The triclosan and the perfluorinated, present at the Spanish river systems

Spain aims to provide a new leap in the field of environmental conservation, this time having as main objective the River communities of the peninsula, but also in lakes and lagoons of our country. And it is that they found during the execution of a study called Scarce ('evaluation and prediction of the effects of change in the quantity and quality of water in Iberian rivers'), carried out throughout the year 2010 in the main river sources of the Spanish territory, alarming levels of two chemical compounds harmful to water for both human, as they are the tTiclosán and the perfluorinated.

Thus came to be known during the Scarce Conference I held in Girona during the month of December, 2010, in the hands of scientists belonging to Institut Català de Recerca de l'Aigua (Icra) who have published their study ' triclosan persistence through plants for water treatment and its possible toxic effects on systems River ', which have been published in the magazine International Aquatic Toxicology.

The triclosan is not more than a common bactericide which survives to the different processes of purification plants of wastewater and queestá coming to river ecosystems and increasing potential environmental risk, especially in Mediterranean lands where water scarcity results in a high dilution.

This compound is known to be very present in cosmetics and soaps, deodorants, pulp of teeth, among others, which is why it is considered a ' pollutant emerging '. While the triclosan has long present in low concentrations in our river systems, the toxicity recently detected in the algae are highly toxic for rivers, lakes and lagoons, especially their ability to survive in the water purification processes.

Basically what happens, as he relates this study is that the environmental concentrations of triclosan increase bacterial mortality, inhibits algae photosynthetic capacity, as well as its extinction not photochemistry, and finally also affects the viability of the diatoms cells. This results in that the triclosan has a negative impact far greater than the predicted by ecological models.

For Damià Barceló, director of the Icra, which "Sweden has already banned the use of the triclosan already is quite symptomatic". He pointed out that "monitoring continued the theme years ago is being done in Spain, but is now with this study is done when more relevant for establishing both the solo and the environment to which each agency may be".

In 2008, already published a study in which the triclosan appeared in 50% of the samples collected on the Ebro and el Llobregat

The perfluorinated also have been detected in different bodies of water, including the own precipitation, and are a class of organofluorados widely used since the 1940s in industries and households for its physical, chemical and biological stability. They are present in the water and food that we consume and have now been reported in human milk, serum or liver. The problem with them is that they are persistent when it comes to dissolve due to its properties, besides the fact that they are 'bio-accumulable' and 'bio-magnificables' in the food chain, i.e., that are expanded all over the world.

In this regard was presented in the Scarce Conference I work 'Analysis of perfluorinated compounds in the water of the faucet of Spanish cities with a spectrometry', by liquid chromatography mass in where we have examined 18 perfluorinated compounds in tap water of 7 major cities located along the River Ebro: Tortosa, Lleida, Logroño, Miranda, Zaragoza, Pamplona and Barcelona.

While all of them were revealed different rates of concentration of the compound, he was in the city of Barcelona was detected where the worst, with 38% of perfluorinated in measurable higher levels, including the harmful sulfonate acid (PFOA).

Those responsible for this study concluded that one of the hypotheses to explain the levels found in the waters her have in that they would not be entirely deleted or they were redistributed in water treatment plantsas well as to the manner in which it carries to the homes.

This research started in April 2010 and with the support of the Ministry of science and innovation will serve to improve the management of rivers and therefore will be provided to carry out an important interaction between the scientific community and basins. The project, which has already taken more than 5000 samples of the Llobregat, the Ebro, the Júcar and the Guadalquivir, expected to make public its first conclusions at the end of 2011.