Environmental compartments sediments/sludges

Since the beginning of the 1980s, the presence of surfactants in solid matrices has slowly received more attention. The publication by Giger and coworkers in 1984 [2] on the anaerobic formation in sewage sludge of nonylphenol (NP) out of alkylphenol ethoxylates (APEOs) particularly stressed the importance of this environmental compartment. However, environmental data of surfactants in sediments and sludges remains scarcer than data on aqueous concentrations, undoubtedly because sediment samples are more difficult to handle. 

LC-MS plays an important role in the analysis of pesticides and related componnds, e.g., herbicides, insecticides, acaricides, as well as their degradation prodncts and metabolites. The analysis of pesticides is relevant for environmental studies, food safety, toxicology, and occupational health. Pesticides have to be analysed in environmental samples, such as different water compartments, soil, sediments, sludge, and animal tissue like fish, in food, especially fruit and vegetables, and in (human) body fluids and tissues. Many modem pesticides and related compounds are not amenable to GC-MS analysis, or only after derivatization. Therefore, LC-MS has been evaluated as an alternative. Various review papers on the analysis of pesticides and related compounds in various sample matrices were published [1-8]. 

Environmental smdies are focused in the determination of amounts and distribution of chemical species in air, water, soil, sediments, sludge, biota and animal and human tissues, and fluids. These species may be elements or compounds, simple or complex in structure, organic or inorganic, natural or anthropogenic in origin, and occur at vastly different levels of concentration in the different environmental compartments. 

Accumulation of heavy metals (HM) in different compartments of the biosphere, and their possible mobilization under changing environmental conditions induce a perturbation of the ecosystem and adverse health effects. Fast and correct estimating the environmentally relevant fonus of HM in soils, sediments, and sewage sludge is an urgent need for environmental monitoring and assessment. 

Macrolide antibiotics (clarithromycin, dehydroerythromycin, etc.) and sulfonamides (sulfamethoxazole, sulfadimethoxine, sulfamethazine, and sulfathi-azole) are the most prevalent antibiotics found in the environment with levels around a few micrograms per liter, whereas fluoroquinolones, tetracyclines, and penicillins have been detected in fewer cases and usually at low concentrations (nanograms per liter) [3,20,23,72]. This result is not surprising, since penicillins are easily hydrolyzed and tetracyclines readily precipitate with cations such as calcium and are accumulated in sewage sludge or sediments. Several reviews have reported the environmental occurrence of different antibiotics in aquatic and soil compartments. Some of these data are detailed in Table 1. 

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