Environmental Science. Processes & Impacts

Despite a significant amount of research on micronanoplastics (MNPs), there is still a gap in our understanding of their function as transporters of other environmental pollutants (known as the Trojan horse effect) and the combined effects of ingestion, bioaccumulation, and toxicity to organisms. This study examined the individual effects of polystyrene nanoplastics (PSNPs) with various surface functionalizations (plain (PS), carboxylated (PS-COOH), and aminated (PS-NH2 )), particle sizes (100 nm and 500 nm), and a pharmaceutical co-contaminant (metformin hydrochloride (MH), an anti-diabetic drug) on the marine crustacean - Artemia salina ...

Direct or indirect consumption of pesticides and their related products by humans and other living organisms without safe dosing may pose a health risk. The risk may arise after a short/long time which depends on the nature and amount of chemicals consumed. Therefore, the maximum acceptable daily intake of chemicals must be calculated to prevent these risks. In the present work, regression-based quantitative structure-activity relationship (QSAR) models were developed using 39 pesticides with maximum acceptable daily intake (MADI) for humans as the endpoint...

Motor vehicles are among the major sources of pollutants and greenhouse gases in urban areas and a transition to "zero emission vehicles" is underway worldwide. However, emissions associated with brake and tire wear will remain. We show here that previously unrecognized volatile and semi-volatile organic compounds, which have a similarity to biomass burning emissions are emitted during braking. These include greenhouse gases or, these classified as Hazardous Air Pollutants, as well as nitrogen-containing organics, nitrogen oxides and ammonia...

Plastic pollution in aquatic ecosystems has become a significant problem especially microplastics which can encapsulate into the skeletons of organisms that produce calcium carbonates, such as foraminifera, molluscs and corals. The encapsulation of microplastics into precipitated aragonite, which in nature builds the coral skeleton, has not yet been studied. It is also not known how the dissolved organic matter, to which microplastics are constantly exposed in aquatic ecosystems, affects the encapsulation of microplastics into aragonite and how such microplastics affect the mechanical properties of aragonite...

Soil and terrestrial contamination with microplastics and nanoplastics has been discussed extensively, while tire wear particles (TWPs) have been largely overlooked. We investigated the root-surface interactions and growth response of mung bean ( Vigna radiata L.) plants exposed to tire wear particles (TWPs) (0.05, 0.1, and 0.25% w/w) and nickel sulfate (50 and 100 mg kg-1 NiSO4 ) alone and in co-exposure scenarios for the full life cycle (105 days) under soil conditions. The results show that TWPs adhered to the root surface and reduced the water and nutrient uptake by the plant, particularly at higher concentrations of TWPs (0...

There is growing concern about the transfer of antibiotic-resistant bacteria (ARB) and antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) in airborne particulate matter. In this study, we investigated the effects of various types of carbonaceous particulate matter (CPM) on the transfer of ARGs in vitro . The results showed that CPM promoted the transfer of ARGs, which was related to the concentration and particle size. Compared with the control group, the transfer frequency was 95.5, 74.7, 65.4, 14.7, and 3.8 times higher in G (graphene), CB (carbon black), NGP (nanographite powder), GP1...

Inhalation of welding fumes (WFs) containing high levels of transition metals (Cr, Cu, Fe, Mn, Ni…) is associated with numerous health effects including oxidative stress. However, the measurements of the oxidative potential (OP) and bioaccessibility of WF transition metals depend on several physicochemical parameters and may be subject to several experimental artifacts. In this work, we investigated the influence of the experimental conditions that may affect the bioaccessibility of transition metals and their OP on stainless-steel WF extracts...

Fifty-two consecutive PM2.5 samples from December 2021 to February 2022 (the whole winter) were collected in the center of Chongqing, a humid metropolitan city in China. These samples were analysed for the 16 USEPA priority polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (16 PAHs) to explore their composition and sources, and to assess their cancer risks to humans. The total concentrations of the 16 PAHs (ng m-3 ) ranged from 16.45 to 174.15, with an average of 59.35 ± 21.45. Positive matrix factorization (PMF) indicated that traffic emissions were the major source (42...

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Microplastic (MP) pollution has garnered global attention in recent years. Although anthropogenic factors have been extensively studied for their impacts on MP pollution, there is still a lack of research on the relationship between non-anthropogenic factors and MP occurrence in inland freshwater. This study investigated MP pollution in Donghu Lake, the largest urban freshwater lake in China, to examine the effects of rainfall and lakeshore soil properties on MP pollution. The MP abundance in the surface water of Donghu Lake was 5...

Diabetes is a global public health problem, and the impact of air pollutants on type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) has attracted people's attention. This study aimed to assess the association of short-term exposure to six criteria air pollutants with T2DM outpatient visits in Lanzhou, China. We collected data on daily outpatient visits for T2DM, daily meteorological data and hourly concentrations of air pollutants in Lanzhou from 2013 to 2019. An over-dispersed passion generalized addictive model combined with a distributed lag non-linear model was applied to estimate the associations and stratified analyses were performed by gender, age, and season...

Indoor sources of air pollution, such as from cooking and cleaning, play a key role in indoor gas-phase chemistry. The focus of the impact of these activities on air quality tends to be indoors, with less attention given to the impact on air quality outside buildings. This study uses the INdoor CHEmical Model in Python (INCHEM-Py) and the Advanced Dispersion Modelling System (ADMS) to quantify the impact cooking and cleaning have on indoor and outdoor air quality for an idealised street of houses. INCHEM-Py has been developed to determine the concentrations of 106 indoor volatile organic compounds at the point they leave a building (defined as near-field concentrations)...

Background : Growing evidence has demonstrated the role of ambient air pollutants in driving diabetes incidence. However, epidemiological evidence linking ozone (O3 ) exposure to diabetes risk has been scarcely studied in Zhuang adults in China. We aimed to investigate the associations of long-term exposure to O3 with diabetes prevalence and fasting plasma glucose (FPG) and estimate the mediating role of liver enzymes in Zhuang adults. Methods : We recruited 13 843 ethnic minority adults during 2018-2019 based on a cross-sectional study covering nine districts/counties in Guangxi...

In the absence of an identified source of carbon, the reported formation of phosgene from bleach powder is questioned. Interferences and confounding effects other than those investigated by the authors may have led to artifactual results.

In this work, we have investigated the mechanism, thermochemistry and kinetics of the reaction of syn - cis -CH2 R z CR y CO+ O- (where R z , R y = H, CH3 -) unsaturated Criegee intermediates (CIs) with CF3 COOH using quantum chemical methods. The rate coefficients for the barrierless reactions were calculated using variable reaction coordinate variational transition state theory (VRC-VTST). For the syn - cis -CH2 R z CR y CO+ O- conformation in which conjugated CC and CO double bonds are aligned with each other, we propose a new pathway for the unidirectional addition of an OC-OH molecule (CF3 COOH) to the CC double bond of syn - cis -CH2 R z CR y CO+ O- ...

Correction for 'Cyanobacterial extracellular antibacterial substances could promote the spread of antibiotic resistance: impacts and reasons' by Rui Xin et al. , Environ. Sci.: Processes Impacts , 2023, 25 , 2139-2147, https://doi.org/10.1039/D3EM00306J.

To give a comprehensive account of the environmental acceptability of 1,1,2,3-tetrafluoropropene (CF2 CF-CH2 F) in the troposphere, we have examined the oxidation reaction pathways and kinetics of CF2 CF-CH2 F initiated by Cl-atoms using the second-order Møller-Plesset perturbation (MP2) theory along with the 6-31+G(d,p) basis set. We also performed single-point energy calculations to further refine the energies at the CCSD(T) level along with the basis sets 6-31+G(d,p) and 6-311++G(d,p)...

This study investigates the concentrations, sources, and ecological and human health risks resulting from exposure to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in soils of rural communities around gas flaring points in Delta State, Nigeria. PAHs were extracted from these soil samples with hexane/dichloromethane by ultra-sonication and the extracts were cleaned on a silica gel/alumina-packed column. The PAH concentrations in the extracts were quantified by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). The Σ16 PAH concentrations in soils from these communities varied from 2370-134 000, 461-389 000, and 2130-34 900 μg kg-1 for Emu-Ebendo (EME), Otu-Jeremi (OTJ) and Ebedei (EBD), respectively...

Metal-organic framework (MOF) materials have unique structure and fantastic properties for wide-ranging applications. Pilot studies highlighted the toxicity and potential threats of MOF materials to the environment. In this study, we revealed the phytotoxicity of MOF-74(Co) nanoparticles (NPs) and their inhibitory effects on the photosynthesis of pea seedlings ( Pisum sativum L.). MOF-74(Co) NPs have limited influences on the germination of pea seeds, but distinct environmental effects of MOF-74(Co) NPs were found in pea seedlings...

Perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) is an emerging persistent organic pollutant. Exposure to PFOA was observed to have a correlation with the expression levels of phospholipids. However, there are currently no studies that directly visualize the effects of PFOA on phospholipids. To this end, matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time of flight imaging mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF-IMS) was used to visualize changes in phospholipids in the different tissues of zebrafish following exposure to PFOA. This study found that the major perturbed phospholipids were phosphatidylcholine (PC), diacylglycerol (DG), phosphatidic acid (PA), phosphatidylglycerol (PG), sphingomyelin (SM), and triacylglycerol (TG)...