METHODOLOGY FOR IDENTIFICATION OF TRACES OF EXPLOSIVE MATERIALS AND THEIR DERIVATIVES IN COMPLEX MATRIXES ILLUSTRATED BY ACCUMULATION BIOMARKERS

Abstract

Different political and social events of the 21th century have been bringing about the appearance of new threats connected with production, storing and using of combat assets containing the high explosive materials. The contaminations are challenging for specialised laboratories dealing with their detection and identification of sources of origin. Unfortunately, such contaminations have a serious influence into the human health causing for instance significant injuries of human systems and organs, and long term problems with the health such as cancer diseases and other serious health disturbances. Therefore, it is important to focus attention on these threats, and to do everything possible to prevent their appearance and minimise the harmful effects. A low concentration of tested agent, below the instrument detection threshold, is a frequent problem at investigations of ecosystems. In such cases biomarkers of cumulation prove to be very helpful. Biomarkers can be a perfect tool for detection of contaminations in the flowing water and in the ground. They can be used to establish the presence of specific chemical agents and at the same time they are a sensitive indicator of ecosystems reaction to the contamination. A universal method was developed basing on the liquid chromatography for analysis of trotyl and its derivatives present in larvae of caddisflies from species of Hydropsyche angustipennis, Curtis 1834, and in the samples of soil, or in other complex matrixes. The chromatographic method can label quantitively and qualitatively different derivatives of trotyl, such as 2,6-diamino-4-nitrotoluene, 2,4-dia-mino-6-nitrotoluene, 1,3,5-trinitrobenzen, trinitrotoluene, 2-amino-4,6-dinitrotoluen, 4-amino-2,6-dinitrotoluen, and tetryl in a complex biologic matrix. Additionally, an effect was investigated of trotyl cumulation within 1 to 24 hours in the tissue of caddisfly larvae subjected to exposition of tested solutions contained trotyl. An effect of saturation was noticed and the concentration of trotyl derivatives was measured. Observed effects confirmed the usefulness of chosen larvae as a bioindicator of trotyl contamination accumulation in ecosystem.