Chemical and toxicological impact approach of organic contaminants associated to microplastics in urban wastewaters from Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (Spain) and Mahdia (Tunisia)

Abstract

It has been reported that microplastics (MPs) can adsorb various environmental chemical contaminants, thereby serving as a sink and source of these associated chemical contaminants and po tentially changing their toxicity, bioavailability, and fate. Among these compounds diff erent families of so called organic contami nants of emerging concern (OCECs) attract more and more atten tion in recent years. For this, we have prospected in this work to identify and quantify OCECs by using Ultra High Performance Liq uid Chromatography coupled to mass spectromtetry in tandem detector (UHPLC-MS/MS) in the infl uents of wastewater treat ment plants (WWTPs) from Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (Spain) and Mahdia (Tunisia). Results indicated the contamination of MPs isolated from infl uent LPA-WWTP by four OCECs and MPs isolated from infl uent Mahdia-WWTP by three of them. The simultaneous BtA CONGRESO_v5.indd 26 tA CONGRESO_v5.indd 26 13/05/2024 21:17:16 3/05/2024 21:17:16 27 occurrence of multivarious contaminants does not go with con sequences on the environment and human health. In fact a bat tery of eucaryotic (comet and micronucleus assays) and procary otic assay (SOS chromotest) were carried out and showing a high correlation between the level of contamination with OCECs and the level of the DNA damage.