Water, Air, and Soil Pollution

Air pollution, especially in urban regions, is receiving increasing attention in Vietnam. Consequently, this work aimed to study and analyze the air quality in several provinces and cities in the country focusing on PM2.5 . Moreover, the impacts of COVID-19 social distancing on the PM2.5 level were investigated. For this purpose, descriptive statistic, Box and Whisker plot, correlation matrix, temporal variation, and trend analysis were conducted. R-based program and the R package "openair" were employed for the calculations...

The probabilistic hesitant fuzzy set (PHFS) is a useful extended version of the hesitant fuzzy set (HFS), which allows decision-makers greater freedom in espousing their preferences through the use of hesitant evidence in the real DM method. As the implications for individuals and global concerns have grown, efficient clinical diagnosis of medical waste has been a major challenge, particularly in developing countries. Medical waste can be disposed of in a variety of ways. The essential thing is to decide which strategies work best...

Petroleum-derived plastics are linked to a variety of growing environmental issues throughout their lifecycle, including emission of greenhouse gases, accumulation in terrestrial and marine habitats, pollution, among others. There has been a lot of attention over the last decade in industrial and research communities in developing and producing eco-friendly polymers to deal with the current environmental issues. Bioplastics preferably are a fast-developing family of polymeric substances that are frequently promoted as substitutes to petroleum-derived plastics ...

UNLABELLED: On March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 (SARS-CoV-2) a pandemic. Countries all over the world imposed restriction measures, in an attempt to limit the expansion of the pandemic. Provided that human activities in large urban areas affect air quality, we studied the concentrations of gaseous pollutants ΝΟ, ΝΟ2 , O3 , C6 H6 , and particulate matter PM10 in the air, through gas pollution measuring stations in the center of Athens (Greek capital), the center of Piraeus (Greece's largest port), Athens International Airport (most international and domestic flights within Greece)...

Environmental contamination from pharmaceuticals has received increased attention from researchers in the past 20 years. As such, numerous lab-scale studies have sought to characterize the effects of these contaminants on various targets, as well as determine improved removal methods. Many studies have used lab-scale bioreactors to investigate pharmaceutical effects on wastewater bacteria, as wastewater treatment plants often act as reservoirs for pharmaceuticals. However, few-if any-of these studies report the specific lab materials used during testing, such as tubing or pipette tip type...

Human activities have dramatically increased nitrogen (N) and sulfur (S) deposition, altering forest ecosystem function and structure. Anticipating how changes in deposition and climate impact forests can inform decisions regarding these environmental stressors. Here, we used a dynamic soil-vegetation model (ForSAFE-Veg) to simulate responses to future scenarios of atmospheric deposition and climate change across 23 Northeastern hardwood stands. Specifically, we simulated soil percent base saturation, acid neutralizing capacity (ANC), nitrate (NO3 - ) leaching, and understory composition under 13 interacting deposition and climate change scenarios to the year 2100, including anticipated deposition reductions under the Clean Air Act (CAA) and Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change-projected climate futures...

UNLABELLED: The utilization of hybrid-constructed wetland systems has recently expanded due to more rigorous municipal wastewater discharge and also complex wastewaters treated in hybrid-constructed wetlands (HCWs). A lab-scale two-stage experimental setup of vertical flow followed by horizontal flow hybrid-constructed wetland (VFHCW-HFHCW) configuration was built. First-stage vertical flow hybrid-constructed wetland reactor with the surface area was 1963.49 cm2 and second-stage horizontal flow hybrid-constructed wetland reactor with the surface area was 2025 cm2 ...

The production of synthetic drugs is considered a huge milestone in the healthcare sector, transforming the overall health, aging, and lifestyle of the general population. Due to the surge in production and consumption, pharmaceutical drugs have emerged as potential environmental pollutants that are toxic with low biodegradability. Traditional chromatographic techniques in practice are time-consuming and expensive, despite good precision. Alternatively, electroanalytical techniques are recently identified to be selective, rapid, sensitive, and easier for drug detection...

In terms of water resources, Jordan is considered one of the poorest countries in the world. Water resources management is one of the available options to decrease the gap between demand and resources. Water resources management requires optimum use of the available water resources taking into consideration resources availability, resources reliability, water use pattern, in addition to the socioeconomic issues. One of the most important aspects is human behaviour which has a strong impact on water management and on the ecosystem...

Plastics are now a major environmental concern worldwide with their widespread contamination and accumulation. Microplastic particle (< 5 mm) is an emerging pollution issue as it is being detected worldwide in aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems, but relatively little is known in tropical regions. This study determined the (1) abundance of microplastics in sediment and (2) in situ and laboratory ingestion rates of microplastics in three scarcely studied tropical bivalve mollusc species ( Donax sp., Meretrix meretrix , and Katelysia hiantina ) in Panguil Bay, Southern Philippines...

Due to its harmful impact on biota, microplastic pollution is the top priority research in many countries. However, there is hardly any research on microplastic pollution in Nepal's freshwater. Therefore, the present research was accomplished in Phewa Lake to evaluate the occurrence and distribution of microplastic contamination in shoreline sediments. The average abundance of microplastic varied from 55 to 122.5 items/kg dry weight (dw). The highest value appeared on densely populated eastern side of the lake and the western region reported the lowest concentration of microplastic...

Pollutant emissions from aircraft operations contribute to the degradation of air quality in and around airports. Meeting the ICAO's environmental certification standards regarding both gaseous and particulate aircraft engine emissions is one of the main challenges for air-transportation development over the coming years. To increase the accuracy of airport air pollution monitoring and prediction, advanced decision-making tools need to be developed. In this context, the present study aimed at demonstrating the modeling capabilities of an innovative methodology that accounts for the microscale evolution of aircraft emissions, both spatially and temporally...

Acetamiprid (ACE), a neonicotinoid pesticide widely used in pest control, was found in high concentrations in soils, rivers, and lakes. In the present study, ACE degradation was investigated using visible light driven photocatalysis over nitrogen-graphene oxide (N-GO) and palladium-graphene oxide (Pd-GO)-doped ZnO photocatalysts combined with ultrasonication implemented either as a pretreatment (sonolysis) or operated simultaneously with photocatalysis (sonophocatalysis). The effectiveness of the two ACE degradation processes was determined separately...

The COVID-19 pandemic affected human life at every level. In this study, we analyzed genetic markers (N and ORF1ab, RNA genes) of SARS-CoV-2 in domestic wastewaters (DWW) in San Justo City (Santa Fe, Argentina), using reverse transcription-quantitative real-time PCR. Out of the 30 analyzed samples, 30% were positive for SARS-CoV-2 RNA. Of the total positive samples, 77% correspond to untreated DWW, 23% to pre-chlorination, and no SARS-CoV-2 RNA was registered at the post-chlorination sampling site. The viral loads of N and OFR1ab genes decreased significantly along the treatment process, and the increase in the number of viral copies of the N gene could anticipate, by 6 days, the number of clinical cases in the population...

The scientific data review shows that advanced oxidation processes based on the hydroxyl or sulfate radicals are of great interest among the currently conventional water and wastewater treatment methods. Different advanced treatment processes such as photocatalysis, Fenton's reagent, ozonation, and persulfate-based processes were investigated to degrade contaminants of emerging concern (CECs) such as pesticides, personal care products, pharmaceuticals, disinfectants, dyes, and estrogenic substances. This article presents a general overview of visible light-driven advanced oxidation processes for the removal of chlorfenvinphos (organophosphorus insecticide), methylene blue (azo dye), and diclofenac (non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug)...

Globally, universities, institutions, and companies are aiming to reduce the use of single-use plastics as plastic litter, and plastic degradation generates secondary microplastics, all of which cause negative impacts on the environment. In this study the authors conducted a questionnaire-based survey to assess the willingness and motivation of stakeholders within academic settings to change daily habits to minimize plastic and microplastic pollution. The questionnaire, which was answered by 276 individuals with affiliation to the American Farm School or collaborating academic institutions, but primarily the American Farm School, was used to draw conclusions...

Improved air quality has been the silver lining of the pandemic since early 2020. The air quality in northern New Jersey (NJ) was continuously measured during the COVID-19 pandemic and through the three stages of recovery, i.e., the Stay-at-home stage, Reopening stage 1, and Reopening stage 2. A significant change in air quality was observed during the Stay-at-home stage (March 16 to May 16, 2020) as most people stayed home and industrial activity decreased 60%. Compared to 2019, carbon dioxide (CO2 ) decreased 17%, carbon monoxide (CO) decreased 7%, and nitrogen oxides (NOx ) decreased 51% during the Stay-at-home stage in 2020...

The presence of drugs on a large scale in aquatic matrices raises concern and requires the study of efficient technologies to remove these compounds. This study investigated the adsorption capacity of the natural zeolite clinoptilolite (CP) in removing the drug hydroxychloroquine (HCQ). Zeolite was characterized by BET, XRD, FT-IR, SEM, and pHpzc techniques. The kinetic model that best fits the experimental data was the pseudo-first-order and the SIPS isotherm provided the best fit. The Langmuir isotherm RL separation factor (> 0...

Avermectins are pharmaceutical drugs widely used mainly in livestock to combat both ectoparasites and endoparasites. Drugs belonging to this family include ivermectin, abamectin, doramectin, selamectin, eprinomectin, and emamectin benzoate, and they share similar chemical characteristics. When administered to livestock, between 80 and 98% of the drug is estimated to leave the body without being metabolized in feces, thus reaching the soil. For this reason, concern for avermectin contamination in soil is increasing, and researchers are focused on estimating the effects on non-target organisms, such as plants and soil invertebrates...

We illustrate the implementation and results of a field experiment, consisting of recording continuous signal from a hydrophone 3 m deep in the Venetian lagoon. We simultaneously recorded audio signal through a microphone placed on a nearby pier. We investigate the potential of this simple instrumental setup to explore the small touristic boat traffic contribution to the underwater noise. The ultimate goal of our work is to contribute to quantifying underwater noise pollution due to motorboat passages and its impact on the ecosystem...