María Esther Torres-Padrón

• PhD in Marine Sciences
• Professor (Assistant) at University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria

Nowadays, activities associated with industries, cities, and leisure generate a number of different wastes, including many chemical pollutants that enter the environment and negatively affect the wildlife. Some of them are emerging organic contaminants (EOCs), which include UV filters and stabilizers, antineoplastic agents, and natural and syntheti...

Chemicals added in personal care products are of emerging concern because their fate and their effect on the environment is not completely known. Benzotriazole UV stabilizers (BUVSs) are compounds used in different cosmetic products, which may reach the marine environment through marine discharge from treated waters or directly from bathing areas....

Cytostatic compounds are an important group of micro-pollutants since they are used to kill cells or stop cell division. For this reason, they are also considered mutagenic. Several cytostatic compounds have been detected in hospital effluents, in the influents and effluents of wastewater treatment plants and even in river water. However, their det...

Ultraviolet filters (UV Filters) are compounds that are widely employed in personal care products such as sunscreens to protect the skin from sun damage, but they are also added to other products, such as food packaging, plastics, paints, textiles, detergents, etc. The continuous use of these products causes the release of a substantial amount of t...

Presence of antineoplastic compounds in the marine environment could cause adverse effects even at very low concentrations. The bulk of the produced literature at present has focused on the detection of these compounds in wastewater samples, while only a few papers tackled the more complex solid samples and until now, to the best of our knowledge,...

Benzotriazole ultraviolet stabilisers (BUVSs) are emerging compounds used in personal care products and in other products, such as plastics, to absorb UV light. BUVSs have been described as bioaccumulative, persistent and toxic, so it is of great interest to understand their presence in the environment. Some marine organisms, such as seaweeds, have...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

A simple on-line method for simultaneous determination of some oestrogens including oestriol (E3), norethisterone (NORE), ethynylestradiol (EE2), D-norgestrel (NORG) and bisphenol A (BPA), in environmental liquid samples was developed by coupling in-tube solid phase microextraction (in-tube SPME) to high-performance liquid chromatography with diode...

Nitroimidazoles (NDZs) are antiprotozoal drugs that are typically used in veterinary and human medicine. NDZs and their metabolites are believed to possess genotoxic, carcinogenic and mutagenic properties, and this is (one reason) why their use has been banned within the European Union. Hence, the determination of trace residues of these substances...

Pharmaceuticals are “emerging contaminants” in the environment, which have received increasing attention in recent years, in part, because these compounds are constantly being emitted into the environment in quantities similar to other organic contaminants, and thus may be candidates for future regulation. This paper reviews recently published data...

Alkylphenol polyethoxylates (APEOs) are a group of non-ionic surfactants used extensively in industrial, agricultural and domestic applications. Their metabolites, generated by the biotransformation of APEOs in wastewater-treatment plants and natural water bodies, are more toxic and more persistent than the parent compounds, can mimic natural hormo...

A residue analytical method combining solid-phase microextraction (SPME) with external micellar desorption (MD) and high-performance liquid chromatography with diode array detector (HPLC-DAD) has been developed and validated for the simultaneous determination of six pharmaceutical compounds, belonging to various therapeutic categories in water samp...

Phenolic derivatives are among the most important contaminants present in the environment. These compounds are used in several industrial processes to manufacture chemicals such as pesticides, explosives, drugs and dyes. They also are used in the bleaching process of paper manufacturing. Apart from these sources, phenolic compounds have substantial...

A simple and specific analytical method was developed and tested for the determination of pharmaceuticals in mollusc samples. A combination of microwave-assisted micellar extraction (MAME) and solid-phase extraction (SPE) using a non-ionic surfactant, polyoxyethylene 10 lauryl ether, was examined to extract and determine simultaneously a group of p...

The establishment of new analytical methods which improve quality and sensitivity in the determination of environmental pollutants in liquid and solid samples is demanded. The use of micellar systems have become an advantageous tool for the extraction of pollutant compounds, due to their easy handling, biodegradability, and the one-step procedure,...

Eleven phenolic compounds considered by the Environmental Protection Agency to be priority pollutants are extracted and determined in different water samples. The method involves the extraction and clean-up step of target compounds by solid-phase microextraction and micellar desorption (SPME-MD) and a second step of determination by liquid chromato...

An analytical method combining microwave assisted micellar extraction (MAME) and solid phase extraction (SPE) has been developed to extract and preconcentrate a selected group of eight pharmaceutical compounds in sediment samples prior to their determination using liquid chromatography with an UV-DAD detector. A non-ionic surfactant, Polyoxyethylen...

Solid-phase microextraction (SPME) coupled with high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) with fluorescence detection was optimized for extraction and determination of four benzimidazole fungicides (benomyl, carbendazim, thiabendazole, and fuberidazole) in water. We studied extraction and desorption conditions, for example fiber type, extractio...

A novel analytical method is presented for the determination of chlorophenols in water. This method involves pre-concentration by solid-phase microextraction (SPME) and an external desorption using a micellar medium as desorbing agent. Final analysis of the selected chlorophenols compounds was carried out by high-performance liquid chromatography (...

A solid-phase microextraction (SPME) procedure using two commercial fibers coupled with high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) is presented for the extraction and determination of organochlorine pesticides in water samples. We have evaluated the extraction efficiency of this kind of compound using two different fibers: 60-mum polydimethylsil...

The determination of persistent pollutants in the environment at trace concentrations requires techniques with high sensitivity and selectivity, such as electrochemical methods. This article describes the use of adsorptive stripping voltammetry for the determination of zinc in algae. It also describes the digestion procedure of the sample by means...

We have studied the physicochemical and biological structure of a permanent filament off Cape Ghir (31°N) and estimated the transport of organic matter associated with it. The seaward filament exported coastal upwelled water, with low temperature and salinity and high organic matter, to the open ocean even in the absence of upwelling-favorable cond...

The advections of Sahara air masses, normally associated with dust-haze, affects often to the Canary Islands. The strongest events are an important climatic hazard. The study

The variability of dust inputs in the Canary Islands Azores Gibraltar Observations (CANIGO) area is discussed for the period 1997–1998. The samples were collected daily at “Pico de la Gorra”, at the top of Gran Canaria Island (1980 m). A seasonal pattern of Saharan dust events was observed during this period with maximum fluxes in winter and summer...

The paper describes a fast and simple electrochemical method to measure aluminium and zinc in algae. It is applied to measure their seasonal variation at two communities of Cystoseira abies‐marina (GMELIN) C. Agardh (Fucales, Cytoseiraceae) in the Canary Islands. Our results show high seasonal variability for both metals, concentrations increase du...

DASA-reactive aluminium and nutrients have been determined on a grid located in Central East Atlantic waters (Canary Islands) during early spring. The sample area shows major features of biogeochemical interest, such as elevated aeolian (dust) inputs from the Sahara desert, proximity to upwelling areas (150–200 km) and mesoscale features induced by...

This artificial reef is composed of five separated units, each of them with different types of modular concrete blocks. Between November 1990 and March 1991, before the deposition of the concrete blocks, an oceanographic and biological assessment of the selected area was carried out. The results obtained allowed the authors to make a bionomical cha...

1] Enhancement of primary and export production following dust deposition pulses is well established for High Nutrient Low Chlorophyll regions, but the effect of atmospheric dust on the biogeochemistry of oligotrophic gyre regions remains unclear. Here we report atmospheric dust concentrations measured on Gran Canaria, Canary Islands, concomitantly...