The Occurrence of Emerging Contaminants in Whales Compared to Other Sea Mammals

This systematic review analyzes the occurrence of emerging contaminants in whales compared to other sea mammals. The review aims to provide information to environmentalists, government agencies, local communities, and the public concerned about the environment. The study design is secondary, and the search strategy includes key search terms, Boolean operators, and databases such as PubMed, GreenFILE, Science Direct, and CAB Direct. The inclusion and exclusion criteria and screening for eligibility are also discussed.

The occurrence of emerging
contaminants in whales as
compare to other sea
mammals.

TABLE OF CONTENTS
The occurrence of emerging contaminants in whales as compare to other sea mammals..............1
a) Rationale.....................................................................................................................................3
Demonstrating the need for a new review in the context of the scientific value and importance
to the stakeholder.........................................................................................................................3
Theoretical framework.................................................................................................................4
Research objective.......................................................................................................................4
PECO Framework........................................................................................................................4
Question.......................................................................................................................................5
Study design.................................................................................................................................5
Target condition...........................................................................................................................5
b) Literature search strategy............................................................................................................5
Key search terms..........................................................................................................................5
Boolean operators........................................................................................................................6
Databases.....................................................................................................................................6
c) Outcome of pilot searches...........................................................................................................8
d) Developing the criteria for screening out irrelevant literature....................................................8
Inclusion and exclusion criteria...................................................................................................8
Screening for eligibility...............................................................................................................9
Publicly-available evidence.........................................................................................................9
e) Data extraction scheme..............................................................................................................10
Planning the review methods at protocol stage.........................................................................10
Designing the characteristics of included studies......................................................................10
f) Defining the ways of synthesising the extracted data................................................................10
Publishing the protocol- consulting the guidelines....................................................................10
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................12

a) Rationale
Demonstrating the need for a new review in the context of the scientific value and importance to
the stakeholder
The whales that are alive today has been exposed towards the chemicals compound that
has been developed due to the human activities. Most of the Whales are facing the
biomagnification due to Emerging contaminant. It has been defined as the unregulated and
inadequately regulated chemicals. This are those chemicals that are mainly found in the
pharmaceuticals, household products, personal care products and in surfactants and solvents.
These chemicals have been consistently released in the environment and that may lead to cause
the chronic toxicity and endocrine disruption mainly in the aquatic wildlife. Whales are mainly
facing numerous hurdles in context of occurrence of the emerging contaminants (Rathi, Kumar
and Show, 2021). The emerging pollutants are encounter in the water within discharging the
industrial and domestic waste. Recognizing this issue has become the important aspect. Many
organizations are assuring attention over reducing the extent of chemicals that leads pollute the
water and creates hurdles for the whales. The species of the whales have been left on a rare note.
However, the exposure of the chemical in the sea affecting the species of whales as the
chemicals occurs drastic impact over them.
The global sea ecosystem is an ultimate repository for the most of the well-known
emerging contaminants which includes, Organochlorines. Thus, the concern about the protection
of the whales has been inevitably extend up-to the consideration in regards to the role of
emerging contaminants. Therefore, conducting current review is highly important in context of
analysing the extent up-to the occurrence of emerging contaminants in whales has been proven
drastic for them. The information that will be collected within conducting systematic review will
be beneficial for the environmentalist, government agencies, local communities, public and the
people who are shows high concern about environment.

Theoretical framework.
Research objective
 To analyse the occurrence of emerging contaminants in whales as compare to other sea
mammals
PECO Framework
● Population- Whales, sea mammals
● Exposure- Measures in regards to restricting Emerging contaminants
● Comparator- NIL
● Outcome- Impact of restricting the emerging contaminants exposure.
DRASTIC IMPACT
OVER WHALES
AND COMPARISON
WITH OTHER SEA
MAMMALS
REDUCING THE
SPECIES OF
WHALES
CHEMICAL
EXPOSURE
Emerging
contaminants in
whales
as compare to other
sea mammals

Question
 What are the impacts of occurrence of the emerging contaminants in whales as compare
to other sea mammals?
Study design
In regards to the study design it can be said that, there are mainly two types of study
designs that are segregated into primary and secondary. Primary study design refers to that study
design in which the review is conducted within collection of the information from the first
sources (Martins and et.al., 2019). Whereas, secondary study design is comprised with the
collection of the data within reviewing the existing published sources. In order to conduct the
present study, secondary study design will be identified that assures the reliability and validity in
the conducting review.
Target condition
The targeting condition for the current study is “Whales”.
b) Literature search strategy
In order to conduct the present project, a systematic and effective search strategy has been
identified. So, the outcomes will be generated in effective manner. This will mainly comprise of
identifying the appropriate search terms and the searching of the appropriate database will be
done in this that helps in the selection of the most appropriate and suitable articles. Also,
Boolean operators will be used with respect to broadening the search. Thus, the literature search
strategy of the current project is comprised with the effective attributes.
Key search terms
Key words has been defined as that words that are mainly entered in the database in
context of searching the most relevant articles related to the topic. Thus, determining the
effective key terms is highly important as it leads to helps in selecting the most relevant article.
In case, the key search terms have been selected wrong then, it directly provides the impact over

the searching criteria of the project (Selva, and et.al., 2017). Without having the certain
keywords, scholar might face the major difficulties in context of finding appropriate and most
relevant articles. Often, it impacts the relevancy and accuracy in relation of selecting the articles.
For the current study, the major key terms that will be used are highlighted below:
Terms Synonyms
Occurrence Phenomenon, contingency, happening
Emerging contaminants Foul, poison, pollution
Whales Mammal, porpoise, narwhal,
Sea Mammals -
Impacts Affect, influence, effect
Issues Problem
Risks Threats, danger
Chemical exposure -
Boolean operators
These has been determined as those words that are mainly used as the conjunctions and
performs the major contribution in combining the key words. Also, it performs the major
contribution in excluding the key words in the search. The Boolean operators are highly
important as they help in conducting the more focused search and helps in providing the positive
results. Boolean operators are highly important as they are useful and helps in saving the time
and enable to focus over research in effective manner (Linares-Espinós and et.al., 2018). There
are mainly three types of Boolean operators and those are, AND, OR and NOT. In the present
study, AND & OR Boolean operators will be used. The Boolean operator AND will be used in
context of providing instruction to the search engine that will be useful. In this manner, it will
assure help in performing and delivering the search results. For example: “Occurrence of
emerging contaminants” AND “whales” as compare to other sea mammals will lead to retrieve
those articles that mainly includes both of these search terms. In contrast, OR Boolean operator
will instruct the search engine in context of retrieving all those articles that will include either of
search terms. For example: Using emerging contaminants OR WHALES OR SEA MAMMALS
will lead to retrieve all those articles that will mainly contain any of the search term.

Databases
These has been referred as the organized collection under which the structured information
and the data has been stored and can be easily accessed with the help of electronic form. This has
been mainly used in the present study as it helps in providing easy access over the information
on the occurrence of the emerging contaminants in whales. They mainly include the scholarly
and the peer reviewed article. Using of the database has also been justified as they mainly help in
saving the time within acting as an effective and powerful search tool. With the help of this the
results can be easily narrowed. The major database that will be used for the current project are:
Database Description
PubMed This refers to the that resource that assure
effective support in searching and retrieval
biomedical along with the life science. The
major aim of this is aligned with improving the
health at global and personal level (PubMed
Overview, 2021).
GreenFILE It refers to that research database that covers
the major aspects of the human impacts to the
environment. It is the collection of the major
scholarly, government and the general-interest
titles which mainly includes the content in
regards to chemical exposure towards
environment, sustainable agriculture, recycling
and so on (GreenFILE, 2021).
Science Direct It provides the large access towards the large
bibliographic database of the scientific and the
medical publication by the Dutch publisher
Elsevier. It has been determined as the multi-
disciplinary and peer-reviewed journal article
database that covers the research in the field of
science, humanities, ecology and social
science.

CAB Direct It has been referred as an access point for the
multiple bibliographic database that has been
produced by the CABI. This mainly contains
around 8.8 million bibliographic records that
that includes the large number of articles.
Along with this, it also involves the literature
reviews. The news articles and report have also
been considered as the part of this database
(CAB Direct Database, 2021).
Above mentioned database will be approached in the current study in context of conducting the
systematic review. Thus, with the help of the mentioned database the article in relation of “The
occurrence of emerging contaminants in whales” will be approached. The database that has been
selected for the project are mainly peer-reviewed that provides the assurance of the higher
relevancy in context of selecting the article.
c) Outcome of pilot searches
PILOT SEARCH NUMBER OF HITS
PubMed 17 results
GreenFILE 15 results
Science Direct 10 results
CAB Direct 12 results
d) Developing the criteria for screening out irrelevant literature
In the current project, the criteria in context of screening out the irrelevant literature will be
performed that will help in selecting the most appropriate articles in regards to conducting the
review. The criteria in context of screening out the irrelevant literature includes “Inclusion and
exclusion criteria” & “screening for eligibility”.
Inclusion and exclusion criteria
Inclusion criteria refers to that features that are expected in terms of presenting in the
research articles. This has been considered as the eligible aspects that must be included while

reviewing the article. In contrast to it, exclusion criteria have been referred as that criteria that
involves those features that must be excluded while reviewing the articles. Inclusion and
exclusion criteria plays the vital role in terms of selecting the accurate and relevant article as it
clearly determines those aspects that must be included and excluded while selecting and
reviewing the article. The inclusion and Exclusion criteria provides the major benefits in relation
of conducting the review (Patino and Ferreira, 2018). It clearly determines the elements that will
be included while selecting the articles. Thus, it become easy to select the most appropriate and
relevant article that will enable in conducting the effective review. Inclusion and Exclusion
criteria that will be adopted in the present study is:
Inclusion criteria Exclusion criteria
Studies that has been conducted within the
period of the last ten years from 2011-2022.
Studies which has been conducted before
2011 will be excluded.
Studies on the whales and sea mammals
will be included in the project.
Studies on the other animals will be
excluded in the project.
Studies over the emerging contaminants
will be included.
Studies on the other contaminants that
includes radiation will be excluded.
Those studies that has been published in the
English language will be included.
Those studies that have been published
rather than English language will be
excluded.
Screening for eligibility
The screening of the selected article will be performed. This will be done in order to
analyse the eligibility of the selected articles. The pre-screening of the articles will be concerned
with the detection of title, abstract and full text. Those articles that will contain the title related to
the “Occurrence of emerging contaminants in whales as compare to other sea mammals” will be
given the tag of eligible article. Along with this, Abstract and full text of the article will be
reviewed. Those articles that will not include the Abstract will be not eligible for conducting
review.

Publicly-available evidence
In context of conducting the systematic review, all the relevant public-available evidence
will be included. However, those evidence will be excluded that does not contain the specific
information in regards to the methodological information. This will be done in order to ensure
the validity and reliability of the selected articles. Thus, in this manner, those public-evidence
will be reviewed that includes the appropriate methodological information.
e) Data extraction scheme
Planning the review methods at protocol stage
The appropriate planning in context of reviewing the method will be done at the protocol
stage as it will help in performing the set of rules and assure the effective support in order to
conduct the systematic review. Those studies which will meet the eligibility criteria in context to
the research study will be selected and the review will be conducted. The over-all strength and
limitation of the evidence will be reviewed and afterwards it will be selected. Those studies
which will not include the research population (Whales) will be determined as not eligible and it
will not be included in the review. In order to perform the review which includes the multiple
streams of the evidence (Human and animals) will be evaluated and the major focus will be made
over the individual stream that is related to the research topic.
Designing the characteristics of included studies
The major characteristics that will be included in the studies are:
Author, year Inclusion and
targeted
population
Purpose Study design Sampling
technique
ABSTRACT
INCLUISON
- - - - - -
- - - - - -
- - - - - -

f) Defining the ways of synthesising the extracted data
Publishing the protocol- consulting the guidelines
The permanent public record will be created related to the review that will be conducted
which will be prior to conducting the literature search. Also, appropriate planning and question
will be formulated which will be secured and involve peer-reviewed and the draft version of the
protocol (Whaley and et.al., 2020). The final version of the protocol will be published in the
public archive which will be prior to the screening studies in order to perform inclusion in the
review. It will be clearly indicated in the protocol and the review report that any changes under
the method that will be made only after conducting and testing the steps of the review.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Linares-Espinós, E. and et.al., 2018. Methodology of a systematic review. Actas Urológicas
Españolas (English Edition). 42(8). pp.499-506.
Martins and et.al., 2019. Intergenerational programs review: Study design and characteristics of
intervention, outcomes, and effectiveness. Journal of Intergenerational
Relationships. 17(1). pp.93-109.
Patino, C.M. and Ferreira, J.C., 2018. Inclusion and exclusion criteria in research studies:
definitions and why they matter. Jornal Brasileiro de Pneumologia. 44. pp.84-84.
Rathi, B.S., Kumar, P.S. and Show, P.L., 2021. A review on effective removal of emerging
contaminants from aquatic systems: Current trends and scope for further
research. Journal of Hazardous Materials. 409. p.124413.
Selva, A. and et.al., 2017. Development and use of a content search strategy for retrieving
studies on patients' views and preferences. Health and quality of life outcomes. 15(1).
pp.1-9.
Whaley and et.al., 2020. Recommendations for the conduct of systematic reviews in toxicology
and environmental health research (COSTER). Environment international. 143.
p.105926.
Online
CAB Direct Database, 2021. [Online]. Available Through:
<https://www.ebsco.com/products/research-databases/cinahl-database>.
PubMed Overview, 2021. [Online]. Available Through:
<https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/about/>.
GreenFILE. 2021, [Online]. Available Through:
<https://www.elsevier.com/solutions/sciencedirect>.