Analysis and Fate of Contaminants of Emerging Concern

我所在小组的研究目前集中在新出现的令人担忧的污染物的分析和环境命运上。新出现的令人关注的污染物既包括几乎没有公开科学数据的真正新污染物(例如，许多药品、全氟表面活性剂、增塑剂)，也包括由于新发现的问题和潜在影响和问题而重新“流行”的遗留污染物(例如，饮用水中的铅和锰，如大米)。在大多数情况下，我所在的小组的研究工作分为开发适当的分析化学/样品制备方法，将环境应用于真实世界的样品，以及研究这些化合物在环境中的命运和潜在影响。这项工作的目标是多学科的，以说明出色的分析化学发展，并结合处理现实世界样本的坚固性和适当解释此类结果的含义所需的风险分析(分析工具已实现的性能，即检测污染物的存在不足以得出其可能代表的潜在风险的结论)。然后，我们跟踪这类污染物在各种介质(土壤、水、沉积物、空气)中的环境命运。*我们目前与大多数药物组合作，包括一些更具挑战性的化合物，如化疗药物、氰毒素、全氟灭火化合物(包括最近禁用的“旧”化合物，但包括现在正在销售的替代品)、增塑剂、非法药物和类固醇激素。我仍然在观察下一种污染物的出现情况，但我已经从关注水转移到更好地专注于分析开发，以更好地应对哪些顽固的矩阵。痕量质谱仪的工作受限于其处理脏基质的能力，我们最近的许多工作都集中在对更难处理的基质获得良好的分析性能上，例如沉积物中的全氟化合物、鱼组织中的氰基毒素或粪便中的抗生素。*了解这两种新出现的污染物的去向和影响的最后一步是适当地评估它们一旦释放到环境中所产生的潜在风险。这一直是一个敏感的问题，我们试图根据科学证据仔细辨别这是真正令人担忧的部分，以及什么只是无用的恐慌。**

The research in my group is currently focused on the analysis and environmental fate on contaminants of emerging concern. Contaminants of emerging concern include both truly new contaminants for which little published scientific data are available (e.g., many pharmaceutical products, perfluorinated surfactants, plasticizers), along with legacy contaminants which are regaining "popularity" because of newly discovered issues and potential effects and problems (e.g., Pb and Mn in drinking water, As in rice). In most of these situations, the research work in my group is divided into the development of the appropriate analytical chemistry/sample preparation methods, environmental applications to real-world samples, and the studies of the fate and potential effects of those compounds in the environment. The work aims to be multidisciplinary to account for an excellent analytical chemistry development, combined with the ruggedness to cope real world sample and the risk analysis required to properly interpret the meaning of such results (analytical tools have attained such performances that detecting the presence of a contaminant is not enough to conclude about the potential risks that it may represent). We then follow with environmental fate of such contaminants across a variety of media (soil, water, sediments, air).***We currently work, with most groups of pharmaceuticals drugs - including some more challenging compounds to measure such as chemotherapy agents, cyanotoxins, perfluorinated firefighting compounds (both "older" recently-banned compounds but including the alternatives which are now being sold), plasticizers, illicit drugs and steroid hormones. I remain on the watch for the next contaminants to gain emerging status but I have moved from a focus in water to better focus on analytical development to better cope which recalcitrant matrices. Trace mass spectrometry work is limited by its capacity to deal with dirty matrices and much of our recent work has focused on obtaining good analytical performances for tougher matrices such as perfluorinated compounds in sediments, cyanotoxins in fish tissue or antibiotics in manure.***The final step to understanding of the fate and effects of both types of emerging contaminants is to properly evaluate the potential risks arising from their presence once they are released into the environment. This has been a sensitive issue and we try to carefully discern what portion of this is a true concern based on the scientific evidence and what is just useless scare.**