Environmental Science & Technology Letters Environ.最新文献

Pesticide gestational exposure may contribute to the development of allergies in childhood, yet evidence on its health impact on urban populations remains limited. This study investigates the association between prenatal exposure to individual and mixed pesticides and allergic outcomes, including asthma, wheezing, and eczema, at age 6 in 387 mother-child pairs from the German prospective cohort LiNA. Forty pesticides and metabolites were detected in urine during pregnancy through nontargeted screening, and 11 were selected (detection rate ≥ 17%) for further analysis. Multivariable logistic regression models adjusted for covariates revealed statistically significant associations between dihydroxy-pyrimethanil and asthma (aOR = 1.35, 95% CI: 1.02–1.79), and fluazifop-desbuthyl and wheezing (aOR = 1.14, 95% CI: 1.01–1.30). No significant associations were observed for eczema. The weighted quantile sum (WQS) regression showed that higher pesticide coexposures significantly increased wheezing odds (aOR = 2.08, 95% CI: 1.21–3.56). The main components of the WQS index were fluazifop-desbuthyl, flonicamid, hydroxy-metazachlor, and terbuthylazine, accounting for 67% of the overall mixture effect. These findings suggest that prenatal exposure to pesticides, likely from dietary sources, may increase the risk of childhood asthma and wheezing. Replication studies in populations with comparable pesticide exposures, along with experimental mechanistic validation, will strengthen the understanding of the observed associations.

The co-occurrence of microplastics and heavy metals poses significant environmental risks. However, conventional analytical methods are ex situ, destructive, and unable to capture real-time adsorption dynamics. We present a low-field nuclear magnetic resonance (LF-NMR) technique that enables the in situ, nondestructive, time-resolved quantification of paramagnetic metal adsorption onto microplastics. We applied this method to monitor the adsorption of Cu(II) and Cr(III) onto poly(vinyl chloride) and polystyrene microplastics under diverse water chemistry conditions. Validation using inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry confirmed the excellent accuracy of the proposed method, which exhibited high linearity (R² > 0.99), an average recovery of 100.7%, and detection limits of approximately 0.1 mg L^–1. The method showed robust sensitivity and stability across varying salinity (0–250 mM) and pH (3.5–6.5) with minimal interference. LF-NMR revealed a two-stage adsorption mechanism characterized by rapid surface binding followed by slower intraparticle diffusion. Critically, the nondestructive nature preserved the microplastic–paramagnetic metal complexes for subsequent characterization, overcoming the limitations of conventional destructive techniques. This real-time approach bridges quantitative detection with mechanistic understanding, providing a powerful tool for elucidating microplastic–metal interactions and showing strong potential for nanoplastic and aging studies.

Natural attenuation (NA) and propane biostimulation (PB) are effective and cost-efficient in situ techniques for remediating 1,4-dioxane (dioxane)-contaminated groundwater. We designed and validated three primer/probe sets capable of distinguishing among three clusters of group-6 propane monooxygenases (PRMs) and evaluated their correlation with dioxane degradation in microcosms mimicking NA and PB treatments. These biomarkers demonstrated exclusive specificity and high sensitivity (500–1600 copies/mL groundwater). Microcosms prepared with groundwater at seven monitoring wells across two sites exhibited significant dioxane removal, particularly where active propane biosparging was implemented. Using Taqman-based qPCR assays, prmAI and prmAIII were most dominant, while prmAII and thmA were absent, indicating the pivotal roles of Cluster I and III PRMs in the observed dioxane biodegradation. Moreover, the average abundance of total prmA, as well as prmAI and prmAIII individually, correlated significantly with the dioxane degradation rates. Correlation and regression analyses highlighted a stronger association of prmAIII than prmAI, suggesting a greater influence of Cluster III PRMs under tested conditions. Samples with total prmA below 10^4.5 copies/mL groundwater exhibited negligible dioxane removal, suggesting a practical threshold for assessing the bioremediation potential. These findings establish cluster-specific group-6 PRM biomarkers as effective tools for predicting and monitoring dioxane biodegradation in impacted aquifers.

The understanding of the toxic effect of environmental nanoparticle exposure at the cellular level is critical. We surprisingly discovered that environmental nanoparticle endocytosis inadvertently transports a small volume of the surrounding extracellular fluid into the cells, without disruption of the cell membrane. Although the volume of engulfed fluid is relatively small, the corresponding Ca²⁺ influx is rather considerable. Nanoparticles, along with their “hijacked” extracellular fluid, accumulate in the lysosomes. Therefore, the elevated Ca²⁺ levels were observed in the lysosomes, accompanied by certain lysosomal damage. In contrast, inhibiting the influx of extracellular Ca²⁺ or activating the lysosomal calcium ion channel TRPML1 significantly mitigated lysosomal calcium overload. Overall, this study may be beneficial for nanoparticles-related ecotoxicological examination and risk assessment.

The USEPA developed an Aquatic Life Screening Value (ASLV) of 11 ng/L for 6PPD Quinone (6PPD-Q), a breakdown product of 6PPD, an antiozonant in automobile tires. Because some coho populations are listed, “Take” requires that no individuals be harmed. The question asked in the present study is whether the ASLV for 6PPD-Q is protective for coho salmon. To answer this question, a concentration–response regression was developed for juvenile coho salmon from the raw data used to generate the three published acute mortality studies. The % mortality from the ASLV was read from the concentration–response regression resulting in a mean predicted mortality (95% confidence limits) of 2% (1–14%). Because of the Take restriction on harming a threatened or endangered species, the protective concentration of 6PPD-Q in coho-bearing streams should be set below the concentration–response curve. The LC1 and 95% CL are 8.5 (1.3–17.8) ng/L. The lower CL is 8.5 times lower than the EPA ASLV. A concentration of 6PPD-Q that does not result in mortality of one individual coho salmon should be below the lower 95% CL of the LC1 (approximately 1 ng/L). Results of this study show that the EPA ASLV is not protective for coho.

Ionic liquids (ILs) are widely used in diverse scientific and industrial fields, yet many of these substances exhibit significant cytotoxicity, challenging their classification as “green solvents”. To facilitate access to established experimental cytotoxicity data on ILs, we present ILToxDB - a curated, open-access database containing 3844 cytotoxicity assay entries for 1224 ILs tested across 154 cell lines and extracted from 152 scientific publications. Each entry includes detailed experimental context, such as the assay type, cell line characteristics, and compound structure (including SMILES), allowing flexible search and analysis. ILToxDB offers a user-friendly web interface and supports advanced structure-based queries. The database is designed to support toxicological assessment, green chemistry development, and machine learning applications for safer IL design. ILToxDB is freely available at https://iltox.ananikovlab.ai/.

Sulfidation of nanoscale zerovalent iron (nZVI) toward substantially enhancing electron selectivity to trichloroethene (TCE) and its degradation efficiency to benign end products has been a major breakthrough. However, the electron transfer from S-nZVI to TCE or water also results in leaching of Fe²⁺, and the mitigation of this reaction has not been addressed. Anaerobic corrosion of 1.2 g/L S-nZVI during TCE degradation led to high dissolved Fe, up to 353 ± 26 mg/L under electron-excess conditions and 427 ± 30.2 mg/L under electron-limited conditions, thus compromising treated water quality during (ground)water treatment. In this study, a dittmarite-S-nZVI (DS-nZVI) composite yielded efficient TCE degradation with the continuous sequestration of released Fe. S-nZVI was well-dispersed on the dittmarite (NH₄MgPO₄·H₂O) nanosheets. DS-nZVI yielded faster and complete dechlorination and a ∼1000-fold decrease in Fe leaching (<0.3 mg/L) compared to S-nZVI (353 ± 26 mg/L) under electron excess conditions, and >90% iron removal under electron-limited conditions with TCE degradation capacity of 1.46 × 10²³ molecules per mol of Fe⁰. Continuous exchange of Fe²⁺ with Mg²⁺ ions and complexation with phosphate ions was followed by structural transformation to crystalline baricite, (Fe, Mg)₃(PO₄)₂·8H₂O, leading to a more sustainable TCE degradation approach for groundwater remediation.

Hindered amine light stabilizers (HALSs) are polymer additives that are widely used in plastics, synthetic fibers, and adhesives. However, research on the environmental presence and related exposure risk of HALSs remains limited. In this study, a wide range of HALSs were analyzed in indoor and outdoor dust from multiple environments, and nine HALSs were detected. Relatively high concentrations of HALSs were detected in the dust of automotive repair shops (median = 1.05 × 10⁵ ng/g), while urban residential apartments (median = 1.53 × 10³ ng/g), rural houses (median = 301 ng/g), and the rural outdoors (median = 75.9 ng/g) showed much lower concentrations. The estimated daily intake of ΣHALSs via dust ingestion for automotive repair workers under median exposure scenarios reached 35.4 ng (kg of body weight (bw))⁻¹ day^–1, which was 80 times higher than that for residential exposure. Despite elevated exposure in repair shops, current HALS concentrations do not appear to pose a significant threat to human health via dust ingestion. This is the first study to report the presence of HALSs in automotive repair shops and rural environment settings. Moreover, three HALSs, 2,2,6,6-tetramethyl-4-piperidinyl stearate, N,N′-bis(2,2,6,6-tetramethylpiperidin-4-yl)hexane-1,6-diamine, and 4-hydroxy-1-(2-hydroxyethyl)-2,2,6,6-tetramethylpiperidine, are reported for the first time in the environment.

Organophosphorus pollutants pose significant threats to both human health and natural ecosystems due to their widespread use and toxicological effects. In addition to the well-known organophosphorus pesticides and organophosphate esters, quaternary phosphonium compounds (QPCs) are widely utilized, highly productive, and toxic. However, their environmental presence and behavior are not well understood. Using the cheminformatics toolkit in Python, 25 QPCs were screened as target analytes from a chemical industry database based on their characteristic structural features. Among them, 16 QPCs were detected in soil (range: 2.61–5.84 × 10³ ng/g), and 11 QPCs were found in indoor dust (range: 4.89–1.71 × 10³ ng/g) near a manufacturing plant. A point-source distribution pattern was observed in the soil, while indoor dust concentrations showed a distance-dependent attenuation. The spatial distribution suggests that the manufacturing plant is a significant source of QPCs in the surrounding area, with eight QPCs being reported for the first time. Human exposure assessment via dust ingestion indicated estimated daily intakes well below acceptable thresholds, suggesting limited immediate risk. This study highlights QPC manufacturing plants as a significant source of environmental contaminants and underscores the need for greater attention to plant-released QPCs and their potential health effects.