Integrated assessment of the presence of emerging compounds and their toxicological effects in estuaries of Biscay

Abstract

The concern about the widespread presence of ECs in the marine environment and their possible toxic effects is gaining attention. In this PhD we get a close insight about the impact of ECs in estuarine waters and the contribution of wastewater treatment plant by focusing on the development of multiresidue methods for environmental aqueous samples and marine organism as well as passive sampling. After a year of monitoring, we were able to identify the main hot spots and the distribution of emerging compounds in the estuaries of Bilbao, Plentzia and Urdaibai using the procedures developed. Besides, by implementing in the effect directed analysis a bioassay designed for coastal waters as the way to drive the non-targeted analysis, we identify the anthelmintic mebendazole and amitriptyline as the main toxic emerging contaminants in Galindo WWTP effluent.