Passive Sampler for Combined Chemical and Toxicological Long-term Monitoring of Groundwater: the Ceramic Toximeter

We present the development of a passive sampling device that combines chemical with biological assessment of water following time-integrating, long-term sampling. The new device, which was designated the Ceramic Toximeter, brings together the simplicity of the Ceramic Dosimeter as a ceramic membrane-based, solid-sorbent sampler and the uniqueness of a recently developed solid-phase, solvent-free bioassay. In this bioassay, Biosilon, i.e., polystyrene polymer beads, is used to present sorbed contaminants to vertebrate cells that adhere to the contaminant-loaded Biosilon and respond. Focusing on Biosilon as sorbent, its ability to accumulate 16 polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) was explored. When tested up to 42 days in the laboratory or 1 year in groundwater at a contaminated gasworks site, Biosilon-filled Ceramic Toximeters yielded back-calculated time-weighted average aqueous PAH concentrations that agreed well with concentrations obtained by frequent snapshot sampling. The chosen bioassay response, the induction of 7-ethoxyresorufin-O-deethylase, was as predicted in the laboratory setting but could only partly be explained by the analyzed PAHs in the field. Based on this first assessment, the Ceramic Toximeter emerges as a resource efficient water monitoring device with a variety of potential future applications.

BOPP Stephanie;  MCLACHLAN Michael;  SCHIRMER Kristin; 

2007-11-05

AMER CHEMICAL SOC

JRC37051

0013-936X,   

http://pubs.acs.org/cgi-bin/abstract.cgi/esthag/2007/41/i19/abs/es070807s.html,    https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC37051,   

10.1021/es070807s,