Biomonitoring projects

ToxicoWatch (TW) NL Biomonitoring interim report, April 2025, with the support of Zero Waste Europe, presents not only the follow-up of initial biomonitoring results (NL TW-Report, March 2024, as well supported by Zero Waste Europe) on dioxins, PAH, and PFAS in eggs and eggshells of backyard chickens, and vegetation. However also an extension of heavy metal analyses on soil, water and mosses (bryophytes) in the surrounding environment of Waste-to-Energy (WtE) incinerator REC, Harlingen, the Netherlands. Reference samples were collected by TW-team at locations at 15 km northeast of the incinerator, in the dominant wind direction.

Annex 1:  Lab results

Annex 2: Achievements 12-year TW-biomonitoring Harlingen region

Annex 3: Challenging biomonitoring. Biomass, WUR, biomonitoring grass samples Harlingen region

Key findings Biomonitoring Harlingen region, 2024 (Report April 2025):

• Samples of soil in the vicinity of the WtE incinerator REC were analysed by using the innovative PFAS CALUX bioassay, showing PFAS results of 110 and 570 ng PFOA eq./g dw.
• In 2024, water samples from a surface water ditch on agriculture land, contained 610 ng PFOA eq. /l, exceeding the Dutch drinking water limit of 4.4 ng PFOA eq./l (RIVM, 2023) by a factor of 138.
• Heavy metal analysis showed significantly elevated concentrations of mercury ( Hg), cadmium (Cd), and lead (Pb) and in soil and moss (bryophytes) samples.

In 2019, ToxicoWatch (TW) foundation initiated, at the request of the local group Zubieta-Lantzen, a multi-year biomonitoring research on persistent organic pollutants (POPs) in the surrounding environment of the Waste-to-Energy (WtE) incinerator in Zubieta. Located in the province of Gipuzkoa, the municipal district of Donostia/San Sebastián, in the vicinity of the village of Zubieta of the Basque Country in northern Spain.

TW started in Zubieta in 2019 with a baseline (‘zero-measurement’) biomonitoring study, conducted before the incinerator started into production in 2020. The biomonitoring studies are based on an extensive range of biomatrices in the years of analysis (2019-2025), including backyard chicken eggs, pine needles (Pinus Radiata), vegetation/leaves, like Holly (Ilex aquifolium), mosses (bryophytes), soil, sediment, water and even human breast milk from mothers living in nearby the villages of Usurbil, Lasarte and Andoain in 2019.

The latest Biomonitoring (interim)report of April 1^st 2025, with the support of Zero Waste Europe, show the results of the samples collected in May 2024 in the surrounding environment of the waste-to-energy (WtE) waste incinerator in Zubieta. With the focus on the environmental impact of persistent organic pollutants (POPs), including polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins (PCDDs), dibenzofurans (PCDFs), dioxin-like polychlorinated biphenyls (dl-PCBs), heavy metals (HM), and perfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS).

Key findings Biomonitoring Zubieta region, 2024:

• In Hernani, located 3,500 metres east of the waste incinerator, the highest dioxin concentration is analysed in backyard chicken eggs, of 13 years of TW biomonitoring across Europe.
• PFAS detected in all examined backyard chicken eggs.
• In 2024, PFAS is analysed in a drinking water source, located on a hill near Andoain.
• Rising trends of analysis on heavy metals, since TW biomonitoring 2019-2023, in water, soil, mosses, and sediment, with elevated concentrations of:

Water: zinc (Zn) and lead (Pb).

Soil: cadmium (Cd), silver (Ag), manganese (Mn) and mercury (Hg)

Mosses (bryophytes): arsenic (As), barium (Ba), nickel (Ni) and tin (Sn)

Sediment: Cobalt (Co), Manganese (Mn).

Following the construction of Bionerga Waste-to-energy (WtE) incinerator in Beringen, residents’ group Leefbaar Tervant (LT) asked for the air quality to be researched in time on toxic substances, to be started in 2019. In response, the city of Beringen commissioned ToxicoWatch (TW) to monitor air quality on dioxins in Beringen region by a multi-year biomonitoring research for three years.

TW analysed backyard chicken eggs from private chicken coop owners in the region of Beringen to detect dioxins, which accumulate in the egg yolk. These first biomonitoring sampling took place before the waste incinerator started into production (2019), by a so called “baseline/zero-measurement”. The following biomonitoring studies with analysis of backyard chicken eggs on dioxins were conducted in 2021 and 2022.  The analyse values presenting an increase of dioxin results in the follow-up years.

The local group Leefbaar Tervant (LT) commissioned ToxicoWatch an additional PFAS analysis on backyard chicken eggs in Beringen in 2022, published in 2023.

Key findings Biomonitoring Beringen region, 2019-2023

• Already with the baseline/zero-measurements in the industrialised region of Beringen, dioxins were detected in the backyard chicken eggs.
• Chicken egg locations showed elevated dioxins (PCDD/F/dl-PCB) in 2021-2022 with both bioassay analysis DR CALUX and chemical analysis (GC-MS) compared to baseline in 2019.
• The DR CALUX shows dioxin values of 20 pg BEQ/g fat and even more, at 50% of the locations (2022).
• None of the chicken eggs does meet the EU dioxin standard with the DR CALUX analysis in 2022.
• Chemical analysis GC-MS for the sum of dioxins (PCDD/F/dl-PCB) verifies 5 out of 6 egg locations above the EU standard of 5 pg TEQ/g fat.
• Congener-specific patterns of incomplete combustion are found at egg locations nearby the waste incinerator.
• One location, (BE-1) shows in 2022 a strong increase of 756% Heptachlorodibenzofuran (HpCDF1) compared to analysis results in 2019.
• PFAS concentrations were detected in backyard chicken eggs at the same locations of where the highest dioxins results in 2022 were measured.

To know in which quantities persistent organic pollutants (POPs), like dioxins, PAH, PFAS and heavy metals are emitted by the waste incinerator Bionerga in Beringen, regular independent research of the raw unaveraged semi-continuous flue gas data is of importance.

The first ToxicoWatch (TW) biomonitoring research in Ivry-sur-Seine, suburb of Paris was initiated in 2021 in collaboration with C3R (Réduire, Réutiliser, Recycler) , With the focus on dioxins in eggs from backyard chickens in the surrounding environment of waste incinerator Ivry-Paris XIII (IPXIII).

Key findings Biomonitoring Ivry-sur-Seine/Paris region 2021:

• High dioxin values are found in all three biomatrices (backyard chicken eggs, pine needles and tree leaves).
• The bioassay DR CALUX for dioxin analysis, show 83% of the eggs (5 of the 6 samples) are exceeding the action limits for safe food consumption as regulated in the EU Directive 2017/644.
• The chemical GC-MS analysis on dioxins of the eggs samples, verify the bioassay results. Five (5) out of six (6) locations exceeding the EU limits for safe egg consumption according to EU Regulation 1881/2006.
• The chemical GC-MS analysis of the eggs resulted in five (5) locations exceeding the action limit for dioxin-like PCBs (dl-PCBs) according to EU Regulation  1881/2006.
• The analysis results of bioassay DR CALUX on vegetation, pine needles and mosses, demonstrates high dioxin levels in the vicinity of the waste incinerator IPXIII.
• The analysis results for dioxins in mosses of 1.2 – 4.9 pg TCDD eq./g product and 1.6 – 4.4 pg TCDD eq./g product in pine needles. The fraction of dioxins and furans (PCDD/F) dominates over the dioxin-like PCBs (dl-PCBs).

The excessive dioxin levels detected in these backyard chicken egg samples raised public and governmental concern. In response, the French public health authority (ARS) conducted a broader study across the Paris region, identifying elevated levels of dioxins and PFAS in eggs.

Specific combustion related  dioxin congeners Hepta (HpCDD) and Octa (OCDD) were found to be most elevated in the backyard chicken egg samples of ToxicoWatch and in backyard chicken eggs samples of ARS in Ivry-sur-Seine. The specific congener findings are consistent with the semi-continuous measurement TW-study of IPXIII incinerator (TW 2023), which reported up to almost 7,000 hours of exceedances/failures over a two-year period.

In  October 2024 ToxicoWatch (TW) performed, with support of Zero Waste Europe (ZWE), the second biomonitoring research in Ivry-sur-Seine/suburb of Paris. With the focus on collecting mosses (bryophytes) and soil from primary schoolyard locations within 1500 metres of the waste incinerator IPXIII.

Key findings Biomonitoring Ivry-sur-Seine/Paris region, 2024:

• The highest dioxin concentration was analysed in mosses (bryophytes) at a primary school playground 780 metres west of the waste incinerator IPXIII.
• Most primary schools demonstrated high levels of dioxins in both mosses (bryophytes) and soil at their playgrounds.
• All measured heavy metals [14] were elevated in the mosses (bryophytes) samples compared to the lowest values measured at the cemetery, located east of Ivry-sur-Seine.

ToxicoWatch research investigates in 2024-2025, with the support of Zero Waste Europe, the presence of persistent organic pollutants (POPs) in outdoor air filters in five (5) primary schools located within 1500 m of the waste incinerator Ivry-Paris XIII  (IPXIII) in Ivry-sur-Seine, a suburb of Paris. The study is a continuation of previous biomonitoring research conducted by TW (2021-2024), with the objective of acquiring more profound insights into POP contamination in the surrounding environment of waste incinerator Ivry-Paris XIII.

This research represents one of the first studies on persistent organic pollutants (POPs) in primary school air filter material by using bioassay analysis methods.

Key findings research Primary School Air Filters region Ivry-sur-Seine/suburb of Paris, September 2025:

• Dioxins ranging from 1.9 – 200.0 pg TEQ /gram dw
• Dioxins-like PCBs (dl-PCB) in school air filters range from 1.4 – 29 pg TEQ/g dw
• PAH in air filters: 5100 – 100,000 pg benzo[a]Pyrene equivalents per gram
• PFAS in air filter: 0.99 – 156 μg PFOA equivalent per gram dm, dw
• Indoor dust contained for 26.40 pg TEQ/g of dioxins and 40 µg PFOA eq./g dw of PFAS

The civic organisation Zelený živel o.z. representing environmentally conscious residents in Turnianska Kotlina, took the initiative in 2023 to contact Zero Waste Europe and ToxicoWatch (TW) for independent research on the deposition of persistent organic pollutants (POPs) such as dioxins (PCDD/F/dl-PCB), Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAH) and PFAS, as well as heavy metals in the environment surrounding the cement kiln Cementáreň Turňa nad Bodvou, located in the Košice Region in Slovakia.

This cement kiln, (co-)waste incineration plant, supported by EU grants, burns waste materials, ranging from plastic agglomerate, worn-out old used car tyres, and PCB oil-containing waste – as a sustainable alternative to fossil fuels. There are plans to increase waste burning from 65,000 to 115,000 tons per year, a nearly 50% increase. Cement kilns are utilised for the destruction of persistent organic pollutants such as PCBs and PFAS, owing to the higher combustion temperatures they provide.

ToxicoWatch biomonitoring research in this region, focuses on assessing the environmental impact around the cement kiln Turňa nad Bodvou. ToxicoWatch employ biomonitoring techniques using eggs from backyard chickens, as well as analysing fruit and vegetation for dioxins, PFAS, PAH and heavy metals. Alongside cement production, the region of Košice faces additional industrial sources of air pollution. Notably, in Včeláre and Hosťovce quarries, limestone, a basic raw material for cement production, is extracted. Adjacent to the cement kiln are ecologically significant areas, including the Protected Bird Area Slovak Karst (SKCHVÚ 027) and the National Nature Reserve – Zádielska Gorge, which forms part of the Slovak Karst National Park.

Key findings TW-Biomonitoring research Turňa nad Bodvou region, October 2023:

• Eggs, pine needles, and mosses exhibited high concentrations of dioxins (PCCD/F/dl-PCB), polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), and per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances (PFAS).
• In Turňa nav Bodvou six (6) PFAS compounds could be determined in eggs of backyard chicken.
• PFOS level in backyard chicken eggs of location Zádiel, exceeding the EU limit for PFOS by 300%.
• The surface water stream near the cement kiln and sediment samples show high levels of PFAS by analysis assay FITC-T4.
• Elevated levels of PAH were found in dust depositions on the roofs of houses in the villages of Dvornìke and Zádiel.
• The heavy metal levels in mosses (bryophytes) are among the highest recorded in TW-biomonitoring research conducted in Europe (2019-2023).

Key findings TW-Biomonitoring research Turňa nad Bodvou region, May 2024:

• Exceeding values for dioxins of the EU limit of 3.3 pg BEQ/g/fat (DR CALUX) and 5.0 TEQ/g fat (GC-MS) were found in the eggs of backyard chickens.
• The results of dioxins in mosses (Bryophyta) and pine needles (Picea abies) were highly elevated compared to reference sites.
• Dioxin patterns (congeners) indicate a source of co-incineration of alternative industrial fuel.
• Analysis of 14 Heavy Metals (HM) – Silver (Ag), Aluminium (Al), Arsenic (As), Barium (Ba), Cadmium (Cd), Cobalt (Co), Chromium (Cr), Copper (Cu), Mercury (Hg), Manganese (Mn), Nickel (Ni), Lead (Pb), Tin (Sn) and Zinc (Zn) – showed elevated levels of all heavy metals in mosses (Bryophyta) compared to the references from the Slovak Karst National Park (NP Slovenský kras), EU-limits and average levels of heavy metals in vegetables.
• Comparative studies by Danucem Slovensko a.s., (conducted by Ekotoxikologické centrum Bratislava, ECB) and the Košice Regional Government (conducted by Ekolive) confirm the findings of TW regarding increased dioxins in backyard chicken eggs, however underestimate the elevated presence of Heavy Metals (HM) in vegetation and soil this research area.
• The analysis results in sediment at the reference sites in the Slovak Karst National Park, > 20 km west of the cement kiln, show significantly lower values than the results of fourteen (14) heavy metals in the soil at seven (7) sites within a radius of 3.5 km around the cement plant.
• A seriously contaminated children’s playground in Dvorníky-Včeláre, located just 630 meters north of the cement kiln, was found to contain high levels of lead (Pb) and Arsenic (As).
• High concentrations of heavy metals (HM-14) were found in Mosses (Bryophyta), near the cement kiln, indicating a serious contamination of the soil in private vegetable gardens.

This biomonitoring research on POP emissions in relation to waste (WtE) incineration is conducted by ToxicoWatch, with participation of Action Spain Network. The project was running simultaneously for 2021 and 2022 in three countries: Lithuania, Spain, and the Czech Republic, coordinated by Zero Waste Europe.

In Spain, in the southwest region of Madrid, the Valdemingómez waste-to-energy (WtE) incinerator belongs to Madrid City Council; commissioned in 1996, as one of the oldest and largest waste incinerators in Europe. Since 2018 Valdemingómez is incinerating more than 300,000 t / year. The waste incinerator has three lines to operate simultaneously, with two fluidized bed incinerators, where RDF (Refused Derived Fuel) is combusted. The chimney is 45 metres high. This waste incinerator has been encountering opposition from concerned resident living nearby, about the risks of toxic emissions.

The biomonitoring research in this area is focused on persistent organic pollutants (POPs),  dioxins, PAH and PFAS. The biomarker samples ToxicoWatch have used are eggs of backyard chicken, pine needles (Pines halepensis), evergreen tree foliage leaves (Cupressus arizonica), and mosses (bryophytes) for analysis with bioassays and chemical analysis in 2021 and 2022.

Key findings Biomonitoring Pilsen region, 2021-2022:

The complexity of the chemical content of today’s household and industrial waste presents a challenge for turning modern waste into energy in (WtE) waste incinerators. Even with the application of the most developed air pollution control devices (APCD), it is still a huge challenge to eliminate the multitude of persistent organic pollutants (POPs) in waste incinerator residues and flue gases. Chotíkov, near Pilsen (Czech: Plzeň) is the location of the fourth municipal WtE waste incinerator in the Czech Republic: ZEVO Chotíkov or ZEVO Plzeň. The WtE incinerator receives about 12,369 tons of waste per hour, with an annual load of 95,000 tons of waste. The region of Pilsen shows an environment under threat by contamination of substances of very high concern in eggs of backyard chicken, pine needles, and mosses. This biomonitoring gives a warning signal for contamination of the environment with serious toxic substances such as dioxins (PCDD/F), dioxin-like PCBs, PAHs and PFAS.

Key findings Biomonitoring Kaunas region, 2021-2022:

All over the world, there is growing public awareness and concern over the potentially toxic effects of persistent organic pollutants on human health and the environment. In particular, people living near waste incinerators need to be reassured about their health risks, (short- and long-term exposure to incineration emissions), the safety of such combustion facilities, and compliance with regulations – not only under normal conditions, but also in “other than normal operating conditions” (O OC), such as shut-downs, start-ups, and failures.

The newly built Kaunas WtE (waste) incinerator, UA Kauno Cogeneration Power Plant, has been in operation since November 2020. he first round of a biomonitoring research on biomarkers of backyard chicken eggs, pine needles and mosses in the region around the incinerator has taken place.

The region of Kaunas shows an environment under threat by contamination of substances of very high concern in eggs of backyard chicken, pine needles, and mosses. his biomonitoring gives a warning signal for the presence of toxic substances such as dioxins (PCDD/F), dioxin-like PC s, PA s and PFAS. More research is needed to find out the contribution of the incinerator. he striking evidence is the absence of transparency toward the people living in the environment of an incinerator.

The biomonitoring study, conducted by ToxicoWatch and supported by Zero Waste Europe, in Lithuania, Spain, and the Czech Republic is part of a Europe-wide research project on POP emissions in possible relation to waste (WtE) incineration. The project is running simultaneously for 2021 and 2022 in these three countries: ToxicoWatch Foundation, is participating as a scientific partner together with three environmental organizations, Ecologists in Action Spain, Žiedinė Ekonomika in Lithuania, and Hnutí DUHA in the Czech Republic, all coordinated by Zero Waste Europe. See video about “true toxic toll”