Unregulated Synthetic Organic Pollutants in Environmental Systems
Dr. Aaron PeckSkidaway Institute of Oceanography
Date: Tuesday, March 4, 2008 at 11:00 AM
Room: ELAB 21
Abstract
Interest in the environmental occurrence and fate of unregulated organic contaminants, including pharmaceuticals and personal care products, has steadily increased over the past decade. Synthetic musk fragrances are a group of compounds used to provide a pleasant scent to soap, shampoo, deodorant, and other personal care products. They have been measured in air, surface water, wastewater, sediments, and biota. Synthetic musk fragrances are potentially good tracers of contamination by wastewater treatment plant effluent due to their resistance to biodegradation, high effluent and environmental concentrations, and relative ease of analysis. Work to understand the environmental occurrence, fate, and sources of eight of these compounds in air and water has been conducted in Iowa and the Great Lakes. Extensive sampling efforts have shown the ubiquitous occurrence of these compounds in urban and rural air. The atmospheric concentration dynamics are controlled by temperature in rural environments. Sediment core data from Lake Erie showed that inputs of the two most common synthetic musk fragrances to the lake have increased dramatically since 1990. This increase corresponds to known usage patterns of fragrance chemicals in the United States. Wastewater treatment plant effluent is the most important source to the lake. Reducing environmental contamination by these compounds is dependent on increasing their removal efficiency during wastewater treatment. A good understanding of the fate processes governing these compounds will aid in future work on other pharmaceuticals and personal care products.
Presenter Bio
Dr. Peck brings expertise in environmental analytical chemistry and environmental engineering to solving questions related to the sources and fate of historic and emerging contaminants in natural systems. He is best known for his work to understand the sources and fate of synthetic musk fragrances, a class of compounds used to scent a variety of household and personal care products, in the Great Lakes. Before coming to the Skidaway Institute of Oceanography in 2006, Dr. Peck was a National Research Council Postdoctoral Fellow at the National Institute of Standards and Technology. There, he developed methods for the analysis of flame retardants, antimicrobial compounds, and other emerging environmental contaminants in water, sediments, and biological tissues. He has also worked on projects related to the environmental occurrence and fate of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), and current-use pesticides. Dr. Peck is currently working to understand the sources, fate, and ecosystem consequences of pharmaceutical, personal care, and other unregulated compounds in aquatic systems. Among his specific research interests in this large, emerging field of environmental science, are the chemical mechanisms by which these compounds accumulate in sediments, the environmental transformation kinetics and products of antimicrobial compounds commonly found in hand soaps and disinfectants, and the role of atmospheric transport and deposition of these compounds to isolated environments. As a part of his work, Dr. Peck is working to improve and expedite the analysis of these compounds in the environment.
