Emerging Organic Contaminants (EOCs) in New Zealand and Sri Lankan Coastal environments : implications for seafood safety and ecological health.

Chemical pollution of oceans has become an enormous environmental challenge. Coastal ecosystems are under stress from the releases of chemical contaminants due to coastal urbanization. Emerging organic contaminants (EOCs) are one such class of contaminants with ubiquitous presence and potential toxic effects. Pollution of coastal waters by EOCs can pose risks to seafood safety and ecological health. This research investigated the environmental presence, sources and fate of a target suite of EOCs in New Zealand and Sri Lankan coastal environments, providing a comparison between a developed temperate island country and a developing tropical island country, respectively. The concentrations of twenty-four EOCs belonging to chemical classes of UV filters, preservatives, industrial chemicals, antimicrobials, plastic precursors and steroid hormones were measured in seawater, sediments and edible shellfish. Seafood safety and the ecological health risks of EOCs were assessed for both countries. The uptake and depuration kinetics of EOCs in edible bivalves (New Zealand green-lipped mussel Perna canaliculus) were also investigated. Eighteen EOCs were detected in seawater from the Canterbury coastline (New Zealand) at concentrations ranging from 0.1-24.4 ng/L, whereas the predicted concentration range for Sri Lankan seawater was 0.1-76.9 ng/L. Eleven EOCs were detected in New Zealand sediments (0.2- 6.0 ng/g d.w) and sixteen were detected in Sri Lankan sediments (0.3-370.1 ng/g d.w). Twenty- three EOCs were measured in New Zealand shellfish at concentrations varying from