Jose Juan Santana Rodriguez

• PhD, Professor
• Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria at University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria

It has been reported that microplastics (MPs) can adsorb various environmental chemical contaminants, thereby serving as a sink and source of these associated chemical contaminants and potentially changing their toxicity, bioavailability, and fate. Among these compounds diff erent families of so called organic contaminants of emerging concern (OCEC...

Cape Verde, a West Africa Island country, is exposed to climate change effect. An effective way of reducing its poverty and achieving food security is to provide its agricultural sector with water. The purpose of this study is to monitor treated water quality to ensure that any pollutants are below the limits set to ensure the safety and sustainabi...

The presence of ultraviolet filters (UVFs) and stabilizers (UVSs) was evaluated for the first time in the common bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus). UVFs and UVSs are compounds of growing concern because their effects on the environment are not completely known. UVFs and UVSs are added to personal care products (PCPs), such as cosmetics and pr...

Seafood plays an important role in diet because of its health benefits. However, the fact that chemical compounds such as high production volume chemicals may be present in seafood means that its consumption can be a potential risk for population. To assess the occurrence of HPVs and estimate the exposure and risk associated with their consumption,...

Waste stabilization ponds and constructed wetlands (CWs) are effective at eliminating pharmaceutical residues, but removals are not usually complete. Their combination is regarded as an efficient, robust wastewater treatment method, but their efficiency in the removal of pharmaceuticals and the effect of a mild effluent recirculation has not been s...

Organic ultraviolet (UV) filters are added in different products to absorb UV radiation, whose use has been voiced due to increasing concerning about skin damage. Given their extensive production, these compounds are continuously released to the aquatic environment, which makes them an important family of emerging pollutants. Their presence in the...

Marine environment pollution has increased in recent decades as a result of anthropogenic activities. Macrophytes can assimilate the compounds dissolved in the water and respond to changes in surround conditions, for that, they can be used as bioindicators of pollution in aquatic environments. Currently organic ultraviolet (UV) filters have shown e...

Anthracyclines are a group of antineoplastic compounds used to treat acute leukemia and other cancers, and they are excreted after consumption by patients. These chemicals are often found in sewage at very low concentration levels. For this reason, the development of sensitive analytical methodologies capable of determining them at low concentratio...

Organic ultraviolet (UV) filters are used in personal care products, but they are also added to industrial products and are constantly released to the environment. This study analyses the occurrence of 8 widely used organic UV filters in seawater from three beaches on the Gran Canaria Island (Spain) and in three wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs)...

Microplastics present in marine ecosystems have become a major environmental issue. This problem is due to not only the harmful effects of microplastics on exposed organisms, but also to their ability to adsorb organic compounds, which can have a combined harmful effect. Steroid hormones are an important group of endocrine-disrupting compounds that...

To encourage the reutilization of treated wastewaters as an adaptation strategy to climate change it is necessary to demonstrate their quality. If this is ensured, reclaimed waters could be a valuable resource that produces very little environmental impact and risks to human health. However, wastewaters are one of the main sources of emerging pollu...

Benzotriazole UV stabilizers (BUVSs) are emerging contaminants that are widely used in personal care products, such as cosmetics and sunscreens, to absorb ultraviolet light. These compounds have been described as bioaccumulative, pseudo-persistent and toxic; therefore, it is of great importance to investigate them and determine their presence and d...

Cytostatic drugs are compounds used to fight cancer, which may be excreted after administration to patients, and eventually reach wastewater. Given the high incidence of cancer and the properties of drugs, the drug concentrations in water systems should be evaluated. We present the optimization, development and application of a solid phase extracti...

The occurrence of organic micropollutants (OMPs) in the environment is a global concern due to their potential ecological risks. Several studies have shown that some OMPs are widely detected in environmental matrices such as surface water and sewage. Wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) have received international attention over past decades because...

This study aims to examine the impact of public-private partnerships (PPP) investment in energy, technological innovations (TI), economic growth (EG), exports, and foreign direct investment (FDI) on CO2 emissions in Brazil over the period from 1984 to 2018. In doing so, we employ the Ng-Perron unit root test to examine the stationarity and autoregr...

Aplysterol, several didehydroaplysterols, and their acetylated derivatives were isolated from samples of the marine sponge Aplysina aerophoba, which had been collected on the coast of the Canary Islands, and were identified by chromatography and¹ H-and¹³ C-NMR spectroscopy. A quantitative analysis was done, based on the relative intensities of the...

Contamination of the aquatic environment caused by multiple human activities may exert a negative impact on all living organisms. Several contaminants of emerging concern such as personal care products (PCPs) are continuously released into the aquatic environment where they are biologically active and persistent. This work reviews the current knowl...

Stigmasterols, ceramides, including ceramide-1-phosphates and pyrimidines were identified in an ethanol extract of the marine sponge Myxilla sp. The compounds were identified by MS and 1D- and 2D-NMR techniques. A simple method based on an ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography coupled with tandem mass spectrometry was developed to investigat...

Aplysterol, several didehydroaplysterols, and their acetylated derivatives were isolated from samples of the marine sponge Aplysina aerophoba, which had been collected on the coast of the Canary Islands, and were identified by chromatography and 1H- and 13C-NMR spectroscopy. A quantitative analysis was done, based on the relative intensities of the...

The presence and fate of pharmaceutical residues in environmental samples are of great interest. There is a vast number of studies published regarding their input, presence, effects and risks in ecosystems. Moreover, it has been demonstrated that the primary source of input of these contaminants in the environment is from Wastewater Treatment Plant...

Every year, hundreds of tons of organic pollutants reach the environment through effluents released from wastewater treatment plants worldwide, and many of these compounds have harmful effects on the aquatic ecosystem. A new class of emerging pollutants of high concern is cytostatic drugs, which are designed to treat different types of cancers by a...

Background: Antifouling paints are widely used for the prevention of growth and development of fouling organisms (biofouling). Consequently, nowadays they are one of the main sources of marine pollution. Objective: The present study examines and compares two different extraction techniques, for the determination of diuron and irgarol 1051 in shellf...

Steroid hormones produce adverse effects on biota as well as bioaccumulation in fish and seafood, making it necessary to develop methodologies to evaluate these compounds in samples related to the food chain. This work presents an analytical method for evaluating 15 steroid hormones in fish tissue. It is based on microwave-assisted extraction and s...

The potential for nanofiltration (NF) and reverse osmosis (RO) in secondary effluent reclamation is noteworthy, but both processes require extensive pre-treatment to prevent membrane fouling and promote system longevity. In this study, performance of direct ultrafiltration (UF) and tertiary membrane bioreactors (tMBRs) as feed pre-treatments were a...

To follow the twelve "green analytical chemistry" (GAC) principles, it is necessary to continuously develop analytical extraction and determination methodologies to assess the presence of micropollutants, such as pharmaceuticals, in environmental samples. A reduction in the analysis time and solvent quantity, which is one of the GAC principles, has...

Benzimidazole fungicides (BFs) are a type of pesticide of high environmental interest characterized by a heavy fluorescence spectral overlap which complicates its detection in mixtures. In this paper, we present a computational study based on supervised neural networks for a multi-label classification problem. Specifically, backpropagation networks...

Today, the presence of contaminants in the environment is a topic of interest for society in general and for the scientific community in particular. A very large amount of different chemical substances reaches the environment after passing through wastewater treatment plants without being eliminated. This is due to the inefficiency of conventional...

A new method has been developed for the extraction and determination of the heavy metals Ni, Cu, Cr, Pb, and Cd in mussels (Mytilus galloprovincialis) and polychaetes (Nereis diversicolor), using biodegradable mixed-micelles (SDS and Triton X-100) as the extractant, and GF-AAS analysis. This method proves to be effective in the extraction of metals...

Benzotriazole UV stabilizers (BUVSs) are a group of compounds added to personal care products such as sunscreens, hair dyes, make up formulations, soaps or shampoos, among others. Direct input from beaches or another aquatic recreational areas is the main source of BUVSs incorporation to the environment, where they can be mutagenic, toxic, pseudo-p...

Hormonal compounds are a concern to the international community because they can affect the aquatic biota and are therefore considered to be endocrine-disrupting compounds. These compounds have lipophilic properties, so they tend to accumulate in solid matrices, such as sewage sludge. This work presents the optimization of a microwave-assisted extr...

En la esponja marina Aplysina aerophoba, recogida en el litoral del archipiélago canario, fueron identificados aplisterol y varios didehidroaplisteroles por cromatografía y espectroscopía de 1H-NMR y 13C-NMR. A partir de las intensidades relativas de las señales correspondientes a los carbonos olefínicos cuaternarios del espectro de 13C-NMR se hizo...

In this work, the effectiveness of UV and UV/H2O2 to degrade twenty-three pharmaceutical compounds present in microfiltered secondary effluent of an urban wastewater treatment plant was investigated. Apparent kinetic constant and UV doses required for effective removal of the studied compounds were calculated using a custom-made photochemical react...

Background: Tons of pharmaceutical compounds are used every year around the world in human and veterinary medicine, and these can reach wastewater treatment plants by metabolic excretion and/or improper disposal. Some compounds are not completely eliminated during the wastewater purification processes and are introduced into the environment through...

Miniaturization is a strategy employed in sample preparation that has gained much prominence in recent years due to the need to develop more efficient procedures that consume less solvent and time. The analysis of important families of contaminants, such as pesticides or polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons ( PAH s), in liquid samples has traditionally...

Antineoplastic or cytostatic compounds are used to fight cancer. They are a broad group of organic compounds, possessing a diverse range of physico-chemical characteristics. Given the toxicity of these compounds, the development of reliable analytical methods for their analysis became necessary. Cytostatic compounds are found in very low concentrat...

Estrogens are an important class of endocrine-disrupting compounds, and their contamination of environmental waters through the effluents of wastewater treatment plants could have an important impact on aquatic biota, even at low concentrations. For this reason, the development of selective and sensitive extraction methodologies, which permit the i...

A fast and sensitive sample preparation strategy using fabric phase sorptive extraction followed by ultra-high performance liquid chromatography and tandem mass spectrometry detection has been developed to analyse benzotriazole UV stabilizer compounds in aqueous samples. Benzotriazole UV stabilizer compounds are a group of compounds added in sunscr...

An on-line solid phase extraction coupled with ultra-high performance liquid chromatography in tandem with mass spectrometry (SPE-UHPLC-MS/MS) method for the determination of fourteen hormones (four oestrogens, three androgens, four progestogens and three corticosteroids) in wastewater samples has been developed. All of the parameters involved in t...

Mobile Phase: MeOH/ Milli Q Water Gradient: 0 min: 50%min 3min 60%; 7min 70% 13 min 50% MeOH Equilibrium time: 3min Flow rate: 0.5 mL.min-1 Inj. vol. 20 µL Detection: 230 and 248 nm Column: SunFire® C18 (3.0x100 mm) 3.5µm Lyophilization Extraction and clean of soft tissues Homogenization EXPERIMENTAL Ultrasonic 100 mg of sample with 5 mL of methano...

A new green method has been developed for the extraction of the pseudo-total content of the heavy metals Ni, Cu, Cr, Pb, and Cd from marine sediments using a mixture of biodegradable micellar media (SDS, Triton X-100) as extractants and graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrometry (GFAAS) for their determination. This work is the first one that...

Sample extraction and preparation methods are described for the most relevant groups of personal care products (PCPs) (disinfectants, fragrances, preservatives, UV filters and stabilisers) in solid samples from aquatic environments. The extraction methodologies have been separated into two groups, conventional and novel procedures, to compare the i...

Lyophilization Extraction and clean of soft tissues Homogenization MAE -Multiwave 3000 Ultrasonic HPLC system coupled to an PDA Detector from Varian® Mobile Phase: MeOH/ Milli Q Water Gradient: 0 min: 50%min 3min 60%; 7min 70% 13 min 50% MeOH Equilibrium time: 3min Flow rate: 0.5 mL.min -1 Inj. vol. 20 µL Detection: 230 and 248 nm Column: SunFire®...

Steroid hormones are a diverse group of natural and synthetic compounds. Their wide use in human and veterinary medicine results in their continual introduction into the environment. In recent years, environmental concern over steroids that act as endocrine disruptors has increased because of their adverse effects on organisms or their progeny. Mor...

Until recently, sample preparation was carried out using traditional techniques, such as liquid–liquid extraction (LLE), that use large volumes of organic solvents. Solid-phase extraction (SPE) uses much less solvent than LLE, although the volume can still be significant. These preparation methods are expensive, time-consuming and environmentally u...

A dispersive liquid–liquid micellar microextraction (DLLMME) method coupled with ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography (UHPLC) using Diode Array Detector (DAD) detector was developed for the analysis of five pharmaceutical compounds of different nature in wastewaters. A micellar solution of a surfactant, polidocanol, as extraction solvent (1...

Industries of antifouling paints have synthesized a third generation of biocides as an alternative to inhibit the settlement and growth of marine organisms on submerged structures. These alternatives to compounds also can be toxic on marine organisms. Their effect in the aquatic environment has been a topic discussed over the last few years. ABSTRA...

The marine sponge Myxilla sp from Canary Islands is a rich source of steroids. The compounds where identified as stigmast-5-en-3β-ol (β-sitosterol) (75%), stigmast-5,25-dien-3β-ol (7%), stigmast-5,24(25)-dien-3β-ol (2%) and stigmast-5,23-dien-3β-ol (16%). The mixture of stigmasterols has the aspect of a white solid, is homogeneous by TLC and shows...

There is a variety of cyanobacteria located in Canary Islands in the intertidal flat of the coast that presents a photoprotective molecule called scytonemin. Scytonemin is a yellow-brown pigment of the sheath of many cyanobacterias that protect them from the UV-A radiations, making easier the colonization of areas with big radition [1]. This compou...

A method is presented for the extraction, preconcentration, and determination of two commonly used booster biocides, Irgarol 1051 and diuron, in samples of muscle and liver tissues from Mugil cephalus by microwave-assisted extraction (MAE) followed by SPE for the preconcentration and cleanup step, coupled with LC/MS/MS. The optimum conditions for M...

A laboratory-scale, intermittently fed, organic-based vertical flow filter was tested as a pre-treatment of high-strength urban wastewater to reduce the risk of clogging in treatment wetlands. At an average hydraulic loading rate of 815 L/m2 day and average surface loading rates of biological oxygen demand of 458 g/m2 day, chemical oxygen demand of...

An assessment of the concentrations of thirteen different therapeutic pharmaceutical compounds was conducted on water samples obtained from different wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) using solid phase extraction and high- and ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography with mass spectrometry detection (HPLC-MS/MS and UHPLC-MS/MS), was carried o...

Benzotriazole UV stabilizers (BUVSs) are emerging contaminants that are mutagenic, toxic, pseudo-persistent, bioaccumulative and with significant estrogenic activity. However, the use of BUVSs in personal-care products (PCPs) is one of the primary ways that they enter the environment, often in “hot-spots” of discharge, such as wastewater-treatment...

Benzotriazole ultra-violet stabilisers are emerging compounds used in personal care products and can enter surface water after passing through wastewater treatment plants without be removed. Because these analytes are strongly hydrophobic, there is an environmental risk of accumulation in solid matrices and magnification through the trophic chain....

This study presents the evaluation of seven pharmaceutical compounds belonging to different commonly used therapeutic classes in seawater samples from coastal areas of Gran Canaria Island. The target compounds include atenolol (antihypertensive), acetaminophen (analgesic), norfloxacin and ciprofloxacin (antibiotics), carbamazepine (antiepileptic) a...

A new analytical methodology based on ultra high performance liquid chromatography (UHPLC) after microwave assisted extraction, followed by a clean-up and preconcentration step with solid phase extraction (MAE–SPE) has been developed for the simultaneous determination of 11 endocrine-disrupting compounds (EDCs), including alkylphenolic compounds, b...

Benzotriazole ultra-violet stabilisers are compounds widely used in personal care products, which can reach the environment after passing through wastewater treatment plants. In this work, we develop a novel method to evaluate the presence of seven compounds in marine sediments and sewage sludges using microwave-assisted extraction followed by a cl...

The combination of liquid chromatography (LC) with mass spectrometry (MS) in the environmental field has appeared as a valuable tool for the determination of micropollutants. Several groups of compounds have been considered as particularly relevant (e.g., pharmaceuticals, hormones and other endocrine-disrupting, personal care products and their met...

In the last years, hormone consumption has increased exponentially. Because of that, hormone compounds are considered emerging pollutants since several studies have determinted their presence in water influents and effluents of wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs). In this study, a quantitative method for the simultaneous determination of oestrogens...

Endocrine-disruptor compounds (EDCs) can mimic natural hormones and produce adverse effects in the endocrine functions by interacting with estrogen receptors. EDCs include both natural and synthetic chemicals, such as hormones, personal care products, surfactants, and flame retardants, among others. EDCs are characterised by their ubiquitous presen...

Liquid and solid samples from two wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) on Gran Canaria Island (Spain) have been tested for the presence of compounds with endocrine-disrupting properties. The selected degradation stages were sampled bimonthly from each WWTP over the 12-month period from July 2010 to July 2011. The analytical methods used for the dete...

A new “green” methodology, free of hazardous solvents, was developed for the extraction and determination of five fluoroquinolones (levofloxacin, norfloxacin, ciprofloxacin, enrofloxacin and sarafloxacin) in environmental water matrices. The method is based on solid-phase extraction (SPE) coupled to liquid chromatography (LC) with fluorescence and...

During the last two decades, a large number of publications have clearly shown that anthropogenic compounds that disrupt the endocrine system of wildlife species are a major cause for concern, and this concern has led to a demand for new screening methods. In this work, we have optimized and applied a new method to identify endocrine-disrupting che...

This work presents an effective sample preparation method for the evaluation of seven pharmaceutical compounds belonging to different therapeutic classes in purified water from wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs). The target compounds include caffeine (stimulant), nicotine (stimulant), atenolol (beta blocker), metamizole (anti-inflammatory and anal...

A process using a fully automated on-line solid-phase extraction system combined with ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography and tandem mass spectrometry detection (SPE-UHPLC-MS/MS) has been developed and applied to the determination of 27 endocrine disrupting compounds (EDCs) in sewage samples. This technology allows separation and detection...

Booster biocides are organic compounds that are added to antifouling copper-based paints to improve their efficacy. Due to their widespread use, they are common pollutants of marine ecosystems. Some of these compounds show acute and chronic toxic effects in non-targeted organisms at concentrations as low as ng L−1. The determination of these compou...

Benzotriazoles are a group of UV absorbing compounds considered emerging contaminants that are used in different personal care products, and therefore, it is of high interest to develop sensitive and fast methods for investigating their presence in the environment. In this work, we present the development and application of a novel method based on...

Residues of hormones have become a cause for concern because they can affect the biological activity of non-target organisms. These compounds are a potential risk for wildlife and humans through the consumption of contaminated food or water. These exogenous substances that interfere with the endocrine system and disrupt the physiologic function of...

A new analytical methodology based on ultra-high performance liquid chromatography with fluorescence detection (UHPLC-FD) has been developed for the determination of five fluoroquinolone antibiotics (FQs) used in aquaculture (norfloxacin, ciprofloxacin, enrofloxacin, danofloxacin and sarafloxacin) in fish muscles (e.g. gilthead seabream (Sparus aur...

Emerging contaminants are compounds that are not currently covered by existing regulations, that have not been previously studied, and that are thought to be a possible threat to environmental health and safety. In particular, these compounds include pharmaceuticals, personal care products and surfactants, among others. Their extensive environmenta...

An innovative methodology based on in-tube SPME using micellar desorption coupled to liquid chromatography combined with diode array (DAD) and fluorescence (FD) detection is proposed for the determination of five endocrine disruptors compounds (EDCs) (estriol, bisphenol A, norethisterone, 17α-ethynylestradiol, and D-norgestrel) in environmental sam...

In this work, a method for the analysis of fluoroquinolone antibiotics using microwave-assisted micellar extraction combined with liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry detection has been developed. Different surfactants were tested for use as extractants in the isolation of the analytes from solid samples, and several experimental designs were ev...

A solid phase extraction (SPE) technique for seawater samples coupled to quantification using liquid chromatography tandem-mass spectrometry (LC-MS/ MS) is described to quantify relevant antifouling booster biocides of ecotox-icological concern (Diuron, TCMTB, Irgarol 1051 and Dichlofluanid). The optimised methodology provides a sensitive, easy to...

Residues of steroid hormones have become a cause for concern because they can affect the biological activity of non-target organisms. Steroid hormones are a potential risk for wildlife and humans through the consumption of contaminated food or water. Their determination requires extraction and clean-up steps, prior to detection, to reach low concen...

In this work, we present the development and application of a microwave assisted extraction followed by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry methodology (MAE-LC-MS/MS) for the determination of various estradiol-mimicking compounds in sewage sludge samples. For the purification of the MAE extracts, we have employed a solid phase extraction...

An analytical procedure was developed to allow for the study of the levels of concentration of biocides in the various different ports on the island of Gran Canaria, The Canary Islands. The analytes studied were extracted from water samples using solid-phase extraction and then determined by high-performance liquid chromatography using a diode arra...

Liquid-liquid extraction (LLE) has been widely used as a pre-treatment technique for separation and preconcentration of organic analytes from aqueous samples. Nevertheless, this technique has several drawbacks, mainly in the use of large volumes of solvents, making LLE an expensive, environmentally-unfriendly technique.Miniaturized methodologies [e...

The presence of booster biocides in the aquatic environment has been associated with a risk to non-target species due to their proven toxicity. The aim of the present study was to determine the spatial and temporal distribution of common booster biocides in different harbours of the island of Gran Canaria (Spain) and evaluate, by means of a probabi...