the water.