ECOLOGICAL RISK ASSESSMENT OF ASPARTAME AND NEOTAME IN RIVER SEDIMENTS

Abstract

Artificial sweeteners are high-priority emerging contaminants that are widespread in surface waters worldwide as a result of municipal wastewater discharges into the aquatic environment. Given that these substances can cause toxic effects on aquatic organisms, they represent a potential risk for the river ecosystem as a whole. Although sediments have not often been the subject of scientific research on pollution with artificial sweeteners, there is a possibility that these substances pose a risk to sediment-dwelling organisms. Aspartame and neotame are sweeteners that have a high sorption affinity for organic-rich particles and partition to sediment in the water-sediment system. In order to determine the possible risk for benthic biota, an ecological risk assessment of detected aspartame and neotame in sediments from five rivers in Serbia was performed. In addition to the risk assessment of individual sweeteners, “the cocktail effect” of their mixture was also estimated. Detected levels were compared with the lowest predicted no-effect concentration (PNEC) values for sediment organisms from the Norman Ecotoxicology Database, based on experimental ecotoxicity data and QSAR model predictions for aquatic organisms.