Techniques for evaluating the availability of pollutants in aquatic environment using passive samplers

The EU Directive n. 2013/39/UE on priority substances in managing water policy recommends, at the article 18, the use of sampling methodologies as passive samplers or other promising methods for water monitoring, overcoming the practise of collecting single water samples. CNR-IRSA, supported by CIPAIS Commission, investigated the possibility of using specific passive samplers and bioaccumulation in benthic invertebrates as proficiency tools for monitoring organic and inorganic pollutant contamination in sediments. The case study herein considered regards DDT and mercury (Hg) contamination. This pollution in the Toce River (North Italy) was caused by a factory producing technical DDT and using a mercury-cell chlor-alkali plant.