Current Opinion in Environmental Science and Health最新文献

The contamination of natural resources, including land and water with organic pollutants, has become a major concern due to present intensive agricultural methods and industrialization. Despite being used for many years, phytoremediation is still a relatively new technology. Using a variety of mechanisms, aids that can increase the efficacy of phytoremediation processes, and strengths and limits associated with the application of this technology, this review article synthesizes the most recent research on aquatic plant species suited for use in phytoremediation. Water hyacinth (Eichhornia crassipes), water lettuce (Pistia stratiotes), and Duckweed (Lemna minor) are common accumulator plants for remediating polluted water. The phytoremediation's potential can be enhanced by genetic engineering, natural microbial stimulation, and chemical and natural additives. Phytoremediation can be a dependable option for a sustainable and affordable remediation of water from the organic and inorganic pollutants due to its low cost, sustainability linked with plants, and use of renewable energy.

Phthalic acid esters (PAEs), which are endocrine disruptors, tend to accumulate in soil and present unknown dangers to human health and soil ecosystems. The frequent residues of PAEs in plastic greenhouses soil should be taken serious consideration. In this work, the environmental behavior and remediation methods of PAEs in soil are reviewed. According to our current thinking, a number of factors, including soil structure, microbial activity, and plant and animal behavior, have posed a great impact on the migration and modification of PAEs in soil. The majority of soil biological toxicity caused by PAEs is accompanied by oxidative stress. Future PAEs-contaminated soil remediation technologies may benefit most from bioremediation.

Children are exposed to outdoor and indoor air pollution. In comparison to adults, they are more vulnerable to the effects of exposure to harmful chemicals from air pollutants. This article aims to evaluate and present the current advances on the impact of indoor air pollution on children under 19 years old. Assessing the exposure of children is complex because indoor air pollution is affected by many factors - types of cooking fuel and cookstoves, indoor ventilation, geographical and meteorological conditions, and exposure time. The most addressed health effects in literature are respiratory and birth outcomes. However, most of them reported difficulties in performing a meta-analysis due to the small number of studies on the personal exposure of children. Limited effectiveness of specific interventions at the household level points out the need for integrated and sustained public policies over time, associated with regulatory measures on pollutants emissions.

In this mini-review, the authors comment on selected papers focused on the use of low-cost materials to prevent/remediate environmental pollution (specifically, soil and water pollution). The authors have selected publications corresponding to the years 2021 and 2022, using the searching tools Scopus, Web of Sciences, and Google Scholar to find basic data about the papers, the countries where the researches were carried out, number of citations, and other details indicative of the relevance of the works. Overall, the field of research is receiving growing attention and efforts, providing useful data on classical and new low-cost materials, both raw and modified by means of low-cost procedures, which constitute a clearly interesting alternative to face environmental pollution currently and for the future.

Cometabolism describes the biodegradation of a contaminant by microorganisms grown on compounds other than the contaminant itself. Aerobic cometabolic degradation of 1,4-dioxane (14D) offers several advantages over metabolism-based biodegradation processes in which microorganisms use this compound as a sole source of carbon and energy for growth. These include (a) the use of widely distributed rather than highly specialized microorganisms (b) the ability to treat low, environmentally relevant concentrations (≤100 μg/L) of 14D, and (c), the ability to concurrently degrade chlorinated co-contaminants that are frequently encountered with 14D. This review summarizes recent studies highlighting these key features as well as field studies and emerging novel cometabolism-based approaches aimed at treating both 14D and its associated chlorinated co-contaminants.

Among universities' responsibilities, addressing sustainability-related issues by enabling a food environment which raises people's awareness and promotes the improvement of food offer and consumption is paramount. This article draws on recent literature evidence and virtuous examples provided by leading experts, with the purpose of outlining a conceptual model for fostering healthy and sustainable nutrition among the academic community through food services. To summarize, the connection between different academic departments, stakeholders, and students is crucial to gain the participation of the entire university society. At the same time, networking with food service companies is also relevant. Only by bringing together diverse expertise, skills, and experience will change in the university community will be possible to reach the common goal of making universities a supportive environment to ensure the well-being of the entire academic community on and off campus.

Organohalide chemicals such as polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs), and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) are prevalent contaminants in the environment. Recent findings that certain microbes could attenuate these pollutants suggest the potential to develop bioremediation technologies using functional microorganisms to combat this pollution crisis. A timely review on bioremediation progress and emerging tools that can be used to facilitate bioremediation design is needed. Thus far, bioremediation of PCBs and PBDEs is at the developing stage from laboratory investigation to field application, whereas exploring potent microbes remains the central task for PFASs. Successful bioremediation is underpinned by a collection of interactive microbes; however, relevant microbial ecology questions affecting bioremediation performance are underexplored. Machine learning, quantum chemistry, and biomolecular modeling are prospective tools to optimize system operation, predict environmental fate of chemicals, and explore functional enzymes, but their application in bioremediation only emerged recently. This review summarizes recently discovered microbes and genes involved in biodegradation of organohalide pollutants, highlights practical and ecological questions, and discusses potential application of computational tools in bioremediation of organohalide pollutants.

This review provides recent evidence on blood lead levels (BLLs) of children living in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) and identifies the most recent findings on recommendations to combat this public health problem. Most of the articles reviewed evaluate BLL in areas with the potential risk of lead contamination, but a small number investigated associations with health outcomes. The results show that, of the few studies reviewed evaluating BLL, almost half showed average concentrations that exceeded recommended limits. The recommendations we have provided represent the most current set for the prevention of childhood lead contamination. However, the main obstacle to implementation is the non-prioritization of actions in political processes, a barrier that needs to be overcome.

Liquid crystal monomers (LCMs) are abundantly used in electronic and electrical products (e-products) which have greatly facilitated the modern life. However, LCMs have been recognized as emerging contaminants of persistent, bio-accumulative, and toxic properties. This review summarized the current knowledge on their emission sources, environmental occurrence, and human exposure. Emissions from e-waste recycling activities and in-use e-products have been documented whereas those from manufacturing plants were deficient. At least 108 LCMs have been detected in environmental and/or biotic samples, suggesting common exposure to LCMs by occupational and general populations. Further studies are required to determine the characteristics of LCMs in the environment and humans and understand their behavior and fate. Toxicological studies are urgently needed to understand the potential adverse effects of LCMs on ecological environment and human.