Legacy and Emerging Pollutants in an Urban River Stretch and Effects on the Bacterioplankton Community

River contamination is due to a chemical mixture of point and diffuse pollution, which can compromise water quality. Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs) and emerging compounds such as pharmaceuticals and antibiotics are frequently found in rivers flowing through big cities. This work evaluated the presence of fifteen priority PAHs, eight pharmaceuticals including the antibiotics ciprofloxacin (CIP) and sulfamethoxazole (SMX), together with their main antibiotic resistant genes (ARGs) and the structure of the natural bacterioplankton community, in an urbanized stretch of the river Danube. SMX and diclofenac were the most abundant chemicals found (up to 20 ng/L). ARGs were also found to be detected as ubiquitous contaminants. A principal component analysis of the overall microbiological and chemical data revealed which contaminants were correlated with the presence of certain bacterial groups. The highest concentrations of naphthalene were associated with Deltaproteobacteria and intI1 gene. Overall, the most contaminated site was inside the city and located immediately downstream of a wastewater treatment plant. However, both the sampling points before the river reached the city and in its southern suburban area were still affected by emerging and legacy contamination. The diffuse presence of antibiotics and ARGs causes particular concern because the river water is used for drinking purposes.

Effects of Sulfamethoxazole on Growth and Antibiotic Resistance of A Natural Microbial Community

Diffuse environmental antibiotic and antibiotic resistance gene contamination is increasing human and animal exposure to these emerging compounds with a consequent risk of reduction in antibiotic effectiveness. The present work investigated the effect of the antibiotic sulfamethoxazole (SMX) on growth and antibiotic resistance genes of a microbial community collected from an anaerobic digestion plant fed with cattle manure. Digestate samples were used as inoculum for concentration-dependent experiments using SMX at various concentrations. The antibiotic concentrations affecting the mixed microbial community in terms of growth and spread of resistant genes (sul1, sul2) were investigated through OD (Optical Density) measures and qPCR assays. Moreover, SMX biodegradation was assessed by LC-MS/MS analysis. The overall results showed that SMX concentrations in the range of those found in the environment did not affect the microbial community growth and did not select for antibiotic-resistant gene (ARG) maintenance or spread. Furthermore, the microorganisms tested were able to degrade SMX in only 24 h. This study confirms the complexity of antibiotic resistance spread in real matrices where different microorganisms coexist and suggests that antibiotic biodegradation needs to be included for fully understanding the resistance phenomena among bacteria.

Erythromycin Abatement from Water by Electro-Fenton and Peroxyelectrocoagulation Treatments

Electro-Fenton (EF) and peroxyelectrocoagulation (PEC) processes were investigated to mineralize 10 mg L−1 erythromycin from ultrapure water, evaluating the influence of the anode material (BDD and Fe), current density (janode) (5 mA cm−2 and 10 mA cm−2), oxygen flowrate injected to the cathode (0.8 L min−1 O2 and 2.0 L min−1 O2) and pH (2.8, 5.0 and 7.0) on the process efficiency and the electricity costs. 70% mineralization was reached after applying 0.32 A h L−1 under the best operational conditions: PEC treatment at 5 mA cm−2, 2.0 L min−1 O2 and pH 2.8. The electricity consumption of the electrochemical cell under these conditions was approximately 0.3 kWh m−3. Early-stage intermediates produced from erythromycin degradation were identified and quantified throughout the treatment and a potential erythromycin degradation pathway was proposed. The most appropriate operational conditions tested with synthetic solutions were applied to treat a real effluent from the tertiary treatment of an urban wastewater treatment plant. All emerging compounds listed in the EU Decision 2018/840 (Watch List 2018) were determined before and after the PEC treatment. All listed pollutants were degraded below their quantification limit, except estrone and 17-α-ethinylestradiol which were 99% removed from water. Electricity consumption of the electrochemical cell was 0.4 kWh m−3. Whilst awaiting future results that demonstrate the innocuity of the generated byproducts, the results of this investigation (high removal yields for emerging pollutants together with the low electricity consumption of the cell) indicate the promising high potential of PEC treatment as a water treatment/remediation/regeneration technology.

Occurrence, Distribution, and Ecological Risk Assessment of Emerging and Legacy Contaminants in the Kadicha River in Lebanon

The Kadicha river basin in Northern Lebanon is an illustrative example of multiple pressures encountered in the Mediterranean region: it is a small coastal river affected by rapid urbanization, population growth (drastically impacted by the influx of Syrian refugees), and a chronic default of wastewater treatment. In this context, multiple classes of contaminants may attain the river accumulating in sediment. However, very little information is available in the literature on the contamination status in such stressed Mediterranean contexts. This study proposed a first contamination evaluation of a small Mediterranean river submitted to multiple pressures. Two sediment sampling campaigns along sites impacted by increasing urban gradient within the Kadicha river basin were performed to determine the occurrence and the environmental risks of both emerging and legacy contaminants. The results revealed the detection of the 41 studied compounds. The highest concentrations were attained by PAHs and polycyclic musks (up to 311.79, 94.22, and 81.13 ng/g of dry weight for PAH, cashmeran, and galaxolide, respectively). The discontinuous urbanized upstream area and the estuary were the most contaminated areas of the river. An environmental risk assessment showed a hazard quotient (HQ) higher than 1 for both legacy and emerging compounds (EHMC and 4-MBC), indicating a potential risk to benthic species. Monitoring campaigns and implementation of wastewater treatment plants should be encouraged as the anthropogenic pressure on small Mediterranean rivers will increase over the years.

Porous media as a canvas for hydro-bio-geo-chemical processes: Facing the challenges

<p>The more we study flow and transport processes in porous media, the larger the number of questions that arise. Heterogeneity, uncertainty, multidisciplinarity, and interdisciplinarity are key words that make our live as researchers miserable… and interesting. There are many ways of facing complexity; this is equivalent as deciding what colors and textures to consider when being placed in front of a fresh canvas, or what are the sounds to include and combine in a music production. You can try to get as much as you can from one discipline, using very sophisticated state-of-the-art models. On the other hand, you can choose to bring to any given problem a number of disciplines, maybe having to sacrifice deepness in exchange of the better good of yet still sophisticated multifaceted solutions. There are quite a number of examples of the latter approach. In this talk, I will present a few of those, eventually concentrating in managed aquifer recharge (MAR) practices. This technology involves water resources from a myriad of perspectives, covering from climate change to legislation, from social awareness to reactive transport, from toxicological issues to biofilm formation, from circular economy to emerging compounds, from research to pure technological developments, and more. All of these elements deserve our attention as researchers, and we cannot pretend to master all of them. Integration, development of large research groups, open science are words that will appear in this talk. So does mathematics, and physics, and geochemistry, and organic chemistry, and biology. In any given hydrogeological problem you might need to combine equations, statistics, experiments, field work, and modeling; expect all of them in this talk. As groundwater complexity keeps amazing and mesmerizing me, do not expect solutions being provided, just anticipate more and more challenging research questions being asked.</p>

Photoelectrocatalysis on TiO2 meshes: different applications in the integrated urban water management

Recently, among AOPs, photoelectrocatalysis (PEC) on TiO2 is gaining interest. In this study, five different real waters sampled in four different points of the integrated urban water management (IUWM) system were tested with PEC and UV alone, for comparison. This work aims to verify the effect of the PEC suggesting the optimal position in IUWM system where the PEC should be located to obtain the best performance. In groundwaters (GWs), PEC effectively removed atrazine-based compounds (> 99%), trichloroethylene, and perchloroethylene (96%), after 15 min of reaction time. However, given the low concentrations of emerging compounds, the synergistic effect of UV radiation with the catalyst and with the polarization of the mesh was not visible, with very few differences compared with the results obtained with UV alone. Pharmaceutical industrial wastewater (IWW) showed a significant increase in biodegradability after 2 h, both if subjected to PEC or UV (200%), despite the absence of COD removal. The PEC applied on IWW from a sewage sludge treatment plant allowed to effectively remove the COD (39.6%) and increase the biodegradability (300%). Good results in terms of COD removal (33.9%) and biodegradability increase (+900%) were also achieved testing PEC on wastewater treatment plant effluent. Except for GWs, PEC allowed significant EEO savings respect to UV alone (76.2–99.1%).

ANN-Based Integrated Risk Ranking Approach: A Case Study of Contaminants of Emerging Concern of Fish and Seafood in Europe

Seafood, one of the most important food commodities consumed worldwide, is considered a high-quality, healthy, and safe food option. However, marine ecosystems are the ultimate destination for a large group of chemicals, including contaminants of emerging concern, and seafood consumption is a major pathway of human exposure. With growing awareness of food safety and food quality, and increased demand for information on the risk of contaminants of emerging concern, there is a need to assess food safety issues related to harmful contaminants in seafood and ensure the safety of marine food resources. In this study, the risks of emerging compounds (endocrine disruptors, brominated flame retardants, pharmaceuticals and personal care products, and toxic elements) in fish and seafood were analyzed according to their PBT (persistence, bioaccumulation, toxicity) properties as well as in terms of their concentration levels in seafood. A hazard index (HI) was estimated for each compound by applying an artificial neural network (ANN) approach known as Self-Organizing-Maps. Subsequently, an integrated risk rank (IRI) was developed considering the values of HI and the concentrations of emerging compounds in seafood species gathered from the scientific literature. Current results identified HHCB, MeHg, NP, AHTN and PBDE209 as the top five highest ranked compounds present in seafood, according to the 50th percentile (mean) of the IRI. However, this ranking slightly changed when taking into account the 99th percentile of the IRI, showing toxic elements, methylmercury and inorganic arsenic, as having the highest risk. The outcome of this study identified the priority contaminants and should help in regulatory decision-making and scientific panels to design screening programs as well as to take the appropriate safety measures.

Emerging Compounds in Mexico: Challenges for Their Identification and Elimination in Wastewater

In recent years, the presence of organic pollutants has received great attention due to their effects on public health and biota. Within this set of compounds, a new range of compounds that are characterized by their high persistence and low degradation have been identified, called Emerging Compounds. Emerging pollutants include a wide variety of products for daily use of different structures, domestic and industrial applications, such as: pesticides, industrial and personal hygiene products, hormones, and drugs, most of which are toxic, persistent and bioaccumulative. A characteristic of these types of pollutants is that current wastewater treatment plants are unable to remove them; they are designed to remove organic matter and nutrients in higher concentrations. In Mexico there is little information on the concentration levels of these compounds, due to the lack of public policies aimed at providing resources to institutions and researchers trained to carry out this type of study. On the other hand, the technological infrastructure of the wastewater treatment plants is insufficient for the country’s demand. This situation represents one of the greatest challenges for the authorities responsible for the management of water resources, in the immediate time if it is intended to preserve said resource and therefore take care of the health of the population.

Knowledge and Awareness on Fumigation of Operation Theaters among Dental Undergraduates

Disinfectants play a vital role in global infection control as a crucial weapon against the transmission of nosocomial pathogens/infections combating global disease outbreak. Because of the multifactor causation of infections the environment of operation theatre plays a great role in the onset and spread of infections. As in this advancing medical era, the microbial contamination of the hospital environment, especially the operating theatre, intensive care units had continued an increased prevalence of nosocomial infection. The people who are at risk do not only involve the patients but the health professions including the nurses as well. The aim of this study was to provide and assess knowledge on fumigation of operation theatres among the dental undergraduates. A cross-sectional study was conducted online with a pre-structured questionnaire containing 10 questions among the 100 undergraduates. Persistent data were extracted and analyzed using SPSS software by IBM. A total of 100 undergraduates attended the online survey among which 78.8% were interns followed by 12.12% and 9.1% of third years and final year dental undergraduates respectively. The most commonly used fumigants opted by the participants were predominantly of formaldehyde with 89% followed by phosphine 9%. Regarding the methods of fumigation, awareness on the electric boiler fumigation method and potassium permanganate method was predominantly high among the interns with 58.9% and 84.62% respectively. Within the limits of this study, formaldehyde was the predominantly opted type of fumigant. The potassium permanganate method of fumigation was predominantly known among the participants when compared to the electric boiler fumigation method. However, the majority of participants were unaware of the emerging compounds named Virkon and Bacillocid Rasant. These were assessed along with other factors like awareness of ammonia neutralization and also the risk involved in the fumigation process.

Systematic Literature Review of the Clinical Efficacy, Safety, and Patient-Reported Outcomes of Treatments in Patients with Relapsed or Refractory Follicular Lymphoma after Two Prior Therapies

Introduction For patients (pts) with relapsed or refractory follicular lymphoma (r/r FL) beyond front-line therapy, there is no well-defined standard of care (SOC) treatment, especially in the third-line or later (3L+) setting. Treatment decisions for symptomatic patients depend on comorbidities, extent of disease, lines of prior therapy and duration of response to initial anti-CD20 containing treatment. Treatment options for 3L+ may include similar options to the ones in earlier lines, with a preference for non-cross-resistant schemes. Recently, a plethora of new compounds are being studied in clinical trials. A systematic literature review (SLR) was conducted to identify relevant evidence on clinical outcomes in pts with r/r FL, including conventional treatments and emerging compounds, within the 3L+ setting. Methods We performed a SLR on March 17, 2020. Clinical trials and observational studies were searched through Embase, PubMed, and Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Clinical Trials from 1998 to 2020, followed by relevant conference proceedings and regulatory documents. Evidence assessing any intervention as 3L+ FL and published in English language was included. If a study included broader indolent non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (iNHL) pts, only FL data was reported; if a study included pts with fewer than 3L+, 3L+ data was included, with mixed line results excluded. Conventional treatments, defined as approved or clinical guideline recommended treatments, included anti-CD20 monoclonal antibody (mAb)-containing regimen, mAb alone, chemotherapy alone, phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K) inhibitors (idelalisib, copanlisib, duvelisib), lenalidomide + rituximab (R2), radio-immunotherapy (RIT) with yttrium-90 (90Y) ibritumomab tiuxetan, tazemetostat, autologous and allogeneic stem cell transplantation (auto- and allo-SCT). Emerging compounds included new treatments that are not approved but were tested in the context of clinical trials (bruton tyrosine kinase inhibitors, bortezomib, polatuzumab vedotin, daratumumab, inotuzumab, bi-specific T-cell engaging CD19 mAb, anti-CD19 chimeric antigen receptor T-cell [CAR-T] therapy). Results Of the 3747 publications identified, 74 studies assessing 26 treatment regimens, including conventional ones like rituximab (R)-containing immunochemotherapy to emerging compounds such as CAR-T therapies, were selected. Across the conventional regimens, 7 studies reported clinical trial data with relatively large 3L+ FL populations (Table 1). With R monotherapy, PI3K inhibitors and tazemetostat, the reported complete response (CR) rates and overall response rates (ORR) ranged from 1-20% and 34-77%, while median duration of response (mDOR) ranged between 7.9-16.3 months. Three clinical trials with PI3K inhibitors reported proportions of pts achieving a response of at least 6 months in duration ranging from 18-30%; median progression-free survival (mPFS) ranging from 8.3-11.2 months. For tazemetostat, mPFS was 11.0 months in EZH2 mutant vs 5.7 months in wild-type FL. With allo-SCT, 2-yr PFS rate was 88% and 57% for pts with CR and PR, respectively. Overall survival (OS) data varied: median overall survival (mOS) was 28-38 months for PI3K inhibitors while mOS was up to 85 months after allo-SCT, despite high non-relapse mortality (NRM) rates with most common causes of death being graft-versus-host disease (GvHD) and infections. Safety profiles were also different across treatments, with most common side effects being hepatotoxicity, diarrhea and infections (PI3K inhibitors) to GvHD (allo-SCT). Three trials presented patient-reported outcomes (PRO) data, all using the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy (FACT) questionnaire. Two studies with PI3K inhibitors demonstrated favorable or clinically significant improvement on pts quality of life (QoL), but 1 allo-SCT trial did not show a significant difference between baseline and 2 years post-transplant scores. Conclusion To our knowledge, this is the first SLR focusing on 3L+ treatments of FL. Heterogeneity in study design, patient population, safety profile and reported outcomes make it challenging to identify an optimal treatment regimen for FL in the 3L+ setting. More PRO data are needed considering the important role pt QoL plays in treatment selection. Disclosures Ma: Novartis:Current Employment.Kaur:Novartis:Current Employment.Zhao:Novartis:Current Employment.Zhang:Novartis:Current Employment.Ramos:Novartis:Current Employment.Kumar:Novartis:Current Employment.John:Novartis:Current Employment.Bubuteishvili Pacaud:Novartis:Current Employment.Forcina:Novartis:Current Employment.