Environmental & Analytical Toxicology

Phytoremediation is a green remediation technology for clean-up contaminated soils. The effect of chelant addition including EDTA, DTPA, EDDS, and citric acid on phtoextraction of metals within different organic contents of soil into sunflower (Helianthus annuus), Chinese cabbage (Brassica campestris), cattail (Typha latifolia), and reed (Phragmitescommunis) was investigated in this pot experiment study. The application of 5 mmol/kg EDTA and DTPA had inhibitory effects on the growth of the plants, resulting in % reduction in biomass, respectively, compared with that in the control. However, the uptake of metal into tested plants and translocation to aerial plant parts was also demonstrated. The essential metals Cu and Zn uptake by sunflowers were significantly enhanced via citric acid addition. The other three chelants (EDTA, DTPA, and EDDS) did not improve the Cu and Zn root uptake nor above ground parts translocation compared to the control plant. The addition of 5 mmol/Kg citric acid achieved the maximum extent of phytoextraction.

In the present study, the protective effect of an aqueous extract of green tea (GT) against renal oxidative damage and nephrotoxicity induced by cyromazine (Cyr), chlorpyrifos (CPF) and their combination in male rats was undertaken. Eight groups containing six rats each were selected. Group I served as control. Groups II, III and IV rats were given a single daily oral doses of Cyr (169.35 mg kg-1, 1/20 LD50, in corn oil), CPF (6.75 mg kg-1 kg-1,1/20 LD50, in corn oil) and their combination for 28 consecutive days, respectively. Group V permitted free access to solubilised GT (1.5%w/v in water) as the sole drinking fluid. Groups VI, VII and VIII rats were given the same doses as groups II, III and IV and simultaneously permitted free access to solubilised GT as the sole drinking fluid. Significant reduction in body weight and elevation in kidney weight were observed in insecticides exposed rats compared to control. Significant perturbations of renal function as evidenced via increase in blood urea nitrogen (BUN) and serum creatinine level were observed in treated rats. Also, renal oxidative damage was observed in insecticide-treated rats as evidenced via augmentation in kidney lipid peroxidation (LPO) as well as depletion in kidney antioxidant enzymes; catalase (CAT), superoxide dismutase (SOD) and glutathione peroxidase (GPx). Histopathological analysis of the kidney revealed that supplementation with GT resulted in nil to mild in vacuolization, swelling and degeneration in the endothelium of glomerular tuft and the epithelium of lining tubules. In conclusion, the use of green tea extract appeared to be beneficial to rats, to a great extent by attenuating and restoring the damage sustained by insecticide exposure.

Anticancer agents as water contaminants belong to a general class of pharmaceuticals and personal care products as pollutants (PPCPs) that are widely present in the environment. They are less studied compared to other PPCPs in the past two decades. However, the cytotoxicity, genotoxicity, and endocrine disruption of these agents mar more concerning adverse effects on the environment and human health. Here, we review different classes of anticancer agents as emerging water contaminants, their occurrence in various waterbodies, the ecotoxicology, and the strategies for their treatment.

Background: Pollution of the aquatic environment by inorganic and organic chemicals is a major factor posing serious threat to the survival of aquatic organisms including fish. Lake Manzala (LM) is one of the Egypt’s northern Delta Lakes situated on the Mediterranean Coast of the Delta. It is affected by drainage water polluted by different heavy metals that their concentrations exceed the maximum world permissible levels.
Aim: This study aims to study the testicular histopathological alterations of Oreochromis niloticus using light microscope and the mature sperm using TEM during spawning season in LM.
Materials and methods: Samples of water and 48 specimen of Nile tilapia, Oreochromis niloticus about 14-20 cm in length were collected from two areas; Demitta branch of river (RN) at Mansoura city as a control site and LM as a polluted area during the spawning season from March- June. The gonado-somatic index (GSI) was then calculated for each fish samples. Pieces of testes were then taken and prepared for light and electron microscopic studies. Cd and Pb were estimated in water samples during the spawning season from March to June.
Results: Examined Sections revealed that the testes of specimens of LM had degenerative germinal epithelium of the seminiferous tubules, vacuolization in proliferating germ cells; decline in spermatogenic cell and sperm density than those collected from RN. Ultrastructure study of mature sperm of LM revealed nuclear degeneration, vacuolization and shortage of bilateral fins of the flagellum comparing to mature sperm of RN.
Conclusion: This study giving an alarm that environmental hazard like increasing the levels of different heavy metals as Cd and Pb could alter the sperms structure and their ability to produce new offspring, and further studies may be needed to confirm these findings.

The concentrations of carcinogenic risk substances of cadmium (Cd), chromium (Cr), arsenic (As) as well as noncarcinogenic risk substances of lead (Pb), mercury (Hg), Copper (Cu), zinc (Zn), ammonia (NH3-N) and nitrate (NO3--N) were determined in water samples in the Haihe River Basin. Furthermore, human health risk by water consumption were also assessed, it was obviously distributed with regional characteristics. For carcinogenic risk, there was Cd that were all under the 5.0×10-5•a-1 in the whole basin, therefore, Cd was not a carcinogenic risk source of Haihe River Basin, in addition to this, the carcinogenic risk of Cr6+ were larger than 5.0×10-5•a-1 in six sites, especially the carcinogenic
risk of Cr6+ was almost 20 times larger than 5.0×10-5•a-1 in the Aixinzhuang village of Xingtai City of Hebei Province, the concentration of Cr6+ of Yongdinghe River system and estuary of Haihe river were all considerable higher than the acceptable level of 5.0×10-5•a-1 in the whole river basin, besides that, the spatial distribution characteristics of As was similar with that of Cr6+ in the Haihe River Basin, Furthermore, for the non-carcinogenic risk, the risk of non-carcinogenic risk of Pb, Hg, Cu, Zn, NH3-N and NO3--N are all less than 5.0×10-5•a-1, therefore, the potential human heath impact of
water consumption were Cr6+ and Cd, the pollution level need to be controlled in the future.