Occurrence and Ecological Risk of Alkylamine Triazines in Chinese Estuarine Sediments: An Emerging Class of Persistent, Mobile, and Toxic Substances

Identifying persistent, mobile, and toxic (PMT) substances
from
synthetic chemicals is critical for chemical management and ecological
risk assessment. Inspired by the triazine analogues (e.g., atrazine
and melamine) in the original European Union’s list of PMT
substances, the occurrence and compositions of alkylamine triazines
(AATs) in the estuarine sediments of main rivers along the eastern
coast of China were comprehensively explored by an integrated strategy
of target, suspect, and nontarget screening analysis. A total of 44
AATs were identified, of which 23 were confirmed by comparison with
authentic standards. Among the remaining tentatively identified analogues,
18 were emerging pollutants not previously reported in the environment.
Tri- and di-AATs were the dominant analogues, and varied geographic
distributions of AATs were apparent in the investigated regions. Toxic
unit calculations indicated that there were acute and chronic risks
to algae from AATs on a large geographical scale, with the antifouling
biocide cybutryne as a key driver. The assessment of physicochemical
properties further revealed that more than half of the AATs could
be categorized as potential PMT and very persistent and very mobile
substances at the screening level. These results highlight that AATs
are a class of PMT substances posing high ecological impacts on the
aquatic environment and therefore require more attention.