Characterization of complex soil and groundwater contamination scenarios using effect-directed analysis

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

One of the main concerns associated with the risk assessment of legacy contaminant sites in Canada and globally is the complex and often un-documented historical release of chemicals resulting in unknown exposure patters and potential hazards across such sites. The main objective of this study is to apply and validate a novel bioassay-driven approach to characterize the complex contamination of soils and groundwater across a legacy pesticide manufacturing site owned by Interprovincial Cooperative Limited (IPCO). This approach is termed Effect-Directed-Analysis (EDA) and makes use of the properties of contaminants to interfere with specific biological processes. Specifically, soil and groundwater samples will be collected and subjected to analysis by an in vitro bioassay battery that determines general and specific toxic properties of a sample, including general toxicity (Microtox®), the presence of chemicals with genotoxic/mutagenic properties (Ames assay), dioxin-like compounds, acetylcholinesterase inhibitors (Ellman assay), and disruptors of steroidogenesis (H295R Steroidogenesis assay). These assays cover all general and specific toxicity pathways that would be expected to be associated with complex pesticide legacy contaminant sites and allow for broad non-target screening other unknown toxic constituents. Successful completion of the here-proposed bioassay-directed screen of soil and groundwater samples will provide IPCO with an initial data set that will allow for the identification of areas and matrices with elevated contaminant loads that may be of toxicological concern, and which will inform areas for future study.