ENVIRONMENTAL MONITORING M-752 | 2017 Environmental pollutants in the terrestrial and urban environment 2016 COLOPHON Executive institution NILU – Norwegian Institute for Air Research Project manager for the contractor Contact person in the Norwegian Environment Agency Dorte Herzke (NILU) Eivind Farmen M-no Year Pages Contract number 752 2017 230 [Contract number] Publisher The project is funded by NILU - Norwegian Institute for Air Research Norwegian Environmental Agency Author(s) Dorte Herzke (NILU), Torgeir Nygård (NINA), Eldbjørg S. Heimstad (NILU) Title – Norwegian and English Miljøgifter i terrestrisk og bynært miljø 2016 Environmental pollutants in the terrestrial and urban environment 2016 Summary – sammendrag We analysed biological samples from the terrestrial and urban environment for various inorganic and organic contaminants in the Oslo area. A foodchain approach was used, in order to detect bioaccumulation of the different compounds. The species analysed were earthworms, fieldfare, sparrowhawk, brown rat, tawny owl and red fox. Air and soil samples were also included in the study to increase the understanding on sources and uptake of pollutants. Biologiske prøver fra det urbane terrestriske miljøet i Oslo-området ble analysert for flere organiske og uorganiske miljøgifter. En næringskjede ble valgt for å undersøke bioakkumulering av de forskjellige stoffene. De utvalgte artene var meitemark, gråtost, spurvehauk, rotte, kattugle og rødrev. Luft og jordprøver ble også analysert for å øke forståelsen av kilder og opptak av miljøgifter. 4 emneord 4 subject words POPs, PFAS, tungmetaller, nye miljøgifter POPs, PFAS, heavy metals, emerging pollutants Front page photo Foto: Bård Bredesen, Naturarkivet 1 Summary On behalf of the Norwegian Environment Agency, the Norwegian Institute for Air Research (NILU) in collaboration with Norwegian Institute for Nature Research (NINA) analysed biological samples from the terrestrial and urban environment for various inorganic and organic contaminants in 2016. The purpose of this report is to provide an updated assessment of pollution present within the terrestrial urban environment in Norway in order to evaluate potential environmental hazards caused by a densly populated urban area, and to provide information to ongoing regulatory work at both national and international level. The project had the following key goals: - Report concentrations of chosen environmental pollutants in several levels of the terrestrial food chain - Evaluate the bioaccumulation potential of pollutants in a terrestrial food chain - Evaluate the combined exposure and mixture risk assessment of pollutants in terrestrial animals - Evaluate how land-living species are exposed to a variety of pollutants This report presents the findings from the fourth year of the urban terrestrial programme. For the first time in the urban terrestrial programme, air samples were included in 2016. A vast number of chemical parameters was analysed, in addition to the assement of bioaccumulation and combined risk for primary consumers and predators, resulting in a comprehensive overview of conventional and emerging pollutants including metals in a complex urban environment. A broad cocktail of pollutants, consisting both of persistent organic pollutants, organic phenolic pollutants, biocides, pesticides, UV compounds, emerging and conventional PFAS, siloxanes, chlorinated paraffines, organic phosphorous flame retardants and metals were measured. The concentration of the various contaminant group in the investigated species was as follows (on a wet weight basis): - Air : SumSiloxanes >> SumOPFRs >> SumCPs - Soil : SumToxic metals >> SumCPs > SumPFAS - Earthworms : SumToxic metals >SumPhenols > SumPFAS - Fieldfare : SumPesticides > SumPFAS > SumToxic metals - Sparrowhawk: SumPesticides > SumPCBs > SumToxic metals - Tawny owl : SumPesticidess > SumPCBs > SumCPs - Red fox : SumRodenticides > SumToxic metals > SumCPs - Brown rat : SumToxic metals >> SumPFAS > SumPhenols Contaminant data revealed larger differences both in levels and composition between the various locations for soil, earthworm and partly fieldfare than for birds of higher trophic levels. Of all the organisms and tissues measured in the study, sparrowhawk had the highest average concentration of the sum of all organic pollutants measured, followed by red fox, eathworms and tawny owl. Cyclic siloxanes, organic phosphorous flame retardants (OPFRs) and perfluorinated alkylic substances (PFAS) were first and foremost found in earthworms, and to a much lesser degree in species higher up the food chain. Phenols were found in highest concentrations in soil. 2 Metals; concentrations were highest in soil. Of the biological matrices analysed, worms and foxes contained the highest amounts of the toxic metals Hg, Cd, Pb and As. Fieldfare egg from one sampling site (Kjelsås) showed very high Pb concentration of 494 ng/g ww, more than 20 times higher than the other sites. PCBs; data across all species and media revealed that sparrowhawk had the highest concentrations with SumPCB of 804 ng/g ww followed by tawny owl, fieldfare and red fox and (78, 26 and 20 ng/g ww). PCB 153 dominated in almost all sample types, with the exception of fox and fieldfare were PCB 180 dominated, and air where PCB 52 and 101 dominated. PBDEs; similar to PCBs, sparrowhawk eggs had the highest contamination of PBDEs (SumPBDE 34.5 ng/g ww), followed by fieldfare and tawny owl with approximately 10-times lower concentrations (4.1 and 5.3 ng/g ww). Rat and fox liver showed comparable low concentrations with 1.8 and 1.5 ng/g ww followed by earthworm with 0.15 ng/g ww. While PBDE 209 dominated in soil, PBDE 47 and 99 dominated in the biological samples with the exception of tawny owl and rats, where the PBDE 153 was the most important one. PFAS; the very high Sum PFAS concentration and the extreme PFOS concentration (955 ng/g ww) found in earthworms at Alnabru rise considerable concern for both the quality of the terrestrial ecosystem at that site, but also for the fresh- and groundwater system close by. Action should be taken to identify the identity and magnitude of the source. Sparrowhawk is the second most contaminated species with average SumPFAS of 147 ng/g ww, followed by fieldfare (134 ng/g ww). S/MCCP; SCCPs were present in air, soil, fox, sparrowhawk and tawny owl samples, indicating an ubiquitous distribution in Oslo. MCCPs were only found sporadically, mostly in soil and worms. Cyclic Siloxanes; besides elevated concentrations in air (average 2055 ng/sampler and highest in Slottsparken with 2893 ng/sampler), the highest concentrations in eggs of sparrowhawk (13.3 ng/g ww) was found followed by worms (13.2 ng/g ww) and tawny owl (5.5 ng/g ww). D5 was the dominating siloxane in all matrices observed. OPFRs; were mostly found in earthworms (SumOPFR of 286 ng/g ww), compared to 1.3 ng/g ww in sparrowhawk, red fox (1.4 ng/g ww) and rat liver (4.6 ng/g). Phenols; earthworms were the most prominent species for contamination with phenolic compounds, indicating a major uptake potential, mostly due to the contribution of bisphenol A, B and Z (average sum of 721 ng/g ww). Pesticides; p,p’-DDE dominated amongt the pesticides (mean 1157 ng/g ww). Highest SumPesticide levels were also found sparrowhawk eggs, followed by fieldfare and tawny owl. Indications of shell thinning were found in sparrowhawk eggs, a known effect of DDE. Biocides; Bromdiolone was the dominating of the ratpoisons. It was surprising to find that the levels of rat poisons were much higher in the liver of red fox (mean SumRodenticides 1635 ng/g ww) than in the rats (29.3 ng/g ww). Only bromdiolone and brodifacoum were detected. 3 The cumulative risk of contaminants for soil living organisms and predators was evaluated with a first tier conservative concentration addition (CA) approach using predicted no effect concentration for soil living organisms (PNECsoil) and predators (PNECpred) as reference values. The RQmix-soil, describing the cumulative risk for soil-living organisms, ranged between 14 and 52, and was far above the threshold of 1 in all locations, indicating potential risk. The compounds contributing most to the risk quotient were first and foremost the metals, followed by PFOS and PCB7. The earthworms from the five sampled sites in Oslo area showed an RQmix-pred ranging between 6 and 43, indicating a risk for predators with earthworm as an important food item in all five locations. The compounds contributing most to the sum were cadmium, PFOS and PFOA. Fieldfare eggs showed an average RQmix-pred of 3.9 for secondary predators, mostly caused by PFOS, PFOA and HCB. 4 Sammendrag På oppdrag fra Miljødirektoratet analyserte Norsk institutt for luftforskning (NILU) og Norsk institutt for naturforskning (NINA) en lang rekke uorganiske og organiske miljøgifter i dyrearter fra bynært og terrestrisk miljø. Formålet med studien var å gi en vurdering av forurensningssituasjonen i det terrestriske miljøet i bynære områder samt å se på samlet effekt av miljøgifter. Resultatene vil også kunne brukes i forbindelse med nasjonale og internasjonale reguleringer av stoffene. Prosjektet hadde følgende delmål: - Rapportere konsentrasjoner av de utvalgte miljøgifter på flere nivå av en terrestrisk næringskjede - Vurdere bioakkumuleringspotensialet av forurensninger i en terrestrisk næringskjede - Vurdere kombinert eksponering og risikovurdering av miljøgiftblandinger - Vurdere hvordan terrestriske arter er utsatt for en rekke miljøgifter Denne rapporten