Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Hurst, Mark R.
• Balaam, Jan
• Chan-Man, Yin L.
• Thain, John E.
• Thomas, Kevin V.

Titel

Determination of dioxin and dioxin-like compounds in sediments from UK estuaries using a bio-analytical approach: chemical-activated luciferase expression (CALUX) assay

Ist Teil von

• Marine pollution bulletin, 2004-10, Vol.49 (7), p.648-658

Ort / Verlag

Oxford: Elsevier Ltd

Erscheinungsjahr

2004

Quelle

Access via ScienceDirect (Elsevier)

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• The DR-CALUX assay has been utilised for the bio-analytical screening of a number of estuarine sediments for dioxin-like activity. Total sediment extracts (samples containing all extracted compounds) and cleaned-up extracts (samples with the most stable compounds isolated from the total extracts) were screened. The concentration of the stable dioxin-like compounds in the cleaned-up sediment extracts was between 1.0 and 106 pg TEQ CALUX g −1 dry weight. The majority of sediments contained levels of dioxin-like compounds that were above concentrations that are considered to be a low risk to aquatic organisms. The CALUX bio-analytical approach showed some disparity with the traditional analytical approach. The reasons for these differences have been identified tentatively: firstly, the DR-CALUX assay responds to all dioxin-like compounds, and secondly, it measures non-additive effects. The dioxin-like activity of compounds in sediment total extracts, which contain both labile and stable compounds, were also assessed and were six orders of magnitude higher than the cleaned-up samples. This suggests the vast majority of the total dioxin-like activity is attributable to labile compounds. Overall, the DR-CALUX assay is shown to be a useful tool in the assessment of dioxin-like activity in estuarine sediments.