Agrofood Research Hub

Research team:

ECOTOXICOLOGY FOR THE PROTECTION OF THE ENVIRONMENT

The platform is dedicated to research activities in the field of ecotoxicology and environmental toxicology.

The main research topics concern the development of integrated chemical and biological tools for the monitoring of natural and anthropogenic environmental matrices. The ecotoxicological assessment represents the meeting point in the protection of human health and the conservation of resources (water, biodiversity) with a view to a sustainable and efficient management of the agro-food chain.

RESEARCH TOPICS


  • Study of the behaviour of pollutants in the environment and the effect on organisms, populations, communities and terrestrial and freshwater ecosystems.

  • Assessment of the biodegradability of substances, complex mixtures (formulations, wastewater) and materials.

  • Development, standardization and application of methodological protocols for the performance of toxicity tests on environmental substances and matrices, in compliance with protocol 3R (Replacement, Reduction and Refinement).

  • Study of the behavior of pollutants in the water treatment supply chain.

  • Study of the behavior of pollutants in agrozootechnical practices.

  • Product and process environmental footprint assessment.

TOOLS


The main methodologies used for case study analysis are:

  • The performance of standardised toxicity tests;

  • The development of innovative, specific and reliable toxicological tests;

  • The execution of real and simulated case monitoring campaigns on a pilot and laboratory scale;

  • The use of EF assessment models;

  • The integration of biological assays with chemical monitoring.

PROJECTS AND PARTENRSHIPS


  • Progetto SLURP “Sludge (And Other Residues) Recovery In Agriculture: Environment And Health Protection”, Fondazione Cariplo.


  • Progetto SWaRM-NET “Smart Water Resource Management, finanziato dal Ministero dell’istruzione, università e ricerca sul bando nazionale Smart Cities and Communities” nell’ambito Gestione delle Risorse idriche e coordinato dall’Istituto di Ricerca sulle Acque (Irsa-Cnr).


  • Progetto ECOTEC Programma PON «R&I» 2014-2020 Progetto ARS01_00951 Area di specializzazione “Design, Creatività e Made in Italy “Fibre e tessuti intelligenti ed ECOsostenibili per l’abbigliamento TECnico e l’alta moda- ECOTEC”.


  • Progetto WAT_CHALLENGE “The water challenge: smart models, tools and methods for assessing environmental suitability and effects of green technologies on human health”, UNIB Health&Wealth”.


  • Progetto Smart_Wat “Drinking- and waste-WATer treatment strategies for the protection and exploitation of natural water reservoirs”. B+LabNet UNIBS.


Partnership

  • Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche

  • Istituto Superiore di Sanità

  • European Food Safety Authority

  • Agenzia Regionale per la Protezione dell’Ambiente (Regione Lombardia, Dipartimento di Brescia)

  • Spedali Civili di Brescia

  • Università degli Studi di Milano

  • Università degli Studi di Milano Bicocca

  • Università degli Studi di Verona

  • Università degli Studi di Padova

  • Università degli Studi di Pavia

  • Università degli Studi di Roma “Foro Italico”

  • Università degli Studi di Salerno

  • Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II

  • Istituto di Ricerche Farmacologiche Mario Negri

  • Helmholtz Zentrum

  • Acque Bresciane srl

  • Acque Veronesi scarl

  • Depurazioni Benacensi scrl

  • ETRA SpA

  • HERA SpA

  • IREN Laboratori SpA

  • Specialacque srl

  • Veritas SpA

  • Comune di Desenzano del Garda

PUBLICATIONS

G Bertanza, N Steimberg, R Pedrazzani… - Science of The Total …, 2022 - Elsevier

The literature is currently lacking effect-based monitoring studies targeted at evaluating the performance of full-scale membrane bioreactor plants. In this research, a monitoring campaign was performed at a full-scale wastewater treatment facility with two parallel lines (traditional activated sludge and membrane bioreactor). Beside the standard parameters (COD, nitrogen, phosphorus, and metals), 6 polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons, 29 insecticides, 2 herbicides, and 3 endocrine disrupting compounds were measured. A multi …


M Papa, L Paredes, D Feretti, G Viola… - Environmental …, 2021 - eeer.org

The research on emerging pollutants in wastewater has become a worldwide issue of increasing environmental concern, especially considering the growing interest in wastewater reuse. However, the latter implies additional post-treatment after the conventional activated sludge processes, in order to produce a safer effluent. Our work aimed at determining the efficiency of reducing the toxicity associated with organic micropollutants (OMPs) in secondary wastewater effluents, using 3 different post-treatment …


G Bertanza, J Boniotti, E Ceretti, D Feretti… - International journal of …, 2021 - mdpi.com

The assessment of the actual impact of discharged wastewater on the whole ecosystem and, in turn, on human health requires the execution of bioassays. In effect, based on the chemical characterization alone, the synergistic/antagonistic effect of mixtures of pollutants is hardly estimable. The aim of this work was to evaluate the applicability of a battery of bioassays and to suggest a smart procedure for results representation. Two real wastewater treatment plants were submitted to analytical campaigns. Several baseline toxicity assays …


R Pedrazzani, P Baroni, D Feretti, G Mazzoleni… - Ecotoxicological …, 2020 - Springer

The ecotoxicological tools reveal to be profitably employable within the assessment of the so-called environmental footprint, which is commonly based on the results of a chemical monitoring. Due to the heterogeneity of biological endpoints and the possibility to explore several exposure frames, as well as to consider higher levels of organization (from cells to organisms and mesocosms), the definition of a protocol is desirable.


G Bertanza, GU Capoferri, M Carmagnani… - Science of The Total …, 2020 - Elsevier

Drinking water contamination by perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) is an issue of relatively recent concern. The literature indicates that anion exchange resins and granular activated carbon (GAC) are suitable technologies for removing these compounds. While several laboratory-scale and pilot-scale experiments have been conducted to study activated carbon adsorption/desorption mechanisms of a number of PFASs, little data on full- scale plants are available. This work examines a real case of groundwater contamination by …


…, J Dries, J Dvarionienė, AJ García-Fernández… - Science of the total …, 2019 - Elsevier

This opinion paper focuses on the role of eco-toxicological tools in the assessment of possible impacts of emerging contaminants on the aquatic ecosystem, hence, on human health. Indeed, organic trace pollutants present in raw and treated wastewater are the pivot targets: a multidisciplinary approach allows defining the basic principles for managing this issue, from setting a proper monitoring campaign up to evaluating the optimal process treatment. Giving hints on trace pollutants fate and behaviour, attention is focused on the …


Y Sambuy, S Alloisio, G Bertanza, D Ferretti… - 2018 - air.unimi.it

A roundtable was held at the end of the meeting. First, the special importance in environmental toxicology of considering the global effects of mixtures of contaminants, and the need for adequate experimental approaches to evaluate them was discussed. Mixtures are more frequent than single substances in environmental contaminations, and the study of their effects requires special attention. Integrated Testing Strategies (ITS) need to be more widely introduced in environmental toxicology in analogy with other toxicological fields, with …


R Pedrazzani, I Cavallotti, E Bollati, M Ferreri… - Ecotoxicology and …, 2018 - Elsevier

The suitability evaluation of any industrial process should rely on economic, technical, social and, in particular, environmental aspects. The Commission Recommendation 2013/179/UE enables the improvement and the harmonization of the conventional evaluation of environmental footprints, such as LCA (Life Cycle Assessment), Carbon and Water Footprint, by suggesting the assessment of life cycle environmental performance of products and organisations (PEF, OEF). Novelty aspects reside in including new impact categories …


L Gonzalez-Gil, M Papa, D Feretti, E Ceretti… - Water research, 2016 - Elsevier

The occurrence of emerging organic micropollutants (OMPs) in sewage sludge has been widely reported; nevertheless, their fate during sludge treatment remains unclear. The objective of this work was to study the fate of OMPs during mesophilic and thermophilic anaerobic digestion (AD), the most common processes used for sludge stabilization, by using raw sewage sludge without spiking OMPs. Moreover, the results of analytical chemistry were complemented with biological assays in order to verify the possible adverse …


R Pedrazzani, L Menoni, S Nembrini… - Journal of Industrial …, 2016 - academic.oup.com

Piggery slaughterhouse wastewater poses serious issues in terms of disposal feasibility and environmental impact, due to its huge organic load and variability. It is commonly treated by means of activated sludge processes, whose performance, in case of municipal wastewater, can be monitored by means of specific analyses, such as Sludge Biotic Index (SBI), Sludge Index (SI) and floc and filamentous bacteria observation. Therefore, this paper was aimed at assessing the applicability of these techniques to piggery slaughterhouse sewage. A plant …


M Papa, R Pedrazzani, G Bertanza - Water research, 2013 - Elsevier

The research on the impact of chemical pollution is now increasingly attracted by the topic of organic micropollutants: as secondary biological treatment of wastewater does not provide the complete elimination of these substances, an advanced treatment downstream the biological process can be implemented. Notwithstanding, the benefits of improved effluent quality can be weakened by the negative effects on air quality, when energy consumption and related pollutants emissions deriving from the advanced treatment technologies are …


C Repice, M Dal Grande, R Maggi… - Science of the Total …, 2013 - Elsevier

The occurrence of 12 active substances among licit and illicit drugs was investigated over a 2 week period inflowing and outflowing in an activated sludge wastewater treatment plant in the city of Verona, Northern Italy. Chemical analyses were performed by means of on-line solid phase extraction coupled to high performance liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry in order to minimize sample pre-treatment. Quantifiable concentrations, up to hundreds of ng/L, were detected in influent and in effluent only for carbamazepine, codeine …


R Pedrazzani, E Ceretti, I Zerbini, R Casale… - Ecotoxicology and …, 2012 - Elsevier

The widespread use of detergents has raised concern with regard to the environmental pollution caused by their active ingredients, which are biorefractory, toxic and persistent. Since detergents are complex mixtures of different substances, in which synergistic effects may occur, we aimed to assess the mutagenicity of different detergent formulations, taking into account aquatic toxicity and ready biodegradability. We performed a ready biodegradability test (OECD 301 F), Daphnia magna and Vibrio fischeri toxicity tests, and …