ACS Environmental Au最新文献

Gaps remain in the interpretability and real-world applicability of children's elevated blood lead level (EBLL) predictive models, which are important for fostering efficient health intervention. We produced predictive statistical models using publicly available population data and children's EBLL rates (≥5 or ≥3.5 μg/dL) at the United States (U.S.) census tract resolution from Michigan (2014-2016), Ohio (2014-2016), California (2018-2022), Minnesota (2017-2021), and Wisconsin (2018-2021). Spatial and nonspatial random forest and logistic regression models were developed for each state to predict whether a census tract was above or below the 75th percentile EBLL rate. Spatial logistic regression models performed the best based on overall predictive performance, evaluated through a 10-fold cross-validation approach. Predictive accuracy ranged from 82% to 90%. The most influential final predictive variables for each optimal model varied, but there were consistencies across states. For example, the percent of homes built before 1940 was significant (p < 0.05) across all models, increasing the odds of a tract having higher EBLL rates (between 1 and 7%). By accounting for spatial autocorrelation, our modeling approach improves predictions by capturing local clustering effects. This approach can be applied elsewhere across the U.S. to inform prevention and mitigation actions and make predictions where measured EBLLs are sparse.

Laundering synthetic textiles releases a significant amount of microplastic fibers (MPFs), a major contributor to plastic pollution and one that poses numerous health hazards. When fabrics come into contact during laundering, frictional abrasion eventually causes MPFs to break off and release into the environment when the wash water is discharged. Certain polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS)-treated textiles have been shown to significantly reduce MPF release via a reduction in surface friction. However, the extent of MPF release when PDMS-coated textiles are washed with uncoated ones, the most likely real-world scenario, has yet to be investigated. In this work, a PDMS-based coating was used as a finish for polyester fabrics that were laundered with the same unfinished polyester fabric but dyed a different color such that MPF origin could be identified. To ensure the fabrics were in contact during the simulated laundering process, one piece of fabric was adhered to the bottom of a crystallization dish, while the other was sewn around a magnetic stir bar. After laboratory simulated washing, the amount of MPFs released from the different colored fabrics was counted. Both the fabric finish and the orientation were found to affect MPF release. When the bottom fabric was finished and laundered with the uncoated fabric surrounding the stir bar, MPF release was reduced by 42% for the bottom fabric, 28% for the stir bar fabric, and 37% overall. When the orientation was reversed, MPF release was reduced by 33% from the unfinished bottom fabric, 20% from the finished stir bar fabric, and 27% overall. These findings suggest that MPF release can be reduced during laundering even when some of the textiles are unfinished and that these types of finishes can reduce MPF release from unfinished fabrics.

Plastics are indispensable due to their versatility and low cost, but their accumulation poses major environmental challenges. Conventional waste management methods like landfilling, incineration, and mechanical recycling are inadequate, spurring interest in advanced valorization techniques. Pyrolysis offers a pathway to convert plastic waste into value-added products; however, traditional pyrolysis is energy-intensive, requiring high temperatures and long reaction times. Microwave-assisted pyrolysis (MAPP) has emerged as a superior alternative, enabling rapid heating (up to 50 °C/min), lower temperatures (≤500 °C), and shorter reaction times (∼10 min). MAP improves energy efficiency, yield, and selectivity toward valuable fractions such as bitumen, toluene, xylene (BTX), and medium-chain olefins. This review uniquely compares conventional pyrolysis and MAP for plastic waste conversion, analyzing process fundamentals, reactor designs, catalyst innovations (hierarchical, metal-modified, regenerable types), and product outcomes. Life cycle assessment data reveal MAP's lower greenhouse gas emissions and water use compared to conventional pyrolysis, landfilling, and incineration. This work also highlights emerging applications, including hydrogen, jet fuel analogues, carbon nanotubes, and CO₂ adsorbents from char, especially from underexplored plastics like PET, PS, and PVC. This work also systematically compares literature data across multiple studies, presenting the results in tabular form, while the identified gaps in catalyst standardization and product optimization delineate important directions for future research.

Industrial flue gas emissions are treated with technologies such as wet flue gas desulfurization (FGD) in chemical scrubbers, which are costly. Two-step biological scrubbers have emerged as an alternative for bio-FGD. However, no holistic technoeconomic and environmental comparison of both approaches is yet available. This study evaluates a conventional chemical scrubber (CS) and a bioscrubber (BS) treating sulfur-rich off-gas from a sulfur-based pigment plant. The bioscrubber integrates anaerobic sulfate reduction and partial sulfide oxidation to recover elemental sulfur and biogas. Two BS variants were analyzed, differing in carbon source for sulfate reduction: fossil-derived pure glycerin (BS-PG) and purified crude glycerol (BS-PCG). Mathematical models were integrated with life cycle assessment (LCA) and life cycle costing (LCC). Bioscrubbing enables resource recovery but strongly depends on the carbon source: BS-PG raises environmental impacts in most categories and increases greenhouse gas emissions to about 7277 tCO₂eq per year, compared with 1379 tCO₂eq for CS, whereas BS-PCG limits them to 1599 tCO₂eq and performs better than CS in several impact categories. Nonetheless, the energy and chemical demands for glycerol purification remain challenging. Sensitivity analyses identified gas flow rate, purge fraction, and distance to disposal sites as crucial parameters, indicating that bioscrubbing may be suited for medium-to-small plants. Economic analysis indicates that carbon source purchase dominates costs (≈1.6 M€/year for BS-PG and 1.2 M€/year for BS-PCG), so feasibility hinges on lowering glycerol prices and valorizing biogas. Overall, the integrated assessment highlights key trade-offs and design levers for enhancing the sustainability and viability of bioscrubber systems.

Photocatalysis has been extensively studied for its potential to harness abundant sunlight energy, yet exploration has been limited by the time and effort required for performance evaluation. To screen candidate materials, including the elements across the entire periodic table, throughput must be improved while minimizing labor. In this study, we introduce a simple, labor-saving, high-throughput assay for evaluating photocatalyst activity utilizing a 96-well microplate. The protocol provides a streamlined workflow that encompasses weighing, microplate preparation, light irradiation, spectroscopic measurement, and reaction rate analysis. Importantly, this protocol removes the bottleneck of separating photocatalyst powders from the dye solution throughout the cycles of light irradiation and spectral measurements, which significantly improves the throughput and saved labor. As a foundation for this method, we investigated the relationship between the coexistence of dye and powder against the resulting apparent absorbance and the temporal profile of absorbance during the photocatalytic reaction. From the result, we provide guidelines for determining versatile amounts of the photocatalyst and dye depending on the balance between measurement accuracy and throughput. As the method relies on the additivity of absorption and scattering within a defined optical density window, it is not restricted to a particular dye. This assay enables photocatalyst performance evaluation for ∼500/day, which holds promise for exploring the vast material space across the periodic table, significantly broadening the horizons for discovering novel photocatalysts.

Compound-specific stable carbon isotope analysis is an effective technique for identifying sources of atmospheric organic aerosols, but there are still issues such as low responsiveness to certain organic components and the lack of δ¹³C data for emitted organic components from sources which limit the widespread application. This study optimized the analytical methodologies using compound-specific isotope analysis to construct a stable carbon isotope database for organic components in PM_2.5 from four typical sources in Chinavehicle exhaust, coal burning, biomass burning, and residential emissions. Results show that for n-alkanes, biomass burning is the most ¹³C-enriched source (-26.06‰ ± 1.27‰), while residential emissions are the most depleted (-29.10‰ ± 1.04‰). For PAHs, δ¹³C exhibit a clear gradient across sources, varying in the order. Fatty acids also show distinct source-specific signatures, with biomass burning being the most ¹³C-enriched and the only source containing long-chain components >C₂₂, while residential emissions exhibit a higher proportion of unsaturated acids, indicating a cooking-related origin. Application of a Bayesian mixing model to winter and summer aerosol samples from Beijing revealed that n-alkanes mainly originate from biomass burning (summer: 60.7% ± 4.3%; winter: 62.8% ± 3.9%), with relatively stable source contributions. In contrast, PAH sources showed significant seasonal variation: vehicle emissions dominated in summer (76.3% ± 20.8%), while coal combustion increased to 34.9% ± 21.7% in winter. Fatty acids were primarily derived from biomass burning and residential emissions. This study filled the critical gap in δ¹³C fingerprint data for fatty acids and n-alkanes from emission sources, laying a foundation for precise source apportionment of atmospheric particulate matter. The observed shifts in source profiles reflect the effectiveness of energy structure transitions under coal control policies, providing a scientific basis for targeted air pollution management.

Despite advances in passive sampling technologies, challenges persist in improving the selectivity, sensitivity, and response time. This study presents the fabrication and evaluation of electrospun nanofiber mats (ENMs) embedded with carbon nanotubes (CNTs), with and without surfactant modifications, as fast equilibrium passive sampling materials. We investigated the sorption and desorption behaviors of four common surface water contaminants: atrazine, metolachlor, diuron, and 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4-D). We demonstrated that ENMs modified with the cationic surfactant tetrabutyl ammonium bromide (TBAB) exhibited higher sorption than their unmodified PAN/CNT counterparts for all species, including anionic 2,4-D, for which uptake increased by up to 45-fold. ENMs modified with sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS), a leachable porogen, exhibited greater surface area and improved sorption of atrazine, metolachlor, and diuron, resulting in an 8- to 40-fold increase in uptake. Across formulations, sorption to CNT-containing ENMs was largely reversible, with stronger, more irreversible binding at higher CNT wt %. The optimal formulation of PAN/10 wt % COOH-CNT/20 wt % SDS exhibited rapid, reversible sorption of atrazine, with 96% desorption after 48 h and fast equilibrium in response to changing solution concentrations. Field deployment in an agriculturally impacted creek showed good agreement with grab samples for atrazine (with ENM-derived concentrations within 5-40% of grab sample-derived concentrations) but overestimated metolachlor concentrations (with ENM-derived concentrations up to 500% greater than grab sample-derived concentrations), which we attribute to metolachlor's greater hydrophobicity, resulting in more irreversible binding to CNTs. Although further refinement is needed, these findings highlight the potential of ENM-CNT composites as novel materials for use as fast equilibrium passive samplers, especially for atrazine, and underscore the importance of tailoring the ENM composition to target specific micropollutants.

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) are ubiquitous, persistent organic pollutants increasingly detected in food crops, yet their accumulation capacities and regulatory factors across various plant species remain poorly resolved. Here, we investigated the bioaccumulation patterns of PFAS in 20 vegetable species and their relations with root chemical traits in farmland irrigated with treated wastewater. Leafy vegetables (e.g., Lactuca sativa and Spinacia oleracea) accumulated substantially higher PFAS concentrations (mean: 9.24 ng/g) than the root vegetable Daucus carota, with the short-chain perfluorobutanoic acid (PFBA) identified as the dominant species for all vegetables. PFBA showed the strongest mobility and tended to accumulate in edible aerial tissues of leafy vegetables, whereas long-chain PFASs were largely retained in roots. Across vegetable species, root PFBA concentration increased with the proportion of alkyl carbon and decreased with the proportion of O-alkyl carbon in roots, whereas the long-chain perfluorononanoic acid concentration increased with dissolved organic carbon concentration in roots. PFAS exposure could be decreased by up to 90% by consuming low-concentration vegetable varieties instead of high-concentration ones. These findings highlight the critical role of plant traits and rhizosphere chemistry in governing PFAS uptake pathways and suggest that crop selection and rhizosphere management can inform risk mitigation.

Understanding stable isotopic fractionation of dissolved O₂ in aquatic environments is crucial to constrain and accurately model the processes responsible for biological O₂ consumption, which are closely linked to the overall health of an ecosystem. This study aimed to investigate whether O₂ consumption by microbial methane and ammonia oxidation may contribute to the observed discrepancy in O₂ isotopic fractionation (¹⁸ϵ) between heterotrophic O₂ respiration in laboratory incubations (-18 to -24 ‰) and in situ measurements of O₂ consumption in lakes and oceans (-10 to -18 ‰). To estimate the in vivo ¹⁸ϵ values of soluble methane monooxygenase (sMMO), particulate methane monooxygenase (pMMO), and ammonia monooxygenase (AMO), which are the first enzymes required for the oxidation of methane and ammonia, experiments were performed with three methanotrophic bacteria and one comammox (complete-ammonia-oxidizing) bacterium. The resulting ¹⁸ϵ values for pMMO and AMO ranged from -18 ± 12 to -24 ± 5 ‰, not significantly different from ¹⁸ϵ values typical for heterotrophic respiration. The ¹⁸ϵ value determined for sMMO (-22 ± 2 ‰) was in the same range, yet more negative than the previously reported ¹⁸ϵ value for the isolated enzyme. Our results provide insights into the potential reaction mechanisms of pMMO and AMO and indicate that O₂ consumption by sMMO, pMMO, or AMO cannot explain the observed discrepancy between in situ and laboratory ¹⁸ϵ values for "community" O₂ consumption in aquatic environments. Instead, the apparent difference may be attributed to aspects involving substrate diffusion limitation.

Incorporating biotransformation capabilities into in vitro assays represents one of the most critical challenges in toxicology, facilitating the transition from in vivo models to integrated in vitro strategies. Although emerging technologies show promise, their current limitations in scalability hinder their high-throughput applications. In the short to mid term, externally added biotransformation systems ("BTS": S9 and microsomal liver fractions) used together with in vitro assays offer viable alternatives. However, despite over 50 years of use, BTS are marred by reproducibility issues, raising concerns about their reliability and raising the question: Are BTS inherently unreliable, or has their reputation been flawed by methodological oversights? This review critically evaluates BTS' methodological rigor, applying a deep statistical analysis of the scientific literature. We employed Boolean operator searches across scientific literature repositories to curate a database on BTS research in conjunction with relevant in vitro assays, focusing on endocrine disruption, mutagenicity, and genotoxicity end points. Through systematic searches, screening, and eligibility criteria, we identified 229 bibliographic records. Data parametrization and extraction were conducted across 24 domains of BTS relevance and reliability. Methodological reporting rigor was assessed via scoring (reported vs nonreported data items) and revealed a lack of reproducible standards. Numerical measures associated with principal BTS reaction components were subjected to meta-regression analyses. Within the aggregated data set, no statistically significant correlations were found for BTS and related cofactor concentration-response relationships or time-related elements. Finally, descriptive statistics, multiple correspondence analysis, and Apriori algorithm-based relational networks identified qualitative patterns of methodological reporting robustness and deficiencies. In conclusion, these results emphasize shortcomings across the scientific literature in complying with appropriate methodological reporting. We offer evidence-based recommendations, in the form of a conceptual regulatory guidance framework, to enhance research practices, quality, and reproducibility of BTS applications, designed to strengthen the robustness of BTS research and its integration into regulatory-relevant hazard and risk assessment of chemicals.