Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are a diverse group of chemicals of growing concern due to their persistence and potential impacts on human and environmental health. While the occurrence and toxicity of several legacy PFAS are relatively well understood, knowledge of emerging PFAS, particularly in free-living organisms, remains limited. This study investigated the occurrence and biological effects of a mixture of thirty-eight legacy and emerging PFAS nearby a Fluoropolymer Production Plant (FPP) located in Northwestern Italy. Legacy and emerging PFAS were measured in eggs of two resident passerine species, the European starling (Sturnus vulgaris) and the great tit (Parus major), breeding near the FPP and in an agricultural-rural area (AA). Oxidative stress-related biomarkers, including antioxidant and detoxifying enzyme activities and lipid peroxidation, were assessed in nestling blood samples. PFAS were detected in eggs of both the species, reaching concentrations of Σ21PFAS up to 1451 ng/g f.w. in starlings and 6576 ng/g f.w. in great tits. Eggs collected near the FPP showed PFAS levels up to ten-fold higher than those from the AA, with chloro-perfluoropolyether carboxylic acids (Cl-PFPECAs) dominating the contamination profile. Despite similar exposure patterns, biological responses differed between species. No significant effects were observed in great tit nestlings, whereas starling nestlings breeding near the FPP exhibited altered antioxidant defenses and increased lipid peroxidation, indicating they suffered an oxidative stress condition. These findings demonstrate that environmental exposure to PFAS mixtures near an FPP can induce oxidative stress in free-living birds and highlight the need for further field-based studies to improve understanding of PFAS toxicity and support environmental risk assessment.

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are persistent contaminants that are widely detected in surface waters and are of growing global concern. However, the factors associated with variations in PFAS contamination across space and time at a continental scale remain poorly understood. Here, we combine results from a harmonised pan-European river monitoring study with partial least squares path modelling (PLS-PM) to identify the key factors associated with PFAS contamination in European rivers. Seven high-priority PFAS were monitored at 280 sites across 93 rivers in 31 European countries, representing the PFAS footprint of approximately 309 million people. At least one PFAS was detected at 93% of monitoring locations. Highest concentrations were observed in parts of southern, southeastern and western Europe and were associated with landfills, wastewater discharges and industrial activity. Higher PFAS concentrations occurred in summer, potentially reflecting dilution-related effects associated with lower flow conditions. PLS-PM revealed that PFAS concentrations were associated with socioeconomic pressures and environmental conditions. The Human Footprint Index showed the strongest association among the socioeconomic variables examined, while electrical conductivity was the environmental variable most strongly associated with PFAS concentrations, possibly reflecting shared transport pathways with wastewater and industrial effluents. An indicative, screening-level assessment against existing regulatory threshold values suggested that PFAS concentrations at 61% of sites are of potential concern. These findings support the use of combined human pressure and hydrochemical indicators to inform more targeted, risk-based monitoring and regulatory prioritisation at large spatial scales.

The environmental impact of medicines has become a growing concern within the One Health framework, which emphasizes the interconnection of human, animal, and environmental health. This narrative review, based on discussions from a 2025 Italian multistakeholder roundtable, explores current strategies for assessing and reducing such impact, including water monitoring, in vivo studies using animal models, prescribing appropriateness, and the relevant European and Italian legal frameworks. The review highlights the crucial role of different stakeholders, including pharmaceutical industries, regulatory agencies, health authorities, researchers, and citizens, in implementing preventive measures to reduce the environmental impact of medicines. It underscores the urgency of integrating environmental sustainability into clinical practice and health policies, encouraging green pharmaceutical innovation, environmentally conscious prescribing, and coordinated governance, in line with the One Health principles. Future research to assess and minimize the environmental footprint of medicines should prioritize the development of standardized metrics for environmental impact, evaluate the long-term efficacy of preventive and mitigation strategies, included those on access to treatments and sustainability of production, and strengthen interdisciplinary collaboration to translate One Health into actionable policies and practices.

This paper presents an approach to apply aquatic passive sampling (PS) in regulatory chemical water quality monitoring in Europe. Absorption-based passive sampling is well developed and suitable for the sampling of hydrophobic chemicals, some of which are European Water Framework Directive priority substances with Environmental Quality Standards (EQS) derived for biota.Considering a chemical activity approach to chemical risk assessment, we propose equilibrium concentration in lipids (from passive water sampling) as a reference value for measured concentrations in biota. Through existing PS-fish datasets, we show a growing body of evidence supporting the use of lipid-based contaminant concentrations at equilibrium with water derived from PS as a conservative proxy of levels of these chemicals in fish.We propose a procedure that includes PS as a first, animal-free screening step of a tiered approach, followed by more conventional fish analyses when PS indicates these are needed to confirm EQSbiota exceedance. This paper reviews fish-passive sampler datasets, provides a reasoning for the proposed procedure and discusses how to broadly put it into monitoring practice. PS offers the possibility of well-defined standardised monitoring approaches that can help overcome the natural variability challenges associated with measurements in biota across member states and simplify EQSbiota compliance.

Environmental risk assessments often rely on measured concentrations in environmental matrices to characterize exposure of the population of interest-typically, humans, aquatic biota, or other wildlife. Yet, there is limited guidance available on how to report and evaluate exposure datasets for reliability and relevance, despite their importance to regulatory decision-making. This paper is the second of a four-paper series detailing the outcomes of a Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry Technical Workshop that has developed Criteria for Reporting and Evaluating Exposure Datasets (CREED). It presents specific criteria to systematically evaluate the reliability of environmental exposure datasets. These criteria can help risk assessors understand and characterize uncertainties when existing data are used in various types of assessments and can serve as guidance on best practice for the reporting of data for data generators (to maximize utility of their datasets). Although most reliability criteria are universal, some practices may need to be evaluated considering the purpose of the assessment. Reliability refers to the inherent quality of the dataset and evaluation criteria address the identification of analytes, study sites, environmental matrices, sampling dates, sample collection methods, analytical method performance, data handling or aggregation, treatment of censored data, and generation of summary statistics. Each criterion is evaluated as "fully met," "partly met," "not met or inappropriate," "not reported," or "not applicable" for the dataset being reviewed. The evaluation concludes with a scheme for scoring the dataset as reliable with or without restrictions, not reliable, or not assignable, and is demonstrated with three case studies representing both organic and inorganic constituents, and different study designs and assessment purposes. Reliability evaluation can be used in conjunction with relevance evaluation (assessed separately) to determine the extent to which environmental monitoring datasets are "fit for purpose," that is, suitable for use in various types of assessments. Integr Environ Assess Manag 2024;20:981-1003. © 2024 Society of Environmental Toxicology & Chemistry (SETAC). This article has been contributed to by U.S. Government employees and their work is in the public domain in the USA.

Anthropogenic organic pollutants are continuously entering aquatic ecosystems, principally through urban and industrial discharges, and there is ever more research worldwide about their environmental and ecotoxicological impact. Nevertheless, the release of most of them into water ecosystems is not yet regulated. They are commonly found in surface and groundwaters, threatening the quality and availability of the major renewable resources for the production of drinking water. Starting from the current international directives on the surface and drinking water protection, this chapter focuses on the sources, environmental dynamics, and effects of selected classes of conventional and emerging organic micropollutants, with particular attention paid to drinking water and the effectiveness of water treatments in their removal. Environmental and toxicological risk implications are also considered. Further research efforts are needed for a correct and sustainable management of drinking resources, constituting an important challenge for the protection of water supplies and human health.

The status of contamination by chemical pollutants on large filter feeding sharks is still largely unknown. This study investigated for the first time the presence of legacy, emerging contaminants and trace elements in multiple tissues of basking sharks. In general, skin showed higher concentration of legacy and emerging contaminants probably due to pollutants being adsorbed onto the dermal denticles of the skin rather than accumulated in the tissue itself. Contaminants measured in both subcutaneous tissue and muscles appeared to strongly correlate with each other, indicating that the former might be a good proxy of muscle contamination in basking sharks. Considering the migratory nature of this species, longevity and feeding ecology, this species represents the perfect candidate to act as early warning bioindicator of regional contamination. In this context, non-lethal subcutaneous biopsies could allow the early detection of any temporal variation in the bioaccumulation of pollutants in the Mediterranean Sea.

An Introduction to Forest-Smart Management in Extractive and Infrastructure Industries. By Damien Romet. Specifi c guidelines for developing ‘forest-smart’ mining do not currently exist; however, frameworks from international organizations can be used to develop best practices pertaining to forest-smart principles. Involving stakeholders in developing the strategy can assist mining proponents in reducing indirect impacts. TOPIC CATEGORY

During the first period of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, the lack of specific therapeutic treatments led to the provisional use of a number of drugs, with a continuous review of health protocols when new scientific evidence emerged. The management of this emergency sanitary situation could not take care of the possible indirect adverse effects on the environment, such as the release of a large amount of pharmaceuticals from wastewater treatment plants. The massive use of drugs, which were never used so widely until then, implied new risks for the aquatic environment. In this study, a suspect screening approach using Liquid Chromatography-High Resolution Mass Spectrometry techniques, allowed us to survey the presence of pharmaceuticals used for COVID-19 treatment in three WWTPs of Lombardy region, where the first European cluster of SARS-CoV-2 cases was detected. Starting from a list of sixty-three suspect compounds used against COVID-19 (including some metabolites and transformation products), six compounds were fully identified and monitored together with other target analytes, mainly pharmaceuticals of common use. A monthly monitoring campaign was conducted in a WWTP from April to December 2020 and the temporal trends of some anti-COVID-19 drugs were positively correlated with those of COVID-19 cases and deaths. The comparison of the average emission loads among the three WWTPs evidenced that the highest loads of hydroxychloroquine, azithromycin and ciprofloxacin were measured in the WWTP which received the sewages from a hospital specializing in the treatment of COVID-19 patients. The monitoring of the receiving water bodies evidenced the presence of eight compounds of high ecological concern, whose risk was assessed in terms of toxicity and the possibility of inducing antibiotic and viral resistance. The results clearly showed that the enhanced, but not completely justified, use of ciprofloxacin and azithromycin represented a risk for antibiotic resistance in the aquatic ecosystems.

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) encompass a large, heterogeneous group of chemicals of potential concern to human and environmental health. Based on information for some legacy PFAS, such as perfluorooctane sulfonate and perfluorooctanoate, there is an increasing awareness that they can represent a serious environmental risk. Although the environmental occurrence and fate of some legacy PFAS and their toxicity under controlled laboratory conditions have been investigated, to date, there is a dearth of information on the exposure and potential adverse effects of these compounds towards free-living organisms. The present review summarizes the findings of field studies investigating the accumulation and adverse effects induced by the exposure to environmental mixtures of both legacy and emerging PFAS in the wildlife living nearby fluorochemical production plants (FCP). Biomonitoring campaigns performed close to FCP, which can be considered as hotspots of PFAS contamination, can be very useful in exploring the fate and toxicity of these compounds towards free-living organisms. All studies showed that the bioaccumulation of both legacy and emerging PFAS in wildlife living near the FCP is higher compared to control sites and other areas worldwide. However, the investigation on adverse effects returned contrasting results, suggesting the need for further studies to shed light on the toxicity and mechanism(s) of action of PFAS in free-living organisms.

The great concern over the environmental impact of wastewaters has led to the designing of advanced treatment processes to upgrade conventional treatment plants and achieve a significant reduction of contaminants in receiving waters. In the present study we combined chemical and ecotoxicological analyses, aiming to evaluate the reduction of toxicity effects associated with the removal of micropollutants and to define the contribution of the detected compounds to the overall toxicity of the mixtures in a series of wastewater effluents collected from a secondary treatment (OUT 2) and from a tertiary activated carbon treatment (OUT 3) plant. The target compounds were selected after a screening procedure among pharmaceuticals, musk fragrances, and trace metals. The classical algal growth inhibition test was conducted on the original effluent samples and on different fractions obtained by solid-phase extraction (SPE) treatment. A good accordance was found between the removal of toxicity (30%-80%) and organic compounds (70%-80%) after the tertiary treatment, suggesting its high efficiency to improve the wastewater quality. The discrepancy between the contribution to the overall toxicity of the nonadsorbable compounds (i.e., inorganic or very polar organic compounds) as experimentally measured by the SPE bioassays (18%-76%) and calculated by the concentration addition approach (>97%) could be mitigated by including the bioavailability correction in metal-toxicity modeling of wastewater mixtures. For the organic compounds, the toxic equivalency method enabled us to quantify the portion of toxicity explained by the detected chemicals in both OUT 2 (82%-104%) and OUT 3 (5%-57%), validating the selection of the target molecules. The applied integrating approach could be implemented by the inclusion of both additional target chemicals and toxicity endpoints. Environ Toxicol Chem 2022;41:2404-2419. © 2022 The Authors. Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of SETAC.

Graphene nanosheets have outstanding adsorption efficiency toward organic molecules but the potential as sorbent for water purification is strongly limited by the tedious recovery of the nanosheets after the treatment, which can cause secondary contaminations. Here, we demonstrate that graphene oxide (GO) and reduced GO (rGO) nanosheets aggregation in tap water, enabling their separation by dead-end microfiltration (MF) on commercial polymeric hollow fiber modules. No evidence of GO/rGO contamination was found in microfiltered water and chemical potability of treated water was confirmed by standard protocols. Moreover, GO/rGO can be recovered (by inverting the filtration modality from IN-OUT to OUT-IN), washed and reused, this allowing the regeneration and reuse of both graphene nanosheets and the filtration module. The procedure (called here GO + MF) was optimized on tap water spiked with ofloxacin (OFLOX) or methylene blue (MB), as reference. The optimized procedure was then applied both with GO and rGO to the removal of a mixture of perfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) from tap water at mu g/L levels, the highest concentration found in water resources abstracted for water consumption. We demonstrate that rGO + MF procedure allows to remove 138 mu g/g of total PFASs in only 30 min, i.e. an efficiency 3-5 times higher than granular activated carbon (43 mu g/g) used in real potabilization plants for PFASs removal.

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) have multiple emission sources, from industrial to domestic, and their high persistence and mobility help them to spread in all the networks of watercourses. Diffuse pollution of these compounds can be potentially mitigated by the application of green infrastructures, which are a pillar of the EU Green Deal. In this context, a phytoremediation pilot plant was realised and supplied by a contaminated well-located in Lonigo (Veneto Region, Italy) where surface and groundwaters were significantly impacted by perfluoroalkyl acids (PFAAs) discharges from a fluorochemical factory. The investigation involved the detection of perfluorobutanoic acid (PFBA), perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), perfluorobutanesulfonic acid (PFBS) and perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOS) inside the inlet and outlet waters of the phytoremediation pilot plant as well as in reed grasses grown into its main tank. The obtained results demonstrate that the pilot plant is able to reduce up to 50% of considered PFAAs in terms of mass flow without an evident dependence on physico-chemical characteristics of these contaminants. Moreover, PFAAs were found in the exposed reed grasses at concentrations up to 13 ng g−1 ww. A positive correlation between PFAA concentration in plants and exposure time was also observed. In conclusion, this paper highlights the potential efficiency of phytodepuration in PFAS removal and recommends improving the knowledge about its application in constructed wetlands as a highly sustainable choice in wastewater remediation.

Per- and poly fluoroalkylsubstances (PFAS) were measured in liver,muscle, blood and brain of 26 stripped dolphin Stenella coeruleoalba stranded along Tuscany coasts (Italy), from 2020 to 2022. Using high performance liquid chromatography coupled with high resolution mass spectrometry 18 target were quantified in each sample. PFOS, PFHxS, FOSA were found in all samples with PFOS blood concentration level ranging from some tens to some hundreds of µg/kg. The concentrations follow the trend PFOS>FOSA>PFHxS and the PFOS concentration appears to be inversely proportional to the weight of the animals.

For many years, eggs of diverse bird species have been used as monitoring tools in studies investigating perfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) contamination, especially in marine and remote areas. Avian eggs are a suitable monitoring matrix because they are relatively easy to collect and their yolks store diverse maternally transferred PFAS. Moreover, the concentrations of PFAS detected in the eggs are a good proxy for maternal exposure and allow the assessment of the potential risk for birds. These features support the use of avian eggs as a key monitoring tool in exposure assessment of PFAS‐contaminated sites. We first review the recent application of avian eggs in PFAS monitoring in environmental risk assessment schemes, highlighting strengths and limitations and suggesting which criteria should be considered when selecting a proper study species and structuring the sampling and analytical protocol. Eventually, we report findings from a field study realized in 2020 near a perfluoropolymer factory site in the upper Po plain (Northern Italy), revealing an unprecedented contamination level of PFOA and C6O4 in three species of wild passerines. In future, long‐term monitoring of PFAS contamination using avian eggs should be maintained, to provide crucial information on the temporal trend of fluorochemical production and waste disposal, while facilitating early identification of emerging PFAS as well as the quantification of their biomagnification across the trophic web. Integr Environ Assess Manag 2021;17:733–745. © 2021 SETAC

There is growing concern for the wide use of perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) because of its toxic effects on the environment and on human health. A new compound – the so called C6O4 (perfluoro ([5-methoxy-1,3-dioxolan-4-yl]oxy) acetic acid) - was recently introduced as one of the alternative to traditional PFOA, however this was done without any scientific evidence of the effects of C6O4 when dispersed into the environment. Recently, the Regional Agency for the Protection of the Environment of Veneto (Italy) detected high levels of C6O4 in groundwater and in the Po river, increasing the alarm for the potential effects of this chemical into the natural environment. The present study investigates for the first time the effects of C6O4 on the Manila clam Ruditapes philippinarum exposed to environmental realistic concentrations of C6O4 (0.1 µg/L and 1 µg/L) for 7 and 21 days. Furthermore, in order to better understand if C6O4 is a valid and less hazardous alternative to its substitute, microbial and transcriptomic alterations were also investigated in clams exposed to 1 µg/L of PFOA. Results indicate that C6O4 may cause significant perturbations to the digestive gland microbiota, likely determining the impairment of host physiological homeostasis. Despite chemical analyses suggest a 5 times lower accumulation potential of C604 as compared to PFOA in clam soft tissues, transcriptional analyses reveal several alterations of gene expression profile. A large part of the altered pathways, including immune response, apoptosis regulation, nervous system development, lipid metabolism and cell membrane is the same in C6O4 and PFOA exposed clams. In addition, clams exposed to C6O4 showed dose-dependent responses as well as possible narcotic or neurotoxic effects and reduced activation of genes involved in xenobiotic metabolism. Overall, the present study suggests that the potential risks for marine organism following environmental contamination are not reduced by replacing PFOA with C6O4. In addition, the detection of both C6O4 and PFOA into tissues of clams inhabiting the Lagoon of Venice - where there are no point sources of either compounds - recommends a similar capacity to spread throughout the environment. These results prompt the urgent need to re-evaluate the use of C6O4 as it may represent not only an environmental hazard but also a potential risk for human health.

There is growing worry that drinking water can be affected by contaminants of emerging concern (CECs), potentially threatening human health. In this study, a wide range of CECs ( n = 177), including pharmaceuticals, pesticides, perfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) and other compounds, were analysed in raw water and in drinking water collected from drinking water treatment plants (DWTPs) in Europe and Asia ( n = 13). The impact of human activities was reflected in large numbers of compounds detected ( n = 115) and high variation in concentrations in the raw water (range 15-7995 ng L -1 for E177 CECs). The variation was less pronounced in drinking water, with total concentration ranging from 35 to 919 ng L -1 . Treatment efficiency was on average 65 +/- 28%, with wide variation between different DWTPs. The DWTP with the highest ECEC concentrations in raw water had the most efficient treatment procedure (average treatment efficiency 89%), whereas the DWTP with the lowest E177 CEC concentration in the raw water had the lowest average treatment efficiency (2.3%). Suspect screening was performed for 500 compounds ranked high as chemicals of concern for drinking water, using a prioritisation tool (SusTool). Overall, 208 features of interest were discovered and three were confirmed with reference standards. There was co-variation between removal efficiency in DWTPs for the target compounds and the suspected features detected using suspect screening, implying that removal of known contaminants can be used to predict overall removal of potential CECs for drinking water production. Our results can be of high value for DWTPs around the globe in their planning for future treatment strategies to meet the increasing concern about human ex-posure to unknown CECs present in their drinking water. (c) 2021 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)