Priority pollutants, reference lists

Priority pollutants. Priority pollutants refers to a list of 126 specific pollutants, which include heavy metals and specific organic chemicals. The priority pollutants are a subset of toxic pollutants as defined in the Clean Water Act (United States). These 126 pollutants were assigned a high priority for development of water quality criteria and effluent limitation guidelines because they are frequently found in wastewater. Many of the heavy metals, pesticides, and other chemicals listed below are on the priority pollutant list. °... 

Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), CFCs, petroleum products, and dioxin are major toxic contaminants in air (Section 3.3.2), soil (Section 3.5.3), and also in water. The readers are referred to Sections 3.3.2 and 3.5.3 for details about PCB characteristics, health effects, treatment technologies, and so on. For water quality management, they have been included in the list of the USEPA priority pollutants [86]. 

For this aim, three proficiency testing (PT) campaigns were organized within the SWIFT-WFD project, mainly dedicated to the determination of the list of priority pollutants annexed to the WFD. The SWIFT-WFD PT campaigns, one per year for three years, were organized on 17 reference materials (RMs) including 5 matrix RMs at natural concentration levels, 3 at low fortified concentration levels, 4 at fortified concentration levels, and 5 multi-analyte blind standard solutions, targeting the analysis of... 

Many countries have established lists with priority pollutants (Ferguson Kasamas 1999 ATSDR 2001) focusing on substances that are hazardous to human health and/or the environment. These lists refer to chemicals with known toxicity at least for particular receptors. If information on the nature of pollution is available, chemical analysis may focus on selected chemicals. In case of waste sites or if data on site history are scarce, comprehensive chemical analysis would be required to reduce the risk of disregarding substantial pollutants. This is expensive. The application of bioassays may circumvent extended routine analysis by indicating toxic samples directly. 

Chlorinated organic compounds (COCs) refer to the substitution of one or more hydrogen in aliphatic and aromatic hydrocarbons and their derivatives by chlorine. COCs are widely used in the fields of chemistry, medicine, electronics, pesticides, etc. Many COCs are endocrine disturbance substances, show carcinogenic effects, and have been listed as priority pollutants by the US Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA). When released into the environment, COCs are transported in both air and water. However, COCs are chemically stable and difficult to destroy, and they are eventually deposited in soils and sediments due to their hydrophobic-ity. Soils and sediments contaminated with COCs are long-term sources of pollutants and pose great threats to human health and ecosystems. Therefore, remediation of these contaminated soils and sediments is of great importance. 

Ptce refers to the intrinsic volatility exhibited by a chemically pure substance TCE. TCE is a liquid at room temperature, and if one opens a bottle that contains the pure liquid, one is immediately struck by virtue of the sense of smell with the concept of the vapor pressure of TCE It is likely that Ptce is greater than F ca, where PCE refers to perchloroethylene (tetra-chloroethene). PCE is also on the EPA s priority pollutant list. One would expect to find that Cxce greater than assuming all other factors... 

PAH reference materials, as discussed below, has led to standard and widely used methods for PAH analysis. The term total PAHs as used by different researchers has been misleading since there was no universally accepted PAH list. In the 1990s, 16 PAHs listed in the priority pollutants of the US Environment Protection Agency (USEPA) list have been adopted for monitoring in many countries around the world. Figure 3 shows the structures of the 16 PAHs listed in the priority pollutants of USEPA. 

The general term organochlorine pesticides refers to many halogenated organic componnds that are being used cnrrently or that were nsed in the past in pesticide formn-lations. Snch substances may differ widely in their chemical structures and, therefore, in their physical and toxicological properties. Some of the most well-known pesticides of this class, many of which listed as U.S. EPA priority enviromnental pollutants, may be structurally classified into the following five types ... 

Reference soil was collected in a reference site in Elorence (Italy). Real soil samples were collected in the Associated National Chemical Companies (ACNA) site (Cengio, SV, Italy). ACNA is a closed organic chemical industrial factory active since 1882 with the production of explosives (nitroglycerin, dynamite, and trinitrotoluene), paints, nitric and sulphuric acids, phenols, and amines, with serious levels of contamination of soil and surface waters, where a remediation and bonification plan started in 1999. The serious enviromnental contamination of this area determined its inclusion in the list of national priorities for enviromnental reclamation. The sampling was performed from the soil layers (0-30 cm) in a specific ACNA site, called hill n°5, on March 2003. The hill was made of waste from the industry accumulated during the years and was divided into four zones zone 1 with low contamination level zone 2 with pseudoreference zone 3 with moderate pollution level, and zone 4 with high ecological risk. 

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