Assessment of organic micropollutants in passive samples from Joint Danube Survey 4 (JDS4) by a battery of in vitro bioassays

Abstract

The Joint Danube Survey (JDS) belongs to the world’s largest river monitoring campaigns and is performed every six years in the second longest European river, Danube. The goal of this study was characterization of mixtures effects from long term exposed passive samplers within the JDS4 by battery of in vitro bioassays.

Silicone rubber sheets for hydrophobic compounds and Affinisep HLB disks for hydrophilic compounds were deployed at nine sampling sites in River Danube for 101 – 105 days from end of May to beginning of September in 2019. Mixture effects were analyzed in these samples by battery of in vitro reporter gene bioassays – together seven assays per sampling site.

We detected dioxin-like activity, adaptive stress response to oxidative stress, peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-mediated activity, estrogenic, androgenic, and anti-androgenic activities. There was higher frequency of positive responses in bioassays in HLB disks (48% of cases) than in silicone rubber sheets (29% of cases).

The results of the present study provide baseline levels for the in vitro effects of mixtures of organic micropollutants in Danube.

Acknowledgement: Development of USB – International mobility II” [No. CZ.02.2.69/0.0/0.0/18_053/0016975]; Czech Science Foundation [project No. 20-04676X]; the platform CITEPro (Chemicals in the Terrestrial Environment Profiler) funded by the Helmholtz Association; the International Commission for the Protection of the Danube river for supporting the sampling logistics and the NORMAN association for financial support of sampling and sample preparation.