Understanding the relationships between land cover/urban structure patterns and air pollutants is key to sustainable urban planning and development. In this study, we employ a mobile monitoring method to collect PM_2.5 and BC data in the city of Philadelphia, PA during the summer of 2019 and apply the Structure of Urban Landscapes (STURLA) methodology to examine relationships between urban structure and atmospheric pollution. We find that, while PM_2.5 and BC vary by STURLA class, many of the differences in pollutant concentrations between classes are not significant. However, we also find that the proportions in which STURLA components are present throughout the urban landscape can be used to predict urban air pollution. Among frequently sampled STURLA classes, gpl hosted the highest PM_2.5 concentrations on average (16.60 _± 4.29 µg/m³), while tgbwp hosted the highest BC concentrations (2.31 _± 1.94 µg/m³). Furthermore, STURLA combined with machine learning modeling was able to correlate PM_2.5 (R²= 0.68, RMSE 2.82 µg/m³) and BC (R² = 0.64, RMSE 0.75 µg/m³) concentrations with the urban landscape and spatially interpolate concentrations where sampling did not take place. These results demonstrate the efficacy of the STURLA methodology in modeling relationships between air pollution and land cover/urban structure patterns.

With the rapid development of urbanization and industrialization in China, environmental issues have become a knotty problem, especially issues related to air, water, and solid-waste pollution. These pollutants pose threats to the health of the population and to that of communities and have a vicious influence on the healthcare system. Additionally, pollution also exhibits spill-over effects, which means that pollution in the local region could affect the healthcare services in a neighbouring region. Therefore, it is necessary to explore the relationship between pollution and healthcare. A spatial autocorrelation analysis was conducted and spatial panel econometric models were constructed to explore the characteristics of pollution and healthcare services in China and the relationship between them using data on all 31 provinces over twelve consecutive years (2006-2017). The results showed that the utilization of healthcare services and environmental pollution were not randomly distributed; unsurprisingly, air pollution and solid-waste pollution were mainly found in parts of northern China, while water pollution was highest in southern and coastal China. In addition, environmental pollution exhibited spill-over effects on healthcare services. For example, a 1% increase in solid waste in one specific geographical unit was estimated to increase the inpatient visits per capita in adjacent counties by 0.559%. Specifically, pollution showed different degrees of influence on healthcare services, which means that the impact of environmental pollution on the number of outpatient visits is greater than on the number of inpatient visits. Our results provide the government with evidence for effectively formulating and promulgating policies, especially policies aimed at tackling spill-over effects among different regions.

Environmental monitoring systems play a crucial role in assessing environmental quality, detecting limits exceedances, and predicting potential ecological episodes. These systems rely on the measurement of various variables at specific locations and time intervals over an extended period. The concept of environmental monitoring encompasses the assessment of health and safety issues for public and environmental health purposes. Pollution of the atmosphere and water, climate change, and natural disasters are among the consequences of continuous industrial and municipal development and human interference in natural ecosystems. To address these challenges and to protect human lives and the environment, with a special concern on mitigating the ecological effects of industrial development, advanced technical solutions, including the technologies associated with artificial intelligence (artificial neural networks ANNs, machine learning ML) have been developed. These technologies offer powerful tools for analysing the vast amount of data collected by monitoring systems and extracting valuable insights. By applying ANNs and machine learning algorithms, environmental monitoring systems can effectively process and interpret the measured variables to assess environmental quality. Despite challenges and limitations, such as data quality and interpretability of AI models, ongoing research and interdisciplinary collaboration are paving the way for the successful implementation of AI in environmental monitoring, ultimately supporting informed decision-making and sustainable resource management.While several review papers have explored the theory of artificial intelligence (AI), here I aim to review the application of ANNs and ML, in environmental aspects, specifically in automotive and industrial emissions toxicity measurements, as well as atmospheric pollution prevention. By examining the potential of AI in these domains, the paper contributes to understanding the role of advanced technologies in environmental monitoring and protection.

Excessive production, consumption and indiscriminate disposal of plastic waste cause an increasing plastic pollution with detrimental impacts on environment and human health. This study aimed to assess the level of knowledge, attitude, and practices (KAP) towards plastic pollution among Malaysians and evaluate the variation of plastic pollution related KAP among various socio-demographics. An online survey was conducted, and 294 valid responses was obtained. Descriptive statistics, KAP scoring and cross tabulation of responses were estimated. One-way analysis of variance, paired t-test and binary logistic regressions were carried out. Results showed that respondents had poor knowledge (mean 7.41 ± 1.80) and practice score (3.81 ± 1.39) across all socio-demographics. Compared to younger (18-30 years) respondents, older ones (>46 years) had higher knowledge (odds ratio, OR 4.304; p<0.01). However, middle aged (31-45 years) respondents reported significantly (p<0.01) higher attitude (OR 4.019) and practice (OR 4.056; p <0.05). Respondents with environmental related university education had showed higher odds about plastic pollution related knowledge (OR 10.343; p<0.01). Suggestions are made to undertake interventions such as environmental awareness creation, incorporating plastic pollution topics in formal and informal education, and providing recycling facilities nearby the localities for encouraging good practices towards minimizing plastic uses and pollution.

Concerns about China’s air quality, and its impact on the important tourism industry have been on the debate in recent years. This article aims to investigate the potential effect of air pollution on direct economic impact of tourism, using the case of Beijing and Shanghai. The results indicate that air pollution negatively affects China's inbound tourism, resulting in huge loss of tourist arrivals and receipts, and Beijing suffers a greater loss in comparison with Shanghai, its loss in tourist number amounts to 1569,700 persons, equal to CNY 10264.268 million in tourism receipts, and the GDP losses ranges from CNY 20528.536 to 41057.072 across major source countries. This study provides a quantification of the impact helpful to generate a social awareness of air pollution detrimental impacts on inbound tourism and hence the economy.

The Katangese Copperbelt area (KCA) located south-eastern of D.R. Congo presents high concentration of metal trace elements (MTE) in several soils due to a rich natural geochemical background, and intense mining activities, causing serious health issues to humans and animals. However, the lack of data on specific baseline concentrations makes it difficult to properly assess and monitor the environmental quality of soils in the region. In this study, the baseline concentration of 11 potentially toxic MTE (i.e., Mn, Zn, Cu, Co, Cr, Pb, Cd, Ti, Ni, Al, and Fe) was assessed in topsoils of the KCA, and the possible influence of land uses (croplands, forest and mining areas) was examined. Results showed the following baseline concentrations, i.e. lower and upper limits (mg.kg^-1) in cropland soils : Al (18.4–162.0), Cd (0.0–0.1), Co (0.1–3.5), Cu (0.8–17.7), Cr (0.0–0.2), Fe (4.7–233.8), Mn (3.5–575.6), Ni (0.1–1.9), Pb (0.2–2.4), Zn (0.1–20.3), Ti (0.0–392.6); in forests: Al (18.8–1167.1), Cd (0.02–0.48), Co (0.20–18.1), Cu (3.6–42.7), Cr (0.1–33.7), Fe (86.4–283.3), Mn (4.9–1538.9), Ni (0.05–24.2), Pb (0.3–13.7), Zn (2.0–7.0), Ti (0.2–0.8); and in mining areas: Al (7.4–241.2), Cd (0.01–164.8), Co (0.2–211.3), Cu (2.4–5485.4), Cr (0.03–0.4), Fe (5.9–481.6), Mn (7.1–95.9), Ni (0.1–1.9), Pb (0.2–390.8), Zn (1.5–5629.3), Ti (0.1–1.3). Cu and Zn were highest in mining areas demonstrating a prevalent influence of mining activities in altering the natural background of metals concentrations in the region. By contrast, croplands and forest shared a similar trend of Al and Mn contents, suggesting a mild influence of agricultural activity. Intriguingly, higher Cu and Co contents were found in forest compared to croplands. For all the three studied land uses, no straightforward relation was found between metal concentrations and soil total acidity. This study is the first attempt to establish reference values of MTE contents in the KCA soils and thus provides valuable information for legislative purposes and for soil quality assessment.

The soil and water contamination by metals from hazardous waste confined with urban solid wastes, highlights the importance of enhance the monitoring of disposal sites once closed. It is common to fail to comply with the regulations on their location, operation and post-closure, and located in areas that affect the environment and the health of the population. In the closed dump of Morelia, contamination of the soil and groundwater by leachates with heavy metals in the water from supply wells has been reported. The objective of this study was to determine the presence of heavy metals and arsenic in the confined wastes of the Morelia closed dump, in order to diagnose the affectation from the contaminants. Composition, degradation status and the presence of heavy metals were analyzed in samples of confined solid wastes from eight wells with different age of confinement. The results of this study ratify the contamination of the leachates of the site and are associated with the contamination of the water for human consumption in the area. The actual regulation does not apply in the case of urban solid waste, so it is crucial to regulate monitoring and management for correct decision-making during post-closure management.

Background: Low-income families often depend on fuels such as wood, coal, and animal dung for cooking. Such solid fuels are highly polluting and are a primary source of indoor air pollutants (IAP). We examined the association between solid fuel use (SFU) and acute respiratory infection (ARI) among under-five children in Afghanistan and the extent to which this association varies by socioeconomic status (SES) and gender. Materials and Methods: This is a cross-sectional study based on de-identified data from Afghanistan’s first standard Demographic and Health Survey conducted in 2015. The sample consists of ever-married mothers with under-five children in the household (n=27,565). We used mixed-effect Poisson regression models with robust error variance accounting for clustering to examine the associations between SFU and ARI among under-five children after adjusting for potential confounders. We also investigated potential effect modification by SES and sex. Additional analyses were conducted using an augmented measure of the exposure to IAP accounting for both SFU and the location of cooking/kitchen (High Exposure, Moderate, and No Exposure). Results: Around 70% of households reported SFU, whereas the prevalence of ARI was 17.6%. The prevalence of ARI was higher in children living in households with SFU compared to children living in households with no SFU (adjusted prevalence ratio [aPR]= 1.10; 95%CI: 0.98, 1.23). We did not observe any effect modification by SES or child sex. When using the augmented measure of exposure incorporating the kitchen’s location, children highly exposed to IAP had a higher prevalence of ARI compared to unexposed children (aPR 1.17; 95% CI: 1.03, 1.32). SES modified this association with the strongest associations observed among children from the middle wealth quintile. Conclusion: The findings have significant policy implications and suggest that ARI risk in children may be reduced by ensuring clean cookstove as well as clean fuels and acting on the socio-environmental pathways.

Air pollution contributes to a critical environmental problem in various towns and cities. With the emergence of the smart cities concept, appropriate methods to curb associated with exposure to pollutants must have been a portion of appropriate urban development policy. This study presents a technologically driven air quality solution in smart cities to advertise energy-efficient and cleaner sequestration in these areas. It aims to address the issue of how to integrate the data-based strategies and artificial intelligence into efficient public sector pollution management in smart cities as a core part of the smart city definition. Exploratory research has been used in 152 smart cities, and environmental experts contributed to this study. It further addresses the technical criteria for implementing such a framework that the public administration uses to prepare the renovation of public buildings, minimize energy use and costs, and link these smart police stations to monitor air pollution as a part of integrated cities. Such a digital transition in resource management will increase public governance's energy performance, a higher standard of operation, and a healthier environment.

The development of a novel and simple inhibition biosensor array for detection of water pollutants based on immobilized bacteria is the main goal of this work. A series of electrochemical measurements (i.e. cyclic voltammograms) were carried out on screen-printed gold electrodes with three types of bacteria, namely Escherichia coli, Shewanella oneidensis, and Methylococcus capsulatus, immobilized via poly L-lysine. For comparison purposes, similar measurements were carried out on bacteria samples in solutions,; also optical measurements (fluorescence microscopy, optical density, and flow cytometry) were performed on the same bacteria in both liquid and immobilized forms. The study of the effect of heavy metal ions (lead), pesticides (atrazine) and petrochemicals (hexane) on DC electrochemical characteristics of immobilized bacteria revealed a possibility of pattern recognition of the above inhibition agents in aquatic environment.

We propose a new technique to prepare statistically-robust benchmarking data for evaluating chemical transport model meteorology and air quality parameters within the urban boundary layer. The approach employs atmospheric class-typing, using nocturnal radon measurements to assign atmospheric mixing classes, and can be applied temporally (across the diurnal cycle), or spatially (to create angular distributions of pollutants as a top-down constraint on emissions inventories). In this study only a short (<1-month) campaign is used, but grouping of the relative mixing classes based on nocturnal mean radon concentrations can be adjusted according to dataset length (i.e., number of days per category), or desired range of within-class variability. Calculating hourly distributions of observed and simulated values across diurnal composites of each class-type helps to: (i) bridge the gap between scales of simulation and observation, (ii) represent the variability associated with spatial and temporal heterogeneity of sources and meteorology without being confused by it, and (iii) provide an objective way to group results over whole diurnal cycles that separates ‘natural complicating factors’ (synoptic non-stationarity, rainfall, mesoscale motions, extreme stability, etc.) from problems related to parameterizations, or between-model differences. We demonstrate the utility of this technique using output from a suite of seven contemporary regional forecast and chemical transport models. Meteorological model skill varied across the diurnal cycle for all models, with an additional dependence on the atmospheric mixing class that varied between models. From an air quality perspective, model skill regarding the duration and magnitude of morning and evening “rush hour” pollution events varied strongly as a function of mixing class. Model skill was typically the lowest when public exposure would have been the highest, which has important implications for assessing potential health risks in new and rapidly evolving urban regions, and also for prioritizing the areas of model improvement for future applications.

It is shown that structuring at the microlevel is the intrinsic property of water and aqueous solutions. At room conditions water (including "ultrapure" one) and aqueous solutions are dispersed systems in which microcrystals of NaCl, surrounded by a layer of hydrated water (average diameter - 10-15 microns), are "elementary microparticles", which form the basis of the dispersed phase. Possible ways of formation of these microparticles and their evolution in the process of evaporation of unstructured part of water - dispersion medium - are considered. It is shown, in particular, that they are present in the air as aerosol contaminants. When the ionic strength of the solution increases, the water-salt particles coagulate, forming a new phase - coacervates, remaining on the substrate after evaporation of the liquid part of the water. The aggregates of coacervate structures, formed in a liquid medium, are disordered during heating, which can cause a change in a number of physicochemical properties of water at the temperatures of 50°-60°C range that have not been correctly explained in the framework of atomic-molecular concepts.

Seagrasses are considered as efficient bioindicators of coastal trace element contamination. This chapter provides an overview on the trace element accumulation, tolerance and biomonitoring capacity of the various seagrass species distributed along the coast of India. A total of 10 trace elements are reported in seagrasses, 11 in sediment and nine in the water column from India. From the 11 seagrass species studied, 60% of research have focused on Syringodium isoetifolium, Cymodocea serrulata, Cymodocea rotundata and Halophila ovalis. 78% of seagrass trace element research in India is from Palk bay and Gulf of Mannar (GOM), Tamil Nadu and 16% from Lakshadweep Islands. Out of the 10 trace elements, Cd, Cu, Pb and Zn are the most studied in seagrass, Fe, Mn, Ni and Pb in sediment and Cu, Fe, Mg, Ni and Zn in the water column. Accumulation capacity of various trace elements in seagrass were species-specific. S. isoetifolium have the highest concentration of Cd and Mg at Palk bay and Lakshadweep Islands respectively. The concentration of Cu was higher in C. serrulata at GOM. Halodule uninervis and Halophila decipens have the highest concentration of Co, and Cr, Ni, Pb and Zn from Lakshadweep Islands. The highest concentration of Fe and Mn were highest in Halophila beccarii and H. ovalis from the coast of Goa and Palk bay respectively. Threshold levels (>10 mg L^-1) of Cd, Cu, Pb and Zn were observed for C. serrulata, H. ovalis, H. uninervis and T. hemprichii, that can affect the Photo System -II of these seagrasses and exert cellular stress leading to seagrass loss and die-off. High concentration of these elements can exert negative impacts on seagrass associated trophic assemblages and ecosystem functioning. Seagrasses of India can be utilized as bioindicators of coastal trace element contamination but the associated toxicity and human health risks needs further investigation.

Pesticides have a vital contribution to the agricultural industry in Australia. However, pesticide applications may not always selective to its target organism. Exposure to pesticide has been associated with negative impacts to human health. One of the ways to reduce pesticide risk to the population and the environment is through government regulations. To put Australia pesticide regulations into perspective, comparisons were made between Australia and other nation’s pesticides regulations. The EU pesticide regulatory system was chosen for comparison with the Australian’s in the aspect of protecting the population from pesticide exposure. The comparison showed that the assessment to authorize a pesticide in Australia is based on the risk while in the EU, the assessment is based on the hazard of the pesticide. A registered active substance in Australia can be authorized for use indefinitely unless it is nominated for reconsideration while the period of registration of an active substance in the EU lasts for 10 years. In addition, no routine systematic chemical residue surveys are conducted in Australia for food commodities. The results highlight areas for improvement in the Australian pesticide regulatory system from the perspective of controlling undue exposure among the general population.

Shenzhen is China’s top ten clean air city and the cleanest air megacity. Even so, epidemiologic studies have shown ambient air pollution had significant adverse impacts on human health in this less polluted city. In this study, the concentrations of six criteria air pollutants (PM2.5, PM10, O3, NO2, SO2, and CO) from 2014 to 2017 were analyzed and compared to thresholds of both national and international air quality standards. The results showed concentrations of all air pollutants were below target values of current national air quality standard, but levels of particulate matter (PM) and O3 were still much higher than the recommended levels by the World Health Organization. Within national air quality standards, the number of over-limit days was rare with few variations between highly polluted and low pollution areas. The air quality improvement was slowing down recently. Our results suggest annual and daily thresholds for PM are too loose for air quality improvement in Shenzhen. Hence, we call for evaluation and establishment of tougher air quality standard.

Environmental legislation is moving towards global standards for ease of application and to impose sanctions and penalties when necessary, without compromising human health and biota. International environmental measures for control and monitoring of atmospheric air only monitor emissions of SO_x, NO_x, O₃, and Pb. In general, most research work in air pollution done using the analysis of elements in rainwater show analysis of trace metals such as Na, Mg, Zn, and Mn. In this work, trace metals in the rainwater at the city of Goiânia, capital of the State of Goiás, were analyzed. Goiânia is a large city set in a predominantly agricultural province located in central Brazil. Presence of trace metals in rainwater was detected, indicating atmospheric air pollution levels higher than occupational limits set by WHO.

Improper illumination of cultural heritage buildings and monuments can be a source of enormous light pollution that can have a major impact on the overall environment of the illuminated area. Such lighting can be the result of carelessness or a wrong/badly designed lighting system. This paper presents one of the methodologies that can significantly reduce light pollution, especially the spilt light out of the façade. The methodology is based on using luminaires with specially made shutters with the appropriate silhouette of the object. The shutter is planned with the help of an object photo and sizes measured at the location. The methodology was tested during the renovation of the lighting system of different churches in Slovenia and is described in the example of the Church of St. Thomas near Ptuj, Slovenia. The results showed that the methodology is effective and can significantly reduce light pollution that occurs when such buildings are incorrectly lit.

Hong Kong is one of the most densely populated cities in the world, with millions of people exposed to severe air pollution. (1) Background: Surface ozone, mostly produced photochemically from anthropogenic precursor gases is harmful to both human and vegetation. The phytotoxicity of ozone has been shown to damage plant photosynthesis, induce early leaf death and retard growth. (2) Methods: We use genotypes of bush bean Phaseolus vulgaris with various degrees of sensitivity to ozone to investigate the impacts of ambient ozone on the morphology and development of the bean. We use ozone-induced foliar injury index and measure the flowerings and fruit production to quantify the ozone stress on the plants. (3) Results: We expected that the ozone-sensitive genotype would suffer from a reduction of yield. Results however show that the ozone-sensitive genotype suffers higher ozone-induced foliar damage as expected but produces more pods and beans and heavier beans than the ozone-resistant genotype. (4) Conclusions: It is postulated that the high ozone sensitivity of the sensitive genotype causes stress-induced flowering and therefore results in higher bean yield. A higher-than-ambient concentration of ozone is needed to negatively impact the yield production of the ozone-sensitive genotype. This study demonstrate the usefulness of bioindicators to monitor the phytotoxic effects of ozone pollution in a subtropical city such as Hong Kong.

Experiences of homelessness, although widely varied, are characterized by extensive time in public spaces, often outdoors. However, there has been little empirical research about the ways in which environmental factors affect individuals experiencing homelessness (IEHs). Therefore, the purpose of this study was to use an environmental justice approach to understand how cardiopulmonary health of IEHs is affected by episodic poor air quality in Salt Lake County. It was hypothesized that people who had experienced unsheltered homelessness and those who had been experiencing homelessness for longer periods of time would report greater health difficulties from poor air quality exposure. Through a combination of in-person semi-structured interviews with IEHs (n = 138) and access to corresponding state-based service provider databases, researchers examined both overall descriptives of and relationships between types (sheltered and unsheltered) and duration (chronic and non-chronic) of homelessness. More than 61% of IEHs reported physical reactions to air pollution, 37% reported air pollution-related emotional stress, and more than 89% had sought medical attention for a condition related to air pollution. Findings indicate that while IEHs report a number of health effects related to poor air quality, there were no significant differences between individuals based on either sheltered status or duration of their experiences of homelessness. This study provides an initial empirical inquiry to understand how environmental disamenities negatively influence IEHs, as well as noting that sheltered status and duration of homelessness are less impactful than originally hypothesized.

Hydrogen sulfide and ammonia are always a concern in the livestock industries, especially when farmers try to clear their manure storage pits. Agitation of manure can cause dangerously high concentrations of harmful agents such as H₂S and NH₃ to be emitted into the air. Biochar has the ability to sorb these gases. We hypothesized that applying biochar on top of manure can create an effective barrier to protect farmers and animals from exposure to NH₃ and H₂S. In this study, two kinds of biochar were tested, highly alkaline, and porous (HAP, pH 9.2) biochar made from corn stover and red oak biochar (RO, pH 7.5). Two scenarios of (6 mm) 0.25” and (12 mm) 0.5” thick layers of biochar treatments were topically applied to the manure and tested on a pilot-scale setup, simulating a deep pit storage. Each setup experienced 3-min of agitation using a transfer pump, and measurements of the concentrations of NH₃ and H₂S were taken in real-time and measured until the concentration stabilized after the sharp increase in concentration due to agitation. The results were compared with the control in the following 3 situations: 1. The maximum (peak) flux 2. Total emission from the start of agitation until the concentration stabilized, and 3. The total emission during the 3 min of agitation. For NH₃, 0.5” HAP biochar treatment significantly (p<0.05) reduced maximum flux by 63.3%, overall total emission by 70%, and total emissions during the 3-min agitation by 85.2%; 0.25” HAP biochar treatment significantly (p<0.05) reduced maximum flux by 75.7%, overall, total emission by 74.5%, and total emissions during the 3-min agitation by 77.8%. 0.5” RO biochar treatment significantly reduced max by 8.8%, overall total emission by 52.9%, and total emission during 3-min agitation by 56.8%; 0.25” RO biochar treatment significantly reduced max by 61.3%, overall total emission by 86.1%, and total emission during 3-min agitation by 62.7%. For H₂S, 0.5” HAP biochar treatment reduced the max by 42.5% (p=0.125), overall total emission by 17.9% (p=0.290), and significantly reduced the total emission during 3-min agitation by 70.4%; 0.25” HAP treatment reduced max by 60.6% (p=0.058), and significantly reduced overall and 3-min agitation’s total emission by 64.4% and 66.6%, respectively. 0.5” RO biochar treatment reduce the max flux by 23.6% (p=0.145), and significantly reduced overall and 3-min total emission by 39.3% and 62.4%, respectively; 0.25” RO treatment significantly reduced the max flux by 63%, overall total emission by 84.7%, and total emission during 3-min agitation by 67.4%.

As for most Mediterranean countries, groundwater is the main resource for irrigation and drinking supply in most parts of Syria, however this resource suffers from mismanagement. In the study area (Northeast of Mt. Hermon), the lack of information makes water management in this area extremely difficult. Assessing groundwater pollution risk is the most essential issue for water resources management, especially in the regions where complex interaction between climate, geology, geomorphology, hydrogeology, water scarcity and water resource mismanagement exist. This complexity leads to significant complication in determining pollution risk of studied system. In the present work, we adopted an Integrative Approach to assess groundwater pollution risk in the study area. This methodology is based on the analysis of hydrogeological characteristic of aquifer system and the available information about socio-economic context and physio-chemical groundwater condition that might affect this system. This approach allowed us to delineate the groundwater pollution risk map based on the analysis of concerning parameters/ indicators. The degree of risk was assessed based as the sum and average of rating of these parameters and indicators for each subarea. Typically, very high pollution risk index was identified over the Quaternary/Neogene horizon, i.e shallow and unconfined aquifer and in the lower part of Jurassic aquifer. In these two parts, the majority of anthropogenic activities are concentrated. Low pollution risk index was found for the outcropping of low permeable Quaternary basalt at the Southern part of the study area. A moderate pollution index was identified for the low/moderate permeability of silt, clay and marly limestone rich horizons of the major part of Neogene aquifer outside of the intersected zones with Quaternary aquifer and for the Paleogene formations. The spatial analysis shows that about 50% of the study area is characterized as being at very high and high pollution risk index. Hence, the overall natural protective capacity of this area is still poor. This study demonstrates the flexibility of the proposed approach to assess groundwater pollution risk in local complex aquifer system characterized by lack of information and data in order to reduce the risk of future groundwater pollution.

UV-A (ca. 365 nm wavelength, a.k.a. 'black light') photocatalysis has been investigated to comprehensively mitigate odor and selected air pollutants in the livestock environment. This study was conducted to confirm the performance of UV-A photocatalysis on the swine farm. The objectives of this research were to (1) scale-up of the UV-A photocatalysis treatment, (2) evaluate the mitigation of odorous gases from swine slurry pit, and (3) test different UV sources, (4) evaluate the effect of suspended particulate matter (PM), and (5) conduct preliminary economic analyses. We tested UV-A photocatalysis at a mobile laboratory-scale capable of treating ~0.2 - 0.8 m3·s-1 of barn exhaust air. The targeted gaseous emissions of barn exhaust air were significantly mitigated (p < 0.05) up to 40% reduction of measured odor; 63%, 44%, 32%, 40%, 66%, and 49% reduction of dimethyl disulfide, isobutyric acid, butanoic acid, p-cresol, indole, and skatole, respectively; 40% reduction of H2S; 100% reduction of O3; and 13% reduction of N2O. The PM mitigation effect was not significant. Formaldehyde levels did not change, and a 21% generation of CO2 was observed. The percent reduction of targeted gases decreased as the airborne PM increased. Simultaneous chemical and sensory analysis confirmed that UV-A treatment changed the overall nuisance odor character of swine barn emissions into weaker manure odor with 'toothpaste and 'mint' notes. The smell of benzoic acid generated in UV-A treatment was likely one of the compounds responsible for the less-offensive overall odor character of the UV-treated emissions. Results are needed to inform the design of a farm-scale trial, where the interior barn walls can be treated with the photocatalyst, and foul air will be passively treated as it moves through the barn.

The frequent incidents of oil spills and other forms of pollution arising from crude oil exploration and exploitation (OEE) in the Niger Delta have caused several investigations on Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs) pollution. This study aimed at developing a comprehensive report on PAH pollution and its human health risks recorded in the Niger Delta. Studies were extracted from Google Scholar, PubMed, and ResearchGate using a defined selection criterion. The quality of each study was assessed using the Newcastle – Ottawa Scale. Thirty-eight studies were selected with the majority reporting on PAH pollution in aquatic environments. Across all the selected studies, the total number of PAHs recorded ranged from 7 to 28 PAH congeners. Also, PAH potential sources reported in the studies were of pyrogenic and petrogenic sources. PAH concentrations recorded in water, sediment, aquatic organisms (fish and shrimp), soil, dust, and crop samples ranged from below detection limit (BDL) to 450 ± 117.9 mg/L, BDL to 1821.5 mg/kg, 0.005 to 1.098 mg/kg, ND to 4154 ± 3461 mg/kg, 165.1 to 1012 mg/kg, and 0.020 to 3.37 mg/kg, respectively. Majority of the selected studies reported PAH levels which were higher than the permissible limits. Incremental Lifetime Cancer Risk (ILCR) assessment of PAHs in samples ranged from low to high via ingestion and dermal routes of exposure to humans. It is recommended that the Federal Government of Nigeria promotes environmentally friendly operations of OEE. Future studies should focus on PAH pollution in farmlands, ambient air and the associated human and ecological health risks.

The soil and water contamination by metals from hazardous waste confined with urban solid wastes, highlights the importance of enhance the monitoring of disposal sites once closed. It is common to fail to comply with the regulations on their location, operation and post-closure, and located in areas that affect the environment and the health of the population. In the closed dump of Morelia, contamination of the soil and groundwater by leachates with heavy metals in the water from supply wells has been reported. The objective of this study was to determine the presence of heavy metals and arsenic in the confined wastes of the Morelia closed dump, in order to diagnose the affectation from the contaminants. Composition, degradation status and the presence of heavy metals were analyzed in samples of confined solid wastes from eight wells with different age of confinement. The results of this study ratify the contamination of the leachates of the site and are associated with the contamination of the water for human consumption in the area. The actual regulation does not apply in the case of urban solid waste, so it is crucial to regulate monitoring and management for correct decision-making during post-closure management.

Air pollution has become the world’s single biggest environmental health risk of the past decade, causing about 7 million yearly deaths worldwide. One of the dominant air pollutants is fine particulate matter (PM2.5), a product of combustion. Exposure to PM2.5 has been associated with decreased lung function, impaired immunity, and exacerbations of lung disease. Accumulating evidence suggests that many of the adverse health effects of PM2.5 exposure are associated with lung inflammation and oxidative stress. While the physical structure and surface chemistry of PM2.5 are surrogate measures of particle oxidative potential, little is known about their contributions to negative health effects. In this study, we used functionalized carbon black particles as surrogates for atmospherically aged combustion formed soot to assess the effects of PM2.5 surface chemistry in lung cells. We exposed the BEAS-2B lung epithelial cell line to different soot at a range of concentrations, and assessed cell viability, inflammation, and oxidative stress. Our results indicate that exposure to soot with varying particle surface composition results in differential cell viability rates, expression of pro-inflammatory and oxidative stress genes, and protein carbonylation. We conclude that particle surface chemistry, specifically oxygen content, in soot modulates lung cell inflammatory and oxidative stress responses.

Cigarette smoking and air pollution (particulate matter) are recognized as two major etiological factors for lung cancer. Of all the risk factors, cigarette smoking is significantly associated with lung carcinogenesis. The main mechanism lies in the metabolically activated carcinogens (majorly polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and nitrosamines), which could covalently bind with DNA molecules and lead to irreversible mutations in pivotal cancer genes, such as TP53 and KRAS. Another major etiological factor for lung cancer is air pollution, which is with complex compositions and ubiquitous in daily life, especially in developing countries as China and India. The latest literatures on lung cancer epidemiology and etiology have been briefly summarized and reviewed in this work.

Microplastics (MPs) and nanoplastics (NPs) are distributed and transferred among the four major environmental compartments (air, water, soil, and biota) and have been already found in humans, making crucial to develop remediation technologies to tackle this kind pollution. Photocatalysis can be used to eliminate MPs present in contaminated wastewater effluents before their discharge into waterbodies. In this work, several green TiO2-based semiconductors were prepared using the extrapallial fluid (EPF) of Mytilus edulis sea water mussels as doping precursor. The semiconductors were then used as films or powders to photocatalytically degrade polystyrene (PS) NPs and MPs and polyethylene (PE) MPs. It was found that the obtention of green TiO2-based semiconductors with good characteristics for photocatalytic purposes (anatase crystalline phase, presence of porosity, activity in visible light and high surface area) seems not enough to achieve high degradation efficiency. The operational conditions of the reaction system should be also taken into account. For instance, the convenience of using semiconductors in the form of films can be overcome by their limited exposed surface area or the null adsorption of the semiconductor in the MPs particles. Additionally, crystallinity of the semiconductor can be a more determinant factor to take into account when performing photocatalysis of MPs.

As the necessity for safety and aesthetic of nightscape have arisen, the importance of nightscapes (i.e., nighttime landscape) planning has garnered the attention of mainstream consciousness. Therefore, this study is to suggest the guideline for nightscape planning using electroencephalography (EEG) technology and survey for recognizing the characteristics of a nightscape. Furthermore, we verified the EEG method as a tool for landscape evaluation. This study analyzed the change of relative alpha power and relative beta power and self-reporting of participants in order to investigate the correlation between EEG and fear according to twelve nightscape settings. Our findings indicated the corresponding measures of fear vary accordance with whether there was people or not, and the environmental settings (Built Nightscape Images; BNI vs Natural Nightscape Images; NNI). Based on our physiological EEG experiment, we provided a new analytic view of the nightscape. The approach we utilized enables a deeper understanding of emotional perception and fear among human subjects by identifying the physical environment which impacts how they experience nightscapes.

The present investigation is focused on the forecasting visual observation of the impact of anthropogenic activity on the pilgrimage places located along the coastal environments in Tamil Nadu, India. Devotees performing the unregulated ritual ceremonies, open defecation, waste materials dumping and local municipality discharging wastewater contamination levels were assessed from direct visual surveillance, and by taking photographs and baseline information collected from five different pilgrimage sites. Results showed that ritual ceremonies, wastewater discharges and debris highly contaminated site-III, and found open defecation at site-I. The lack of coastal regulation, pollution awareness, insufficient sanitation facilities and failure to control the commercial and recreational activities have major deleterious effects on the present and future environments of the coastal areas. This is the first attempt conducted by visual assessment of the coastal pollution in pilgrimage places. The results immensely support the recommendation for proper regulation of ritual activities, arrangement of basic sanitation facilities and prohibition of wastewater discharges to prevent waterborne diseases as well as to strictly follow the regional and national level of coastal regulation policy to protect the biological resources of the Gulf of Mannar marine ecosystems.

This article analyses the environmental impact of the measures imposed during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. We compare the evolution of atmospheric pollution levels in recent years and during lockdown, and assess the effects of the decrease in mobility and changes in patterns and lifestyles during the latter period. Thus, the reduction in the risk to human health brought about by the improvement of air quality during the months of confinement through the use of dose-response functions is estimated. The focus of the case study is the island of Tenerife. The island of Tenerife has been selected because it can serve as an example for other sites in Europe. We distinguish between the three areas with the highest population concentrations: the Metropolitan, Southern, and Northern areas. The impacts of air pollution and its relationship with changes in consumption and activity patterns are clearly distinguishable. Therefore, the lessons learned can be easily extrapolated to other areas, in both island and mainland contexts.

Abstract: The frequency and intensity of air pollution are two of most critical issues the world faces in dealing with global environmental problems. They are both important areas that need to be improved. Our previous research [20] examines the assessment of fine dust pollution in Baekryeong island by statistical reasoning through one specific example of inland city (Yanggu) in Republic of Korea; however, given that Baekryeong Island is a remote island, there has been little focus on in-depth examination of its effect on the high density of fine dust in Baekryeong Island. The purpose of this article is twofold: (i) to examine the effect of a remote island on the high density of fine dust on Baekryeong Island using statistical reasoning and to provide a more specific statistical basis for the claim that one of the non-negligible factors influencing the high density of fine dust on Baekryeong Island is the geographic proximity to China; and (ii) to present brief discussion of fundamental cause of fine dust and global air pollution issues, which are not discussed in [20].

Background: Particulate matter and urban air pollution affect the human body and can lead to death. Epidemiological studies should consider the exposure to pollutants and the diverse responses of individuals depending on their sensitivity to the pollutants. Methods: In this study, air pollution measurements were obtained hourly at measuring stations operated by the national and local governments to increase the reliability of the measured values. A β-ray absorption method was used to analyze the measurements of fine dust and determine the particulate matter content. Results: The air pollution data were log-converted to enable the comparison of data from different time periods. The comparison was made, focusing on the period of Seoul's fine dust policy. As a result, the cancer incidence rate also decreased after the policy. The data on individual characteristics were obtained from a survey of Seoul citizens conducted from 2015 to 2016 and using indicators such as the quality of life and social trust of Seoul citizens. Concludions: The survey on the living environment and residence indicated that 80% of the heads of households were men. Women had a greater dissatisfaction than men with the residential, economic, and social environments. The survey questions on well-being were related to the internal and external environment such as air pollution, noise, and fine dust.

Today, air quality is one of the global concerns that governments are facing. One of the main air pollutants is the particulate matter (PM) that affects human health. This article presents the modeling of a purification system by means of negative air ions (NAIs) for air pollutant removal, using computational intelligence methods. The system uses a high voltage booster output to ionize air molecules from stainless steel electrodes; its particle-capturing efficiency reaches up to 97%. With two devices (5 x 2 x 2.5 cm), 2 trillion negative ions are produced per second, and the particulate matter (PM 2.5) can be reduced from 999 to 0 mg / m3 in a period of approximately 5 to 7 minutes (in a 40 x 40 x 40 cm acrylic chamber). This negative ion generator is a viable and sustainable alternative to reduce polluting emissions, with beneficial effects on human health.

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a multifactorial lung inflammatory disease affecting 174 million people worldwide, with a recently reported increased incidence in female patients. Patients with COPD are especially vulnerable to the detrimental effects of environmental exposures, especially from air particulate and gaseous pollutants. Exposure to air pollution severely influences COPD outcomes, resulting in acute exacerbations, hospitalizations, and death. In the current study, we conducted a review of the literature addressing air pollution induced acute exacerbations of COPD (AECOPD) in order to determine whether air pollution affects COPD patients in a sex-specific manner. We found that while the majority of studies enrolled both male and female patients, only a few reported results disaggregated by sex. Most studies had a higher enrollment of male patients, only four compared AECOPD outcomes between sexes, and only one study identified sex differences in AECOPD, with females displaying higher rates. Overall, our analysis of the literature confirmed that air pollution exposure is a trigger for AECOPD hospitalizations and revealed a significant gap in our knowledge of sex-specific effects of air pollutants on COPD outcomes, highlighting the need for more studies considering sex as a biological variable.

Oil spills are adverse events that may be very harmful to ecosystems and food chain. In particular, large sea oil spills are very dramatic occurrence often affecting sea and coastal areas. Therefore the sustainability of oil rig infrastructures and oil transportation via oil tankers are linked to law enforcement based on proper monitoring techniques which are also fundamental to mitigate the impact of such pollution. Within this context, in this study a meaningful showcase is analyzed using remotely sensed measurements collected by the Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) operated by the COSMO-SkyMed (CSK) constellation. The showcase presented refers to the Deepwater Horizon (DWH) oil incident that occurred in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010. It is one of the world's largest incidental oil pollution event that affected a sea area larger than 10,000 km². In this study we exploit, for the first time, dual co-polarization SAR data collected by the Italian CSK X-band SAR constellation showing the key benefits of HH-VV SAR measurements in observing such a huge oil pollution event, especially in terms of the very dense revisit time offered by the CSK constellation.

Abstract: The air pollution dispersion modelling via spatial analyses (Land Use Regression – LUR) is an alternative approach to the air quality assessment to the standard air pollution dispersion modelling techniques. Its advantages are mainly much simpler mathematical apparatus, quicker and simpler calculations and a possibility to incorporate other factors affecting pollutant’s concentration. The goal of the study was to model the PM10 particles dispersion modelling via spatial analyses v in Czech-Polish border area of Upper Silesian industrial agglomeration and compare results with results of the standard Gaussian dispersion model SYMOS’97. Results show that standard Gaussian model with the same data as the LUR model gives better results (determination coefficient 71% for Gaussian model to 48% for LUR model). When factors of the land cover and were included into the LUR model, the LUR model results were significantly improved (65% determination coefficient) to the level comparable with Gaussian model. The hybrid approach combining the Gaussian model with the LUR gives superior quality of results (65% determination coefficient).

Market air quality is very important to the economic lives of the people which is rarely researched, however, market activities particularly pedestrian traffic releases particulates which is detrimental to the health of the users and stakeholders. Thermo scientific MIE pDR-1500 particulate was used to monitor the quality of air within the market for eight (8) weeks, air pollutant of concern is PM2.5. ten (10) sample points were located in the market which covers ten (10) sample points for pedestrian traffic to represent the entire market environment spectrum. The analysis of PM2.5 measured daily during dry and wet season shows a clear seasonal variation of this particular pollutant as elevated concentration was measured during the dry season than the wet season. The assessment of PM2.5 concentration shows exceedances of the standards stated by WHO and NAAQS during the dry season which ranges from 47.9 μg/m3- 231.88 μg/m3 in the morning and 65.17 μg/m3- 1806.33 μg/m3 in the afternoon. From the findings, pedestrian traffic contributes immensely to air pollution in an open market, with this elevated concentration, prolonged exposure is highly detrimental to health. This study creates awareness to the pedestrians in an open market about air pollution and informs policy changes.

Polluted rivers are a primary problem in Changhua County, Taiwan, due to rapid and massive developments in agriculture and industry. In this study, samples consisted of water influent from the Yangzi-Cuo River, Ci-Tong Jiao, Changhua County. Ecology technology, a combination of gravel contact oxidation and surface flow constructed wetlands, was employed to enhance the water quality. Ecology technology is a useful and ordinary process that focuses on original treatment of pollution through chemical, physical, and biological procedures based on the mediums of soil, plant, water, and microorganisms from pure environments. Moreover, this study aimed to minimize the river pollution index (RPI) of the Yangzi-Cuo River by using combinations of gravel contact oxidation and surface flow constructed wetlands. The inflow volume of the water samples in situ was found to be 1534–2261 cubic meters per day (CMD). The pollution in the water sample mostly involved suspended solid (SS), ammoniacal nitrogen (NH₃–N), total phosphorus (TP), total nitrogen (TN), and biochemical oxygen demand (BOD), and the values of the above indexes were found to be 10.0–26.7 mg/L, 0.9–14.0 mg/L, 1.2–14.1 mg/L, 11.1–18.2 mg/L, and 0.5–3.6 mg/L, respectively. Efficiencies of pollution elimination in SS, NH₃–N, TP, TN, and BOD were found to be 24.2–93.1%, 58.3–86.2%, 5.2–85.0%, 59.4–77.2%, and 46.3–76.4%, correspondingly, after purification treatment via ecology technology. Thus, ecology technology is a valid means of purification treatment for polluted rivers.

Background: Exposure in utero to particulate matter (PM2.5 and PM10) is associated with maladaptive health outcomes. Although exposure to prenatal PM2.5 and PM10 have cord blood DNA methylation signatures at birth, signature persistence into childhood and saliva cross-tissue applicability has not been tested. Methods: In the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study, a United States 20-city birth cohort, average residential PM2.5 and PM10 during pregnancy was estimated using air quality monitors with inverse distance weighting. Saliva DNA methylation at ages 9 (n=749) and 15 (n=793) was measured using the Illumina HumanMethylation 450k BeadArray. Cumulative DNA methylation scores for particulate matter were estimated by weighting participant DNA methylation at each site by meta-analysis effect estimates from Gruzieva et al. 2019 and standardizing the sums. Using mixed effects regression analysis, we tested the associations between cumulative DNA methylation scores at ages 9 and 15 and PM exposure during pregnancy, adjusted for child sex, age, race/ethnicity, maternal income to needs ratio, nonmartial birth status, and saliva cell type proportions. Results: Our study sample was 50.5% male, 56.3% non-Hispanic Black, and 19.8% Hispanic, with median income to needs ratio of 1.4. In the third trimester, mean PM2.5 exposure levels were 27.9 ug/m3/day (standard deviation: 7.0, 23.7% of observations exceeded safety standards) and PM10 were 15.0 ug/m3/day (standard deviation: 3.1). An interquartile range increase in PM2.5 exposure (10.73 g/m3/day) was associated with -0.0287 standard deviation lower cumulative DNA methylation score for PM2.5 (95% CI: -0.0732, 0.0158, p=0.20) across all participants. An interquartile range increase in PM10 exposure (3.20 g/m3/day) was associated with -0.1472 standard deviation lower cumulative DNA methylation score for PM10 (95% CI: -0.3038, 0.0095, p=0.06) across all participants. The PM10 findings were driven by the age 15 subset where an interquartile range increase in PM10 exposure was associated with -0.024 standard deviation lower cumulative DNA methylation score for PM10 (95% CI: -0.043, -0.005, p=0.012). Findings were robust to adjustment for PM exposure at ages 1 and 3. Conclusion: In utero PM10 associated DNA methylation differences persist until age 15 and can be detected in saliva. Benchmarking the persistence and cell type generalizability is critical for epigenetic exposure biomarker assessment.

Despite increased awareness of and attention to the need for sustainable agriculture, fertilizers and compost application in excess of crop requirements remain common agricultural practices in South Korea, causing eutrophication of freshwater and coastal ecosystems. In this study, a phosphorus (P) budget was developed to quantify P inputs, outputs, and retention in a forested- agricultural watershed. The P budget showed that chemical fertilizers and organic compost were the largest source of P (97.6% of the total) followed by atmospheric deposition (2.1% of the total P), whereas forest export (0.2% of the total) and sewage treatment plants (STPs) (0.1% of the total) were negligible. The dominant P outputs were crop harvesting and hydrologic export to surface water. The P balance showed a significant accumulation of P in the watershed; approximately 87% of the total P input was retained in the soils within the watershed. However, P concentrations in drainage water were still high enough to cause eutrophication of downstream reservoirs. The results provide useful information on the proportion of P export and retention in soils and will help support efforts to improve water quality and design better management of agricultural non-point source pollution.

Observing air quality from sensors onboard light rail cars in Salt Lake County, Utah began as a pilot study in 2014 and has now evolved into a five-year state-funded program. This metropolitan region suffers from both elevated ozone levels during summer and high PM2.5 events during winter. Pollution episodes result predominantly from local anthropogenic emissions but are also impacted by regional transport of dust, chemical precursors to ozone, and wildfire smoke as well as being exacerbated by the topographical features surrounding the city. Two electric light-rail train cars from the Utah Transit Authority light-rail Transit Express (“TRAX”) system were outfitted with PM2.5 and ozone sensors to measure air quality at high spatial and temporal resolution in this region. Pollutant concentration data underwent quality control procedures to determine whether the train motion affected the readings and how the sensors compared against regulatory sensors. Quality assurance results from data obtained over the past year show that TRAX Observation Project sensors are reliable, which corroborates earlier preliminary validation work. Two case studies from summer 2019 are presented to illustrate the strength of the finely-resolved air quality observations: 1) an elevated ozone event and 2) elevated particulate pollution resulting from 4th of July fireworks. The mobile observations were able to capture spatial gradients as well as pollutant hotspots during both of these episodes. Sensors have been recently added to a third light rail train car, which travels on a north-south oriented rail line along which we were unable to monitor air quality previously. The TRAX Observation Project is currently being used to provide reliable pollutant data for health studies and inform urban planning efforts. Links to real-time data displays and updated information on the quality-controlled data from this study are available at https://atmos.utah.edu/air_quality/trax/.

TRPOMI instrument aboard Sentinel-5P is a relatively new, high-resolution source of information about atmosphere composition. One of the primary atmospheric trace gases that we can observe through it is nitrogen dioxide. By now, we were using the chemical weather model (GEM-AQ) as a mean for estimating nitrogen dioxide concentration on a regional scale. Although well established in atmospheric science, the GEM-AQ simulations were always based on emission data, which in the case of the energy sector were reported by stack owners. In this paper, we attempted to compare the TROPOMI and GEM-AQ derived VCDs over Poland with a particular focus on large point emitters. We also checked how cloudy conditions influence TROPOMI results. Finally, we tried to link the NO2 column number densities with surface concentration using boundary layer height as an additional explanatory variable

Due to their unique properties, perfluorinated substances (PFAS) are widely used in multiple industrial and commercial applications, but they are toxic for animals, humans included. This review presents some available data on the PFAS environmental distribution in the world, and in particular in Europe and in Veneto region of Italy, where it has become a serious problem for human health. The consumption of contaminated food and drinking water is considered one of the major source of exposure for humans. Worldwide epidemiological studies report the negative effects that PFAS have on human health, due to environmental pollution, including infertility, steroid hormone perturbation, thyroid, liver and kidney disorders and metabolic disfunctions. In vitro and in vivo researches correlated PFAS exposure to oxidative stress effects (in mammals as well as in other vertebrates of human interest), produced by a PFAS-induced increase of reactive oxygen species formation. The cellular antioxidant defense system is activated by PFAS, but it is only partially able to avoid the oxidative damage to biomolecules.

The unquenchable demand for rock materials has attracted many companies within the building and construction sector to invest in stone quarrying. However, this has brought about the environmental impacts with health threats to people. There is a paucity of information about the magnitude of pollution on air and water and how it varies with quarry sites. This study therefore investigated the physical impacts of quarrying on air and water and explored the in-situ mitigations to undesirable effects due to stone quarrying. Four active quarry sites were identified. Field measurements of dust (particulate matter) was conducted within the four quarry sites and in the nearby community. Water samples were collected from quarry pits and nearby shallow wells for laboratory analysis of water quality. Statistical Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) was used to test for differences in pollution across the four studied sites. Results revealed that, amidst use of wet crushing and water sprinkling on bare surfaces, dust emission was higher than the recommended permissible standards levels with a significant variation across the quarry sites with ANOVA (P-value=0.003) for PM2.5 and (P-value=0.04366) for PM10. Water pollution was mainly contributed by the non-permissive levels of nitrates, chromium, and pH. Polluted air and water are associated with sparking off health threats to the users in the community. In conclusion, quarry companies should strengthen the already existing mitigation of dust suppression. The study recommends additional measures such as treating quarry pit water before discharging to the open environment

Clairton, Pennsylvania, is home to the largest coke works facility in the United States (US). On 24 December 2018, a large fire occurred at this facility and damaged pollution control equipment. Although repairs were not completed for several months, production continued at pre-fire capacity and daily emissions increased by 24 to 35 times, with multiple exceedances of monitored levels of outdoor air pollution (OAP). The aim of this study was to objectively evaluate the impact of this industrial incident and resultant OAP exceedances on asthma morbidity. We assessed pre-fire and post-fire rate ratios (RR) of outpatient and emergency department (ED) visits for asthma exacerbations among nearby adult residents. Pre-fire versus post-fire RRs increased for both visit types: RR = 1.82 (95% CI: 1.30, 2.53; p < 0.001) and 1.84 (95% CI: 1.05, 3.22; p = 0.032) for outpatient and ED visits, respectively. Additionally, total visit rates increased on days with OAP exceedances: RR = 2.47 (95% CI: 1.52, 4.01; p < 0.0001), 1.58 (95% CI: 1.00, 2.48; p = 0.048) and 1.79 (95% CI: 1.27, 2.54; p = 0.001) for PM_2.5, SO₂, and H₂S exceedance days, respectively. These results show a near doubling of acute visits for asthma exacerbations in nearby adult residents during this industrial incident and underscore the need for prompt remediation and public notification of OAP exceedances to prevent adverse health impacts.

This paper describes the use of a new obtrusive light module of the Illumina v2 model to estimate the light that may enter bedroom windows. We used as input to the model, 1- the sources’ flux and spectrum derived from the color images taken by astronauts from the international space station, 2- an association between source spectrum and angular emission, and 3- a per zone inventory of obstacles properties and lamp height. The model calculate the spectral irradiance incident to buildings’ windows taking into account for the orientation of the street. By using the color information from an ISS image, we can classify pixels as a function of their spectra. With the same image, it is also possible to determine the upward photopic radiance for each pixel. Both serve as inputs to the model to calculate the spectral irradiance on any window. By having the spectral irradiance, it is possible to determine the Melatonin Suppression Index and the photopic irradiance on the window. Such information can later be used to perform epidemiological studies. The new methodology is applied to the case of Montréal in Canada for a set of houses’ locations. The computations are made for 2013 (pre-LED era).

Flow and transport processes in soil and rock play a critical role in agricultural non-point source pollution (ANSP) loads. In this study, we investigated the ANPS load discharged into rivers from an irrigation district in the Tibetan Plateau, and simulated ANPS load using a distributed model involving detailed descriptions of flow and ANPS transport and transformation processes in the soil and rock. Experiments were conducted for two years to measure soil water content and nitrogen concentrations and the quality and quantity of lateral flow in the rock and at the drainage canal outlet during the highland barley growing period. A distributed model, in which the subsurface lateral flow was described using a step-wise method, was developed to simulate flow and ammonium nitrogen and nitrate nitrogen transport. Sobol’s method was used to evaluate the sensitivity of simulated flow and transport processes to model inputs. The results showed that, with a 21.2% increase of rainfall and irrigation in the highland barley growing period, the average NH4+-N and NO3--N concentrations in the soil layer decreased by 10.8% and 14.3%, respectively, due to increased deep seepage. Deep seepage of rainfall water accounted for 0–52.4% of total rainfall, whereas deep seepage of irrigation water accounted for 36.6–45.3% of total irrigation. NH4+-N and NO3--N discharged into the drainage channel represented 19.9–30.4% and 19.4–26.7% of the deep seepage, respectively. The mean Nash-Sutcliffe coefficients, root mean square errors, and cumulative deviations between the measured and simulated flow rates and NH4+-N and NO3--N concentrations at the surface drainage canal outlet were 0.694, 0.081, and 0.242, respectively, indicating that the proposed method can effectively describe the hydrological and ANPS pollution migration in the plateau irrigation zone. The Sobol’ sensitivity analysis results demonstrated that subsurface lateral flow had the most important first order and total effect on the simulated flow and NH4+-N and NO3--N concentrations at the surface drainage outlet.

The World Health Organization’s Health Economic Assessment Tool (HEAT) for walking and cycling is a user-friendly web-based tool to assess health impacts of active travel. HEAT, developed over 10 years ago, has been used by researchers, planners and policymakers alike in appraisals of walking and cycling policies of both national and more local scales. HEAT has undergone regular upgrades adopting the latest scientific evidence. This article presents the most recent upgrades of the tool. Health impacts of walking and/or cycling in a specified population are quantified in terms of premature deaths avoided (or caused). In addition to the calculation of benefits from physical activity, HEAT was recently expanded to include assessments of the burden associated with air pollution exposure and crash risks while walking or cycling. Further, impacts on carbon emissions from mode shift to active travel modes can now be assessed. Monetization of impacts using Value of Statistical Life and Social Costs of Carbon now uses country-specific values. As active travel inherently results in often substantial health benefits as well as not always negligible risks, assessments of active travel behaviour or policies are incomplete without considering health implications. The recent developments of HEAT make it easier than ever to obtain ballpark estimates of health impacts and carbon emissions related to walking and cycling.

Euglenoids are a common component of primary producers in high acidic and organic shallow freshwater systems. They are free-living photosynthetic motile flagellates exhibiting rapid responses to various external stimuli including chemical pollution. The unique combination of diverse physiological processes of Euglena such as photosynthesis, movement, and orientation offers a range of sensitive criteria that respond to aquatic pollutants. This has led to the development of several acute and chronic assay methods to monitor the adverse impacts of potent toxicants in aquatic ecosystems. Euglenoids also reflect the consequences of physical stress factors such as UV radiation. This review summarizes the ecotoxicity studies using euglenoid flagellates as model species and their potential to contribute toward rapid screening of ecological impacts of pollution in the aquatic environment. Factors determining the reliability of Euglena tests are outlined.

Oil spillage over a sea or ocean’s surface is a threat to marine and coastal ecosystems. Spaceborne synthetic aperture radar (SAR) data has been used efficiently for the detection of oil spills due to its operational capability in all-day all-weather conditions. The problem is often modeled as a semantic segmentation task. The images need to be segmented into multiple regions of interest such as sea surface, oil spill, look-alikes, ships and land. Training of a classifier for this task is particularly challenging since there is an inherent class imbalance. In this work, we train a convolutional neural network (CNN) with multiple feature extractors for pixel-wise classification; and introduce to use a new loss function, namely ‘gradient profile’ (GP) loss, which is in fact the constituent of the more generic Spatial Profile loss proposed for image translation problems. For the purpose of training, testing and performance evaluation, we use a publicly available dataset with selected oil spill events verified by the European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA). The results obtained show that the proposed CNN trained with a combination of GP, Jaccard and focal loss functions can detect oil spills with an intersection over union (IoU) value of 63.95%. The IoU value for sea surface, look-alikes, ships and land class is 96.00%, 60.87%, 74.61% and 96.80%, respectively. The mean intersection over union (mIoU) value for all the classes is 78.45%, which accounts for a 13% improvement over the state of the art for this dataset. Moreover, we provide extensive ablation on different Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) and Vision Transformers (ViTs) based hybrid models to demonstrate the effectiveness of adding GP loss as an additional loss function for training. Results show that GP loss significantly improves the mIoU and F1 scores for CNNs as well as ViTs based hybrid models. GP loss turns out to be a promising loss function in the context of deep learning with SAR images.

A recent study found that a 3ppb increase in O₃ ambient concentration was associated with an increased progression of 0.18 percentage points in percent emphysema and that such increase was equal to smoking 20 cigarettes per day for 29 years. A simple estimation of population attributable fraction shows that COPD diagnoses due to smoking are actually 30 times more than those attributed to a 3 ppb increment in O₃ concentration. Labelling ozone pollution as the new smoking may distort perception of the risks and hinder proper response to real life threatening risk such as smoking.

China is not only short of fresh water resources per capita, but also faces a serious problem of water pollution in recent years, with 190 million people suffering from excessive levels of harmful substances in their drinking water. Such as arsenic poisoning and fluorosis and other endemic water diseases high incidence. As a series of water pollution prevention plan of action by the Chinese government announced that, this paper uses the modified Undesirable Dynamic Network model empirical analysis of China's 31 provincial administrative region economic growth, wastewater treatment, and water disease control efficiency between 2013 and 2017. The results show that the efficiency of water pollution disease in all four regions of China and the total efficiency in the three regions of east, west and central China all show a decreasing trend, and the efficiency scores and rankings of all provinces and cities within the region fluctuate greatly. The eastern region with the most developed economy has the best overall performance, with higher efficiency in Water consumption and Water disease control. However, the efficiency of wastewater treatment in northeast China is stable and better. Given the high level of economic development in China and the results of the above mentioned efficiency in water pollution and water diseases, improving the efficiency and quality of wastewater treatment in China is regarded as an important factor in achieving the strategic goal of green growth.

Plastic waste management has become a major problem in the present times, and many countries are struggling to deal with it. The situation has become a crisis in developing nations due to a lack of proper waste management, resources, technology, and political will. The extensive usage of foam-based packaging materials such as Styrofoam as a secondary packaging material has led to environmental pollution both in land and water, in developing countries. It is important to address this problem using a sustainable approach such as biomimetic manufacturing. One such solution that is present in developed nations is mycelium-based packaging, wherein the agricultural and industrial-based cellulose waste is converted into a biocomposite with the help of a fungi root network. Such a process has the potential to convert biomass into useful products but also has an indirect effect on pollution reduction by eliminating stubble burning in nations like India. In this review, we examine the details of the manufacturing process, properties, advantages, and limitations of such composite materials. A comparison of the present status of such materials produced in the market by some of the companies across the world is presented. Finally, the challenges involved with such materials and the future directions are discussed.

It is currently difficult to obtain accurate fine dust information in residential areas due to the insufficient number of air quality monitoring systems and spatial imbalances. Therefore, a detailed particulate matter dispersion model including factors such as land use and meteorological information was developed in this study and used to create fine dust concentration distribution maps. The fine dust concentration distribution maps currently available to citizens were compared with those obtained by dispersion modeling, and population distribution data were employed to compare the populations exposed to fine dust according to the two methods. The results of the existing method and the developed particulate matter dispersion model differed significantly. For instance, the PM2.5 concentrations in Daejeon, South Korea, on February 17, 2018, were 56% “Good” and 44% “Moderate,” according to the existing method, while they were 31% “Good,” 26% “Moderate,” 28% “Unhealthy,” and 15% “Very Unhealthy,” according to the dispersion model. Furthermore, the existing method indicated that no portion of the population was exposed to poor fine dust concentrations, while the proposed model revealed that over 170 thousand people were exposed to such concentrations. These results on fine dust distributions will contribute to sustainable urban and environmental planning.

Natural cycles underpin the very stuff of life. In this commentary we consider unnatural cycles: that is, anthropogenic activities which have a circularity, but whose nature is to have a detrimental effect on human health, exacerbating existing problems. Natural cycles have feedback loops, some of which have recently come to light, with an understanding that everything is connected in some way. In health, feedback loops are imperative in homeostatic mechanisms. However, in the unnatural cycle the feedback loops serve to reinforce (and in some cases amplify) negative problems. We offer a commentary on an unnatural cycle moving from air quality to lung function and back to air quality; we call this the lung disease unnatural cycle. We suggest where links occur, and where wider consideration of interactions between various disciplines can lead to breaking this unnatural (or vicious) cycle, changing it to a healthy cycle where individual health can be improved, along with better global scale outcomes. We suggest that many activities within this unnatural cycle occur within silos. However, the improved cycle incorporates joint activities at geological, health, and financial levels, to the mutual benefit of all, breaking the unnatural cycle, and improving health, life and financial costs.

The rural communities are affected by gaseous emissions from intensive livestock production. Practical mitigation technologies are needed to minimize emissions from stored manure and improve air quality inside barns. In our previous research, the one-time surficial application of biochar to swine manure significantly reduced emissions of NH3 and phenol. We observed that the mitigation effect decreased with time during the 30-day trials. In this research, we hypothe-sized that bi-weekly reapplication of biochar could improve the mitigation effect on a wider range of odorous compounds using larger scale and longer trials. The objective was to evaluate the effectiveness of biochar dose and reapplication on mitigation of targeted gases (NH3, odor-ous VOCs, odor, GHGs) from stored swine manure on a pilot-scale setup over 8-weeks. The bi-weekly reapplication of the lower biochar dose (2 kg/m2) showed much higher significant percent reductions of emissions for NH3 (33% without & 53% with reapplication) and skatole (42% without & 80% with reapplication), respectively. In addition, the reapplication resulted in the emergence of statistical significance to the mitigation effect for all other targeted VOCs. Spe-cifically, for indole, the % reduction improved from 38% (p=0.47, without reapplication) to 78% (p=0.018, with reapplication). For phenol, the % reduction improved from 28% (p=0.71, without reapplication) to 89% (p=0.005, with reapplication). For p-cresol, the % reduction improved from 31% (p=0.86, without reapplication) to 74% (p=0.028, with reapplication). For 4-ethyl phenol, the percent emissions reduction improved from 66% (p=0.44, without reapplication) to 87% (p=0.007, with reapplication). The one-time 2 kg/m2 and 4 kg/m2 treatments showed similar effectiveness in mitigating all targeted gases, and no statistical difference was found between the dosages. The one-time treatments showed significant % reductions of 33% & 42% and 25% & 48% for NH3 and skatole, respectively. The practical significance is that the higher (one-time) biochar dose may not necessarily result in improved performance over the 8-week manure storage, but the bi-weekly reapplication showed significant improvement in mitigating NH3 and odorous VOCs. The lower dosages and the frequency of reapplication on the larger-scale should be explored to optimize biochar treatment and bring it closer to on-farm trials.

Increasing rate of seepage velocity from several formation characteristics, such as permeability and porosity, in water aquifer environment greatly prompt pollution of water reservoirs within a short period of time. Considerably, migration rate of dissolved heavy metals from Solid Waste Dumpsites (SWD), such as municipal dumpsites and landfills, through heterogeneous aquifer environment, and finally into nearby water reservoirs are mainly influenced by variation of seepage velocity within the soil and water environment. This presents a dynamic system for water pollution that was studied using a formulated mathematical model to describe the transport process of dissolved heavy metals, mainly characterized by seepage velocities, within the water aquiferous environment. Permeability, porosity, fluid pressure and concentration of heavy metals in aquiferous environment were used as principal parameters that influence seepage velocity of the metals, in dissolved state, through the structural formation of water aquifers. The derived mathematical equations that constitute the model of this study were generated through Darcy’s law and the equation of continuity. The model was validated on structural river aquifer sediments, and it was solved using graphical method through matlab open-source software. The initial and boundary conditions were obtained by discretizing the geological setting of flow region so as to transform the gradient of the head, into the time domain.

The mass composition of Particulate Matter (PM) with an aerodynamic diameter of 2.5 microns (PM2.5) in San Joaquin Valley (SJV) is dominated by ammonium nitrate (NH4NO3) which is a secondary pollutant. The goal of this research was the investigation of the relationship between emissions, meteorology and PM2.5 concentrations in Fresno for the winter season. It was found that the location of sites near emission sources such as freeways compared with residential sites strongly affected measured PM2.5 concentrations. It was found that although long-term trends showed declines in both emissions and PM2.5 concentrations there was substantial variability between the years in the PM2.5/emissions relationship. Much of the yearly variation in the relationship between emissions and PM2.5 concentrations can be attributed to yearly variations in weather, such as atmospheric stability, precipitation frequency and average wind speed. There are moderate correlations between PM2.5 concentrations and temperature differences between nearby surface stations at varying elevations which explains some of the daily and seasonal variation in PM2.5. Occurrence of precipitation was related to low PM¬2.5 although the higher wind speeds and lower atmospheric stability associated with precipitation likely explain some of the low PM2.5 as well as washout of PM.

The Payra River is one of the large coastal rivers in Bangladesh which supports incredible fish species and has been affected by extensive human disturbance due to huge fishing pressure. The present study provides information about the temporal diversity of finfish and shellfish concerning climatological variables and ecological pollution along with threat assessment in the Payra River, Patuakhali. During the entire study, a total of 61 fish species including 56 finfish and 5 shellfish species were recorded under 22 families belonging to 11 orders. The order-wise fish species availability showed that the Perciformes (29.49%) was the dominant order based on species richness. Among them, 4 endangered, 6 vulnerable, 4 near threatened, 42 least concern, and 5 data deficient species were found. During the study period, the average Shannon-Weaver diversity index value was (3.33±0.12) indicates a good spread of fish population in the Payra river. Average Margalef richness index value was found (7.60±0.32), Pielou's evenness index (0.48±0.05), and Simpson dominance index (0.93±0.02) in Payra river. Dominance and Richness index value indicates clear water environment to slight pollution in the Payra river. Ten different kinds of fishing gears were identified under 3 major groups including 5 nets, 3 hooks and lines, and 2 traps. The phytoplanktonic genus and species revealed moderate pollution. Canonical correspondence analysis ordination plot showed that rainfall was the most influencing driving force among the meteorological parameters. The cluster analysis based on the Bray-Curtis similarity matrix showed that the winter season formed a separate cluster. In the recapitulation, the Payra River is a highly productive system that provides a favorable environment for a large variety of finfish and shellfish species assemblages. Findings of the conducted study are expected to be helpful for the respective researchers, policymakers, managers, and conservationists for the sustainable management of this water body and the interconnected surrounding neighboring countries.

Population concentration in cities brings new risks as an increase in pollution, which causes urban health problems. In order to address this problem, traffic reduction measures are being implemented, as pedestrianization areas and the definition of Low Emissions Zones (LEZ). When the effectiveness of these types of measures is in doubt, smart city tools provide data that can be used to scientifically asses their impact. This article analyzes the situation of Madrid Central (Spain), a LEZ subject to controversy. We apply statistical and regression analyses to evaluate the effectiveness of this measure to reduce air pollution and outdoor noise. According to the results, this LEZ was able to significantly reduce NO$_2$, PM$_{2.5}$, and PM$_{10}$ concentration locally, having the same positive impact in the rest of the city. In terms of noise, this measure is able to mitigate background noise levels generated by the road traffic.

Increased exposure to artificial light at night can affect human health including disruption of melatonin production and circadian rhythms and extend to increased risks of hormonal cancers and other serious diseases. In addition, multiple negative impacts on fauna and flora are well documented, and it is a matter of fact that artificial light at night is a nuisance for ground-based astronomy. These impacts are frequently linked to the colour of the light or more specifically to its spectral content. Artificial light at night is often mapped by using space borne sensors, but most of them are panchromatic and thus insensitive to the colour. In this paper, we suggest a method that allows high resolution mapping of the Artificial light at night by using ground-based measurements with the LANcube system. The device separates the light detected in four bands (Red, Green, Blue, and Clear) and provides this information for six faces of a cube. We found relationships between the LANcube’s colour ratios and 1- the Melatonin Suppression Index, 2- the StarLight Index and 3- the Induced Photosynthesis Index. We show how such relationships combined with data acquisition from a LANcube positioned on the top of a car can be used to produce spectral indices maps of a whole city in a few hours.

Oil pollution of extraction areas is an undesirable phenomenon, but very present, es-pecially in old farms. In the context in which the depollution of these areas, in Roma-nia, is carried out from public funds, this fact is more and more difficult to achieve. That is why the effect of pollutants on the environment is being analyzed more and more, it often remains that the depollution is done naturally. This material analyzes the effect of metals present in crude oil (Cu, Pb, Zn, Ag, Ni, Mn, As, Cd, V, Cr, S), on the soil affected by a historical accidental pollution in the Moinesti area, Romania. This article presents the results of analyzes performed by metal detection techniques, namely optical emission spectrophotometry with inductive coupled plasma and atomic absorption spectrophotometry. The metals determined in the polluted soil were statis-tically analyzed regarding the dispersion, standard deviation and coefficient of varia-tion compared to the control sample and compared with the results from two areas in Romania. The risk of exploitation of polluted areas was also analyzed, namely the method of pollution indices and the method of combining the effects of pollutants

Livestock production systems generate nuisance odor and gaseous emissions affecting local communities and regional air quality. Also, there are concerns about the occupational health and safety of farm workers. Proven mitigation technologies that are consistent with the socio-economic challenges of animal farming are needed. We have been scaling up the photocatalytic treatment of emissions from lab-scale, aiming at farm-scale readiness. In this paper, we present the design, testing, and commissioning of a mobile laboratory for on-farm research and demonstration of performance in real farm conditions. The mobile lab is capable of treating up to 1.2 m3·s-1 of air with TiO2-based photocatalysis and adjustable UV-A dose based on LED lamps. We summarize the main technical requirements, constraints, approach, and performance metrics for the mobile laboratory, such as the effectiveness (measured as the percent reduction) and cost of photocatalytic treatment of air. The commissioning of all systems with standard gases resulted in ~9% and 34% reduction of NH3 and butan-1-ol, respectively. We demonstrated that as the percent reduction of standard gases increased with increased light intensity and treatment time. These results show that the mobile laboratory was ready for on-farm deployment and evaluating the effectiveness of UV treatment.

Airborne microplastic (MP) is an emerging pollutant, still under-characterised and insufficiently understood. Detailed description of MP air pollution is crucial as it has been identified in human lungs and remote locations, highlighting atmosphere as medium of MP dispersion and transportation. The lack of standardization of methods for measuring and further monitoring of the MP pollution is an obstacle towards the assessment of health risks. Since the first recognition of MP presence in the atmosphere of Krakow in 2019, this research was conducted to further characterise and develop the methods for qualitative and quantitative analysis of airborne MP (ATR-FTIR, Pyr-GC-MS, SEM-EDS) and pre-treatment of samples.The data was gathered in seven cycles, from June 2019 to February 2020. Methods used in the study allowed the identification and analysis of the changing ratio of the different types of synthetic polymers identified in the atmospheric fallout (LDPE, Nyl-66, PE, PET, PP, PUR). Observations of interactions between MP particles and environment were made with analyses of surface changes due to the degradation. Mineral phases attached to the MPs’ surfaces, with some of the inorganic contaminants transported on these surfaces, determined to also be of anthropogenic origin.Methodology proposed in this study, allows further characterisation of MP from multiple locations to provide highly comparable data, leading to the identification of the sources of this phenomenon, as well as seasonal changes.

The rapid development of China's economy has led to a rapid increase in energy production and use. Among them, the excessive consumption of coal in fossil energy consumption is the leading cause of air pollution in China. This paper incorporates renewable energy innovation, fossil energy consumption and air pollution into a unified analysis framework, and uses spatial measurement models to investigate the spatial effects of renewable energy green innovation and fossil energy consumption on air pollution in China, and decomposes the total impact into direct and indirect effects. influences. The empirical results show that China's air pollution, renewable energy green innovation and fossil energy consumption are extremely uneven in geographical space, generally showing the characteristics of high in the east and low in the west, and showing a strong spatial aggregation phenomenon. Fossil energy consumption will lead to increased air pollution, and the replacement of fossil fuels with clean and renewable energy is an important means of controlling pollution emissions. The direct and indirect effects of renewable energy green innovation on air pollution are significantly negative, indicating that renewable energy green innovation not only suppresses local air pollution, but also suppresses air pollution in neighboring areas. The consumption of fossil energy will significantly increase the local air pollution, and the impact on the SO2 and Dust&Smoke pollution in the adjacent area is not very obvious. It is recommended to strengthen investment in renewable energy green innovation, reduce the proportion of traditional fossil energy consumption, and pay attention to the spatial connection and spillover of renewable energy green innovation.

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is strongly associated with tobacco smoking and it is the increasing cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide. The prevalence of COPD among never smokers varies widely across regions, areas, and nations. COPD in smokers has been extensively explored worldwide, however, COPD in non-smokers is under-explored and there is limited data available on non-smoking COPD. We determined the role of environmental pollution and biomass fuel exposure in COPD patients who were non-smokers. We evaluated the clinical profile of non-smokers with COPD in a retrospective observational study. 180 non-smoker COPD patients were selected from the year 2016-to 2018. We found that many patients with COPD are non-smokers and the incidence is higher among the rural population, suggesting that non-smoking COPD is evolving rapidly due to biomass smoke and other environmental pollutant exposures.

There is accumulating evidence that prenatal exposure to air pollution disturbs fetal growth and development, but little is known about these effects in cold climates or their season-specific or joint effects. Our objective was to assess independent and joint effects of prenatal exposure to specific air pollutants on the risk of low birth weight (LBW). We utilized the 2568 children of the Espoo Cohort Study, born between 1984 and 1990, and living in the City of Espoo. We conducted stratified analyses for births during warm and cold seasons separately. We analyzed the effect estimates using multi-pollutant Poisson regression models with risk ratio (RR) as the measure of effect. The risk of LBW was related to exposure to CO and (adjusted RR 1.44, 95% CI: 1.04-2.00) and exposure to O3 in the spring-summer season (1.82, 1.11-2.96). There was also evidence of synergistic effects between CO and O3 (relative risk due to interaction, RERI, all year 1.08, 95% CI: 0.27-4.94, spring-summer 3.97, 2.17-25.85) and PM2.5 and O3 (all year 0.72, -0.07-3.60, spring-summer 2.80, 1.36-19.88). We present new evidence of both independent and joint effects of prenatal exposure in a cold climate on the risk of LBW at low levels of air pollution.

A discharge mixing zone (DMZ) is a defined geographical area or volume of water in the receiving environment of a discharge where initial dilution of the effluent occurs and where exceedance of water quality criteria may be permitted. DMZs are essential to inform determination of discharge consent conditions and an important element of risk management frameworks to reduce any effects of the discharges on the environment and human health. In this review, we describe the principles and technical application of DMZs. We present an overview of the physical processes that govern the dispersion and dilution of wastewater discharges and the fate of contaminants in coastal environments and define key criteria for determining the size of DMZs. We summarize DMZ requirements in international legislation and guidance and exemplify their application to different types of discharges by means of case studies. The selected case studies illustrate different modelling tools for defining DMZs and different monitoring approaches to assess their effectiveness in achieving ecological and human health objectives.

Pollution of sub-surface water reservoirs mainly rivers and streams through contaminated water point sources (CWPS) was studied. The objective was to formulate a discrete time delay mathematical model which describes the dynamics of reservoir pollution using mixing-problem processes that involve single species contaminants such as nitrates, phosphorous and detergents. The concentration of pollutants was expressed as a function of the inflow and outflow rates using the principle for the conservation of mass. Systems of ODEs generated from principles of mixing problems were refined into a system of DDEs so that the concentration of pollutant leaving the reservoir at time would be determined at some earlier instant, for the delay. The formulated model is a mathematical discrete time delay model which would be used to describe the dynamics of sub-surface water reservoir pollution. The results from the validation of the model were analyzed to determine how time delays in the mixing processes affect the rate of particle movement in water reservoirs.

This study evaluated the use of filtration and UV-A photocatalysis for the reduction of particulate matter (PM) and airborne bacterial pathogens in swine barns. Two MERV filters (8 and 15) were used to mitigate PM concentrations measured at the PM 1, PM 2.5, respirable PM, and PM 10 ranges. Filtration was also used to generate different levels of airborne pathogens to be treated by UV-A. Results show that MERV 8 and 15 filters effectively reduced PM concentrations (96-98%) in air exhausted from a swine barn (p ranged from < 0.01 to 0.04). UV-A photocatalysis did not mitigate PM concentrations. UV-A photocatalysis treatment reduced measured colony-forming units (CFUs) by 15-95%. The CFU percent reduction was higher when airborne PM concentration was low. The numeric results suggested a real mitigation effect despite p-values that did not meet the usual statistical cut-off of <0.05 for significance due to the large variability of the CFU control samples. Normalization of measured airborne pathogen concentrations by smaller PM size range concentrations led to emerging significant treatment differences for CFUs. A significant decrease (~60% reduction; p < 0.03) in the concentration of viable airborne bacteria was shown for all PM below the 10-micron range.

Urban cities in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) are faced with ambient air pollution. This is an important public health problem with models and limited monitoring data indicating high concentrations of pollutants such as fine particulate matter (PM_2.5). Going through most global air quality index maps, however, information about ambient pollution from SSA is scarce. We evaluated the feasibility and practicality of longitudinal measurements of ambient PM_2.5 using low-cost air quality sensors (Purple Air-II-SD) across thirteen locations in seven countries in SSA. Devices were used to gather data over a 30-day period with the aim of assessing the efficiency of its data recovery rate and identifying challenges experienced by users in each location. The median data recovery rate was 94% (range: 72% to 100%). The mean 24-hour concentration measured across all sites was 38 µg/m³ with the highest PM_2.5 period average concentration of 91 µg/m³ measured in Kampala, Uganda and lowest concentrations of 15 µg/m³ measured in Faraja, The Gambia. Kampala-Uganda and Nnewi-Nigeria recorded the longest periods with concentrations>250µg/m³. Power outages, SD memory card issues, internet connectivity problems and device safety concerns were important challenges experienced when using Purple Air-II-SD sensors. Despite some operational challenges, this study demonstrated that it is reasonably practicable and feasible to establish a network of low-cost devices to provide data on local PM_2.5 concentrations in SSA countries. Such data are crucially needed to raise public-, societal and policymaker awareness about air pollution across SSA.

Using low-cost portable air quality (AQ) monitoring devices is a growing trend in personal exposure studies enabling a higher spatio-temporal resolution and identifying acute exposure to high concentrations. Comprehension of results by participants is not guaranteed in exposure studies. However, information on personal exposure is multiplex, which calls for participant involvement in information design to maximise communication output and comprehension. This study describes and proposes a model of a user centred design (UCD) approach for preparing a final report for participants involved in a multi-sensor personal exposure monitoring study performed in seven cities within the EU Horizon 2020 ICARUS project. Using a combination of human-centred design (HCD), human-information interaction (HII) and design thinking approaches, we iteratively included participants in the framing and design of the final report. User needs were mapped using a survey (n=82), and feedback on the draft report was obtained from a focus group (n=5). User requirements were assessed and validated using a post-campaign survey (n=31). The UCD research was conducted amongst participants in Ljubljana, Slovenia and the results report was distributed among the participating cities across Europe. The feedback received made it clear that the final report was well-received and helped participants better understand the influence of individual behaviours on personal exposure to air pollution.

With this article, impact of effluent mixed water with the quality of the Mansagar Lake has been established by evaluating the physico-chemical parameters and the heavy-metal contents experimentally. The process of calculating water quality and the metal pollution quality indices is also explained in brief with respect to selected sample locations and varied environmental conditions (Pre- and Post-Monsoon season). Distribution trends of Pearson‘s correlation factor have also been discussed to establish their relation among the physico-chemical parameters and the heavy-metal contents for varied environmental conditions. In the end, detailed discussion on observations made during this study and useful recommendations are also elaborated in details. With this article, we intend to present a document for better understanding of the water quality of this lake in view of futuristic management strategies to be adopted to maintain it heritage values.

The study aims to identify the fine particulate matter (PM2.5) hazard area, mitigation method, and possible sustainable development in a changing global climate. The critical environmental hazards are artificial light at night (ALAN) and air pollution with ambient PM2.5. People use nighttime outdoor environments for their needs, and the nocturnally migrating birds are attracted to urban ALAN during seasonal migration, which could increase the birds' exposure to PM2.5. A comparative study examines PM2.5 concentrations and the spatial correlation between ALAN and PM2.5 within urban versus rural areas. The author used the nighttime data of the artificial light on the Earth's surface and the PM2.5 level of concentration to estimate the extent of air pollution associated with PM2.5 in the ground-level atmosphere. The results can assist in determining the required PM2.5 control areas and designing and executing environmental conservation planning. Furthermore, the results of this study are not only beneficial to understanding accurately the regional differences of spatiotemporal PM2.5 emission dynamics and helpful for proposing alleviation policies in air pollution control and providing scientific support for regional sustainable development in changing climate. The integrated hazards of ALAN and air pollution are most significant and likely to increase within the urban and decrease within rural areas. This study was undertaken by the first author and built upon the context of the academic, scientific, and technological challenges to identify the PM2.5 concentration in urban and rural areas and the expected outcomes.

In the article a statistical approach to the assessment of the emission rates discharged by the road traffic in a spatial context is proposed. It exploits an indicator, the Yearly Average Vehicle, representing the pollutant emission rate of the average vehicle belonging to a specific category, and considers the statistical variability of most of the involved traffic parameters: vehicle speed and mileage travelled in the considered time period. Finally, indicators, assessing both the most probable value among the possible emission rates and the extent of their variability range, are proposed. They may also be used to underpin decision making-processes, when the effects of different policies addressing air pollution issues, are to be evaluated. Therefore, they are suitable for the analysis supporting urban planning activities, with a view to addressing and mitigating the effects and the consequences of pollution due to the transportation sector of the urban context.

The article discusses determinants of living environment in Central and Eastern Europe. As an example, the city of Radzionkow was chosen, with 16 thousand inhabitants, located in the Silesia agglomeration in southern Poland, in the area where hard coal has been mined for almost two hundred years, which largely serves as a source of heating for houses and flats. 360 buildings in 6 groups of 60 buildings were examined in the selected city, which allowed to distinguish 3 different areas in terms of the quality of the living environment depending on the technical condition of buildings, the method of heating and location. To a large extent, determinants are the existing spatial and geophysical conditions of a given location. Many research and reports on the living environment do not take into account the factors mentioned, focusing only on the statistical data of pollution, excluding spatial factors. In the research presented, the author, taking into account location variables, shows differences in the measurements of air pollution in relation to the designated location zones depending on the morphological structure of the building, the degree of its modernization and the types of heating used in buildings.

Environmental impact associated with odor and gaseous emissions from animal manure is one of the challenges for communities, farmers, and regulatory agencies. Microbe-based manure additives treatments are marketed and used by farmers for mitigation of emissions. However, their performance is difficult to assess objectively. Thus, comprehensive, practical, and low-cost treatments are still in demand. We have been advancing such treatments based on physicochemical principles. The objective of this research was to test the effect of the surficial application of a thin layer (¼"; 6.3 mm) of biochar on the mitigation of gaseous emissions (as the percent reduction, % R) from swine manure. Two types of biochar were tested: highly alkaline and porous (HAP) biochar made from corn stover and red oak (RO), both with different pH and morphology. Three 30-day trials were conducted with a layer of HAP and RO (2.0 & 1.65 kg∙m^-2, respectively) applied on manure surface, and emissions of ammonia (NH₃), hydrogen sulfide (H₂S), greenhouse gases (GHG), and odorous volatile organic compounds (VOCs) were measured. The manure and biochar type and properties had an impact on the mitigation effect and its duration. RO significantly reduced NH₃ (19-39%) and p-cresol (66-78%). H₂S was mitigated (16~23%), but not significantly for all trials. Significant (66~78%) reductions for p-cresol were observed for all trials. The phenolic VOCs had relatively high % R in most trials but not significantly for all trials. HAP reduced NH₃ (4~21%) and H₂S (2~22%), but not significantly for all trials. Significant % R for p-cresol (91~97%) and skatole (74~95%) were observed for all trials. The % R for phenol and indole ranged from (60~99%) & (29~94%) but was not significant for all trials. The impact on GHGs, isobutyric acid, and the odor was mixed with some mitigation and generation effects. However, larger-scale experiments are needed to understand how biochar properties and the dose and frequency of application can be optimized to mitigate odor and gaseous emissions from swine manure. The lessons learned can also be applicable to surficial biochar treatment of gaseous emissions from other waste and area sources.

The fluvial-lagoon-deltaic system of the Palizada river in Campeche is an ecosystem of socioeconomic and ecological importance. It is justifiable to carry out studies in this system, due to its connection with another larger ecosystem called Términos lagoon. The objective of this investigation was to analyze the concentration of Pb and Cd in sediments of the fluvial-lagoon-deltaic system of the Palizada river and to determine, with this, the contamination index of these metals. Cd presented the highest concentration in sampling sites and climatic seasons with respect to Pb, with a maximum value of 53.926 ± 5.045, while Pb was 10.421 ± 0.218 μg g-1. The same tendency was presented with pollution and geoaccumulation indexes, where the Cd index stands out. The enrichment of heavy metals was identified through the accumulation of Cd and Pb, such process was evaluated through the geoacumulation index (Igeo). The results of this indicated that these elements are contaminating with an anthropogenic origin mainly. This element represents a toxic risk for the Palizada system, due to its high toxicity even at low concentrations, as well as to evaluate the sublethal effects in organisms that inhabit this system and it requires the implementation of an integral monitoring.

The work consisted in identifying possible effects from heavy metals (HMs) pollution due to waste disposal activities in three potentially polluted sites located in Basilicata (Italy), where a release of pollutants with values over the thresholds allowed by the Italian legislation was detected. The potential variations in the physiological efficiency of vegetation have been analyzed through the multitemporal processing of satellite images. In detail, Landsat 5 Thematic Mapper (TM) and Landsat 8 Operational Land Imager (OLI) images were used to calculate the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) trend over the years. Then, the multitemporal trends were analyzed using the median of Theil-Sen, a non-parametric estimator particularly suitable for the treatment of remote sensing data, being able to minimize the outlier effects due to exogenous factors. Finally, the subsequent application of the Mann-Kendall test on the trends identified by Theil-Sen slope allowed the evaluation of trends significance and, therefore, the areas characterized by the effects of contamination on vegetation. The application of the procedure to the three survey sites led to the exclusion of the presence of significant effects of HMs contamination on the vegetation surrounding the sites during the years of waste disposal activities.

Water pollution in Iraq has been extended disaster edge; this pollution is caused by wastes and sewages into soil and rivers, pollutant water sources influence the outbreak and serious epidemic status among the population.. The aim of this study is to determine the bacteriological quality of drinking water sources and characteristics of water-borne diseases especially diarrheal cases in Darbandikhan city. 166 water samples, collected from the different sources and areas, were tested for the presences of coliform bacteria as an indicator for pathogen contamination. Most probable number index was used for coliform enumeration. 161 diarrheal cases were taken as a sample from the patients were admitted to the general hospital in Darbandikhan district.. The questionnaire form was planned to view characteristics of diarrheal cases and patients were interviewed directly, the data was analyzed by STATA software application. 46% of the diarrheal cases used tap water for drinking. On the other hand, the reminder (54%) used other sources for the same purpose. All the risk factor such as type of water source, sufficiency of the water, duration of water storage and chlorination were associated with diarrhea. Almost half of the cases were children and three quarters were single. The data was analyzed by STATA version 13.1.This study indicated that the majority of drinking water sources in Darbandikhan city are not suitable for drinking, although net pipe system supplied chlorine significantly it has been proven that the tap water from the homes is not suitable for consumption.

Air pollution is a man-made environmental-related problem and has importance globally among all environmental issues. It is described as an atmospheric situation in which several components appear at high attention above their ambient level and generate a quantifiable effect on vegetation, animals, and people. Air pollution and its control are a universal problem and have become an issue of great trouble for us in current years. However, monitoring and measurement of the concentration of air pollutants are most difficult in assessment to monitoring other components in the environment. Air pollutants are transported to polar regions by different mechanisms such as long-range atmospheric transport or grasshopper effects and via anthropogenic activities. After reaching the polar regions, they settle down and remain as such for a long-time due to their persistent nature. They can distress the environment and wildlife of the polar regions. Generally, dangerous chemicals may cause a risk of well-being effects, whereas lethal pollutants focus on one physiological reaction. We reviewed the available information on air pollution (occurrence, sources, and harmful effects) in the polar regions.

As the haze engulfed the Delhi NCR after Diwali there is a panic in public about its causes and consequences. Here are some facts and figures to know the truth behind the scene. Temperature fell down from 24’C on October 31 to 21’C on November 2 as recorded at UPPCB station at sector-125, Noida which is adjacent to Delhi a very strategic location and can be considered as reference point for Delhi-NCR. The details of the study conducted is given below.

This article attempts to assess the light pollution of parking lots, using the proprietary measure-ment method with a drone. The main requirements, reflective features of parking lots and typical light curves of luminaires used in lighting this type of areas were presented. Calculations and simulations for various types of luminaires were performed, and then the obtained results were verified in real conditions. The main factors influencing the increase in light pollution were pre-sented and it was proved that it is possible to use the developed measurement method in order to assess the light pollution degree.

Industrial effluents contain contaminants that pose threats to the environment and human health. Bioremediation is an environmentally friendly, sustainable, and cost-effective approach to degrade or transform pollutants using microbial enzymes. Laccase is a versatile enzyme that oxidizes a wide range of substrates, such as dyes, phenolic compounds, pesticides, and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), with the consumption of molecular oxygen. Laccase can also remove heavy metals by forming complexes with organic ligands or reducing them to fewer toxic forms. However, the application of laccase in bioremediation is limited by its low production, stability, and specificity. Recombinant technology has been employed to enhance the expression, activity, and stability of laccase in various bacterial hosts. Immobilization techniques have been developed to improve the reusability and stability of laccase in different environmental conditions. This review summarizes the recent developments in the production optimization of recombinant laccase enzymes and their role in the bioremediation of industrial effluents. It also discusses the challenges of laccase-based biocatalytic systems for environmental cleanup.

Wetlands are carriers of metals and organic pollutants from natural and anthropogenic sources. Studies have shown that sediments are sinks for these pollutants as they carry more than 99% of the total amount of metals which are released as soluble metals into the Lagoon. The University of Lagos, located at Akoka North eastern part of Yaba in Lagos Mainland runs along a highly industrialized and residential area. This paper reports the total metal concentrations in wetland and sediment and their seasonal variations. Wetland and sediment samples were collected for two seasons in 8 sampling sites. Results showed wetland data having lower concentrations of metals as compared to sediments. Wet season had higher concentrations of metals as compared to other season. Total concentrations in wetlands were Cd (1.0-6.0), Cu (1.0-11.0), Cr (0.3-82.7), Zn (2.7-65.0) and Pb (0.3-16.0) all in μg L-1 respectively. Statistical analysis showed that there was a significant difference between the wet and dry seasons for sediments. Cd was the only metal at acceptable levels while Cr, Cu, Pb and Zn concentrations all exceeded levels deemed acceptable by the SABS and the EPA. Therefore, the wetland is in poor health.

For the first time, it is shown that inhaled ambient air-dust particles settled in the human lower respiratory tract induce lung calcification. Chemical- and mineral compositions of pulmonary calcium precipitates in the lung right lower-lobe (RLL) tissues of 12 individuals who lived in Upper Silesia Conurbation in Poland and who had died from causes not related to lung disorder were determined by transmission- and scanning electron microscopy. Whereas calcium salts in lungs are usually reported as phosphates, calcium salts precipitated in RLL are almost exclusively carbonates, i.e. Mg-calcite and calcite. These constitute 37% of 1652 mineral particles examined. Mg-calcite predominates in the submicron size range with the MgCO3 content up to 50 mol%. Magnesium plays a significant role in the lung mineralization, a fact so far overlooked. The calcium phosphate (hydroxyapatite) content in RLL is negligible. The predominance of carbonates is explained by increased CO2 fugacity in RLL. Carbonates enveloped inhaled mineral-dust particles, including uranium-bearing oxides, quartz, aluminosilicates, and metal sulfides. Three possible pathways for the carbonates precipitation on the dust particles are postulated: (1) precipitation of amorphous calcium carbonate (ACC) followed by its transformation to calcite; (2) precipitation of Mg-ACC followed by its transformation to Mg-calcite; (3) precipitation of Mg-free ACC causing a localized relative enrichment in Mg ions and subsequent heterogeneous nucleation and crystal growth of Mg-calcite. The actual number of inhaled dust particles may be significantly greater than observed because of the masking effect of the carbonate coatings. There is no simple correlation between smoking habit and lung calcification.

Accurate estimation of vehicle emissions is essential and can be helpful in the decision-making process. Thanks to calculation methods, it is possible to accurately estimate the emissions that result from driving a car and to determine their impact on, for example, the health of pedestrians who are on the pavement near an arterial road. Recent years have seen an increase in the use and importance of emission models, as well as vehicle traffic simulation models. Increasingly, emission models are being combined with traffic simulation models, as it is not practical to actually measure the on-road emissions of an entire fleet of vehicles over a given stretch of road. This paper provides an overview of the selected work on the topic of emission modelling and vehicle traffic simulation models. The models are distinguished according to their respective scales of accuracy, i.e., micro, meso, and macro. Selected work combining emission and traffic simulation models is also presented, as well as development trends in the field. In particular, the paper also highlights the fact of proper calibration of vehicle traffic simulation models in order to obtain the most reliable vehicle emissions results from computational models. The review of the works carried out may be helpful for future projects concerning the use of simulation tools for transport and environmental decision-makers in the area of arterial roads.

This work aimed to assess and characterize the air quality in what concerns particulate pollution in urban-industrial environments. The main objectives were to study the spatial variability of the deposition flux of particulate pollution identifying areas with higher deposition, associate the variability with climatological variables and with possible surrounding emitting sources. The method for collecting the deposited particles was based on the standard NF X 43-007. Sampling for particulate pollution took place between April 2015 and February 2016, through seven sampling campaigns. Maps of the spatial dispersion for the particulate pollution were obtained through statistics and geostatistics techniques. Elemental identification by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) was also used but only in two sampling campaigns. The results show that the sampling campaigns that took place during hot and dry periods, 2nd and 3rd, present higher deposition flux: 2.04 g/(m2 x month) and 1.72 g/(m2 x month), respectively. Lower deposition fluxes were registered in the 6th and 7th campaigns: 0.23 g/(m2 x month) and 0.24 g/(m2 x month), respectively. It was also observed a recurrent high deposition at specific sampling points which may be due to both the nearby road traffic and the presence of chimneys. SEM analysis allowed to associate repetitive element deposition, at the same sampling point, to the same emitting source.

This publication aims to disseminate a step-by-step process that walks through the conceptualization and building of a low-cost (~ $150 monitoring device for airborne fine particulate matter (PM2.5), based on miniaturized sensors and components. Details on the implementation of the hardware and software are provided which facilitate the data acquisition, capture and analysis. The central components and their setup discussed in what follows include: the sensor device (called “P.ALP” – Ph.D. Air quality Low-cost Project), Arduino IDE (Integrated Development Environment) and R code (open-access software). A monitoring device for PM2.5, using low-cost sensors and technologies was successfully conceptualized, designed, and implemented. The P.ALP monitoring system was designed and developed to be a basic device, which can be further customized and implemented using the wide range of low-cost sensors available on the market.

The increasing frequency of male cancer coupled with the reduction in male fertility seen worldwide motivated us to seek a potential evolutionary link between these two phenomena, concerning the reproductive transcriptional modules observed in cancer and the expression of cancer-testis-antigens (CTA). The phylostratigraphy analysis of the human genome allowed us to link the early evolutionary origin of cancer by reproductive life cycles of the unicellulars and early multicellulars, potentially driving soma-germ transition, female meiosis and parthenogenesis of polyploid giant cancer cells (PGCCs), with the expansion of the CTA multi-families, very late during evolution. CTA adaptation was aided by retrovirus domestication in the unstable genomes of mammals, for protecting male fertility in stress conditions, particularly that of humans, as compensation for the energy consumption by a large complex brain which also exploited retrotransposition. We found that the early and late evolutionary branches of human cancer are united by the immunity-proto-placental network, which evolved in the Cambrian and shares stress regulators with the finely-tuned sex determination system. We further propose that social stress and endocrine disruption caused by environmental pollution with organic materials, which alter sex determination in male foetuses and further spermatogenesis in adults, bias the development of PGCC-parthenogenetic cancer by default.

Exposure to air pollution have detrimental effects on the elderly, women, people with pre-existing medical conditions, people living in poverty and children. The aim of the study was to investigate the extent of community awareness and knowledge on the health risks associated with exposure to air pollution. A cross-sectional study design was used for the study, using self-administered questionnaires. A simple random sampling technique was used to select 376 respondents. Systematic sampling method was applied to select the households. SPSS version 26 was used to analyze data. Of 376 respondents, 221 were males and 154 females. 113 were aged between 23-47years and 353 were aware that if they don’t protect themselves against polluted air, they may get sick, with age and educational status associated with their awareness (p &lt; 0.05). About 361 knew what air pollution is and 188 think the air they breathe in Annadale is moderate. A total number of 278 said they feel sick/uncomfortable when the quality of air is bad. About 293 knew that people are exposed to air pollution by breathing contaminated air and 237 identified sewage smell as the main cause of air pollution. Respondents who identified internet and television as the main source of information were 199 and 177 respectively. Those who were not aware of actions implemented to reduce air pollution were 180. Based on the results of the study, respondents are aware of the dangers of exposure to polluted air, and it is necessary that air pollution risk communication strategies be implemented to empower residents.

This review aims to describe an edible packaging system in food production. The growing global population, changes in climate and dietary patterns, as well as increasing need for environmental protection have created an increasing demand for waste-free food production. The need for durable and sustainable packaging materials has become significant to avoid food waste and environmental pollution. Edible packaging has emerged as a promising solution also to extend the shelf life of food products and reduce dependence on petroleum-based resources. In this review, the importance, composition, and functions of edible packaging materials, as well as their production methods, were described. The market value of edible packaging materials is expanding. It needs further research and development of edible packaging materials to increase sustainable, eco-friendly packaging practices significant for environmental protection and food safety.

The eutrophication caused by excessive total nitrogen(TN) and total phosphorus(TP) emissions has been widely concerned by the whole society. Studies have revealed the relationship between land use and TN and TP, but the relationship between land use compound topographic position and TP and TN was seldom studied. Therefore, Spearman correlation and redundancy analyses were used to reveal the relationship between land use compound topographic position and TN and TP based on the monthly data of 28 water quality sampling sites and the land use data of 2013 and 2016 in the lakes of Guizhou Plateau. The results show that the nutritional state of the HBA watershed is medium. The trophic level index (TLI) value and TN concentration were high during flood, while TP concentration was high in dry period. The TN concentration in the tributaries was higher than that in the reservoir area. Construction and valley were the sources of the pollution, whereas forest land and gentle slope were the sink. According to the”source-sink”effect, the optimal zoning of land use was completed, and the urban land pollution govern area should be strengthened firstly. This paper can provide decision support for water environment management and sustainable development decision-making.

The presented results of simulations take into account the optical parameters of the selected sea region (from literature data on the southern Baltic Sea) and two optically extreme types of crude oil (from historical data) which exist in the form of a highly diluted oil-in-water emulsion (10 ppm). The spectral index was analyzed based on the results of modelling the radiance reflectance distribution for almost an entire hemisphere of the sky (zenith angle from 0 to 80o). The spectral index was selected and is universal for all optically different types of oil (wavelengths 650 and 412 nm). The possibility of detecting pollution in the conditions of the wavy sea surface (as a result of wind of up to 10 m/s) was studied. It has been also shown that if the viewing direction is close to a direction perpendicular to the sea surface, observations aimed at determining the spectral index are less effective than observation under the zenith angle of incidence of sunlight for all azimuths excluding the direction of sunlight specular reflection.

A review of pesticide residues detected in shrimp species of the Mexican Pacific and Gulf of Mexico coasts is presented. Most studies focus on monitoring organochlorine (OC) and organophosphate (OP) pesticides. The evaluated areas are mainly located in the northwestern zone of Mexico. Studies analyzing pesticides levels in shrimp of Mexico correspond to commercially important species, such as: Penaeus vannamei, Penaeus stylirostris, Farfantepenaeus duorarum, and Trachypenaeus similis pacificus. Extraction methods (sample preparation, extraction technique, solvent, and clean-up procedures) are presented, as well as chromatography and detector type used to quantify the analytes in the shrimp samples from the different ecosystems evaluated. Given that there is an under-evaluation of pesticides residues presence, there was a greater contribution of studies directed to geographical areas in the northwest of the country, with a monitoring gap in the Gulf of Mexico, as well as in the southern zone, considering that there are states that are among the main shrimp-producing entities. Hence, it is necessary to carry out recent evaluations, since the most current information is 17 years out of date, so presented data may not be a reflection of the current situation in the country.

Plastic poses a significant threat to the environment, polluting land, water, and air. It is a broad term encompassing a variety of polymers. In the form of microplastics and nanoplastics, it can induce toxicity in water bodies. Plastic debris not only physically pollutes freshwater, but also chemically, undergoing changes over time due to hydroclimatic effects. Rivers serve as conduits, transporting plastics from minor tributaries to major rivers and ultimately into the ocean, endangering marine life. India, as a developing country with the largest population and numerous rivers, generates a significant amount of plastic waste, a substantial portion of which finds its way into rivers, leading to alarming rates of plastic accumulation in the ocean. Previously, policymakers focused primarily on landfills for plastic waste, neglecting the pollution of water bodies. The consequences of this neglect are evident, with major rivers in the country severely affected by plastic waste, necessitating advanced, efficient, and sustainable solutions. This study aims to establish a comprehensive framework for managing plastic waste, understanding its transport mechanisms to the ocean, and recognizing the threats it poses to life. It also expounds on harmful plastic pollutants in water, globally adopted technologies, and emphasizes the need for further research and data collection in this field. The primary concluding point is to prevent plastics from entering waterways and to actively collect river and marine plastic pollution. Banning single-use plastics and implementing efficient collection methods are crucial in containing plastic pollution. Effluents from industries should not be overlooked, as they often contain harmful micro and nanoplastics with ecotoxicological effects. The innovative concept of the "4Rs" - Refuse, Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle - stands as the cornerstone for safeguarding the environment against plastic pollution.

The goal of this study is to develop a global analysis, based on data from 2015 to 2022, that clarifies the impact of containment policies (e.g., lockdown and quarantine) for Coronavirus Disease-2019 (COVID-19) on the air pollution between countries of different continents. In this context, average changes of CO, NO2, SO2, O3, PM2.5, and PM10 concentrations based on measurements at ground level in January, February, and March for 2019, 2020, 2021, and 2022 are compared with average values of 2015-2018 period between 300 cities of 19 countries in 5 continents. Results show that the maximum reduction in pollutant concentrations during this period is given by: CO (-4,367.5%) in France, NO2 (-150.5%) in China and Australia, SO2 (-154.1%) in Israel, O3 (-94.1%) in China, PM2.5 (-41.4%) in Germany and PM10 (-157.4%) in Turkey. Findings reveal that the effects of containment policies on air quality vary significantly between countries depending on different geographical characteristics of regions. This study has main environmental policy implications because it clarifies the critical role of severe control measure to reduce air pollution and support sustainable environment and development.

This study provides a thorough review and analysis of the evolution of the Greek vehicle fleet over the last ~30 years, which is next used for the generation of high granularity fleet projections and for the estimation of relevant environmental benefits by 2030. The integrated methodology developed takes also into account vehicle clustering and the Brown’s Double Simple Exponential Smoothing technique that together with the adoption of COPERT based emission factors allow for the estimation of the anticipated emissions in 2030. Expected 2030 emissions levels suggest a reduction across all pollutants in comparison to 2018, ranging from 3.7% for PM10 to 54.5% for NMVOC (and 46% for CO, 14% for SO2, 28% for NOX and 21% for CO2). We find that Greece is on track with national goals concerning the reduction of air pollution from the transportation sector, stressing the positive contribution of EVs and new, "greener" vehicles, and setting new challenges for the further improvement of the sector beyond the 2030 outlook.

Climate change, recognized as a global crisis, is not only altering our environment but also significantly impacting human health. Particularly, its influence on non-communicable diseases (NCDs), a leading cause of global mortality, is becoming increasingly evident yet underexplored. This review aims to synthesize current research on the impact of climate change on NCDs, addressing a critical gap in our understanding of how environmental changes affect human health. We examine the complex interplay between climate change and NCDs, drawing insights from recent studies that highlight the adverse effects of climate variables on chronic diseases, such as cardiovascular and kidney diseases, and the role of food and nutrition security in this nexus. Furthermore, the review explores the disproportionate impact on vulnerable regions and populations, particularly in Pacific Island countries and territories, underscoring the urgent need for context-specific solutions and a cross-sectoral approach. By integrating findings from various disciplines, this review aims to inform policy and public health interventions, highlighting the necessity of collaborative efforts to mitigate the burgeoning burden of NCDs in a rapidly changing climate.

This review evaluates the trajectory and sustainability of the global and Mexican aquaculture industry. Globally, the sector is experiencing rapid growth, catalyzed by evolving consumption patterns and technological advancements. Notwithstanding the benefits, environmental concerns necessitate an urgent shift towards sustainable practices. The focus then narrows to Mexico's aquaculture, tracing its history from the late 19th century. With an emphasis on species diversification, the country's sector demonstrates resilience and potential, with an impressive yield of 249,613.71 tons in 2021 despite regional consolidation. However, persistent challenges such as technological limitations, funding shortages, and access to quality seeds hinder progress. Risks, including disease outbreaks, negative environmental impact, economic volatility, regulatory compliance, and climate change, further underscore the need for sustainable strategies. With government support and unique geographical and climatic advantages, Mexico shows promise for a significant % growth projection of 25% over the next five years. This review underscores the importance of embracing technological innovation, implementing sustainable practices, and enacting supportive legislation for the long-term success of the aquaculture sector worldwide, with a particular focus on Mexico.