Rare Earth Element Fluxes over 15 Years into a Major European Estuary (Garonne-Gironde, SW France): Hospital Effluents as a Source of Increasing Gadolinium Anomalies

Lerat-Hardy, Antoine; Coynel, Alexandra; Dutruch, Lionel; Pereto, Clément; Bossy, Cécile; Gil-Diaz, Teba; Capdeville, Marion-Justine; Blanc, Gérard; Schäfer, Jörg

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2018.11.343

Rare Earth Element Fluxes over 15 Years into a Major European Estuary (Garonne-Gironde, SW France): Hospital Effluents as a Source of Increasing Gadolinium Anomalies

New and rapidly developing technologies imply the emission of emerging potentially toxic contaminants such as Rare Earth Elements (REEs). Yet, the lithology-derived quantities and anthropogenic contributions, especially from urban areas, to annual REE fluxes into fluvial-estuarine systems remain …