Context

Intensive industrialization and the agricultural and domestic use of a growing number of chemicals have led to the release of numerous toxic compounds into the environment, causing pollution of aquatic ecosystems. In Europe, the Water Framework Directive (WFD) 2000/60/EC requires knowledge and monitoring of a large number of so-called priority substances, with the aim of restoring the good chemical and ecological status of water bodies by 2015. The implementation of effective monitoring and treatment programs requires the use of complementary analytical methods:

• rapid, low-cost, high-throughput screening methods capable of predicting dangerous biological effects (overall toxicity, genotoxicity or estrogenicity) of mixtures of pollutants present in water;

• conventional analytical methods based on chromatographic...