Emerging contaminants in the South and Southeastern coast of Brazil: implementation of the analytical method and environmental distribution

Abstract

The use of large amounts and a broad variety of chemicals that are potentially harmful to the environment (including persistent organic pollutants (POPs), personal care products (PCPs), flame retardants, and others) compromises the quality of water bodies, sediment and associated biota. The occurrence of such a high number of compounds in the environment leads to interferences during chemical analysis, hindering the assessment of the occurrence and distribution of contaminants in environmental matrixes. The development and optimization of analytical methods that are capable of detecting multiple classes of compounds at very low levels and the contamination assessment in marine and coastal areas are among the most complex and current issues in environmental chemistry, especially in less developed countries as Brazil. This project aims to evaluate the occurrence of emerging contaminants in different environmental matrixes, such as surface sediments and fat tissue of dolphins in selected areas along the southeastern and southern Brazilian coast through the optimization and implementation of a state of the art methodology and still incipient in research groups in Brazil. Additionally, this project can contribute on the assessment of potential sources and fate of emerging contaminants in the selected areas, as well as contribute with valuable data for the regional and global inventories. (AU)