Occurence of fragrances in the canal of Venice

Perfumes are ubiquitous in daily life. The majority of cosmetics, toiletries and a variety of household and Personal Care Products (PCPs) contain fragrance materials. In spite of their widespread use, little is known on the environmental fate of these compounds. The aim of this study is to partially fill this gap of knowledge. Commercial fragrances (provided by Givaudan®) were selected owing to their stability and persistence properties. The knowledge about the environmental distribution and fate of these compounds is very limited [1] or absolutely lacking. The Venice lagoon is a perfect macrocosm laboratory to study PCPs: the city of Venice sits in the middle of it, but, as the historical center is almost completely lacking a sewerage system, PCPs are discharged directly into the canals. Water samples from different canals were collected and analyzed. A new analytical method was developed and validated: extraction of unfiltered water samples was performed using Oasis® HLB Cartridges (Waters). After solvent elution and concentration under gentle nitrogen stream, samples were analyzed by HRGC-LRMS (Agilent 5890-5975C). Quantification was performed using phenanthrene 13C as internal standard and the results were corrected using instrumental response factors. Salicylates resulted the most abundant and widespread class of compounds. More precisely, Amyl Salicylate, Hexyl Salicylate and Benzyl Salicylate were found in all the samples, ranging from 15 to 251 ng L-1. Benzyl Salicylate, also used as UV-filter [1], is included in the EU list of allergenic fragrances and was recently found to have an estrogenic activity comparable to Bisphenol A (BPA) [2]. Less abundant, but still present, were Oranger Crystals, Ambrofix and Peonile (commercial names). To the best of our knowledge, this is the first detection of these compounds in environmental samples from the Venetian Lagoon. This cutting-edge study on the selected fragrances as new emerging pollutants constitutes the starting point to recognize their occurrence and fate in the environment. [1] Y. Kameda, K. Kimura, and M. Miyazaki, Environmental Pollution 159 - 6 (2011) 1570-1576. [2] Z. Zhang, C. Jia, Y. Hu, L. Sun, J. Jiao, L. Zhao, D. Zhu, J. Li, Y. Tian, H. Bai, R. Li, and J. Hu, Toxicology Letters 209 - 2 (2012) 146-153.