Current Pollution Reports最新文献

Microplastics (MPs) are ubiquitous in the atmosphere, with an average lifetime of 1 week to several weeks. They originate from various sources, including direct emissions from industrial activities, fragmentation of larger plastic debris, and transport from terrestrial and aquatic environments. Atmospheric MPs (AMPs) have been reported to play vital impacts on human health, climate forcing, and air quality. It could absorb and release harmful chemicals, potentially affecting human health through ingestion or inhalation. Additionally, it could contribute to the absorption and scattering of solar radiation, potentially altering the Earth’s radiation balance. However, there is great uncertainty about their health and climate effects, mainly due to MPs undergoing complex physical, chemical, or biological aging in the atmosphere, which results in great changes in their chemical composition and morphonology. Therefore, the transformation mechanisms of AMPs are still poorly understood, hampering our ability to model responses to changes in AMPs.

This review summarizes the current knowledge on AMPs, focusing on their sources, characteristics, and detection methods. The variety of the detection techniques used to measure and characterize the AMPs present in literature makes it complex to compare the results. In addition, previous studies were mainly focused on fiber plastics in atmospheric deposition samples, whereas only few studies have been found in the literature about the identification of other types of plastics. We highlight the challenges associated with assessing the distribution, abundance, and composition of AMPs and discuss the need for standardized sampling and analytical protocols.

Purpose of Review

Ambient fine particulate matter (PM_2.5) is a complex mixture of various toxic constituents. Compared with abundance of studies on PM_2.5 total mass, limited evidence is available on the health effects of PM_2.5 constituents on human health outcomes. The purpose of this review is to summarize recent publications over five years on the short-term and long-term health effects of PM_2.5 constituents on human mortality, morbidity, and subclinical biomarkers.

Recent Findings

PM_2.5 constituents mainly include organic carbon (OC), black carbon (BC), sulfate (SO₄²⁻), nitrate (NO₃⁻), ammonia (NH₄⁺), and heavy metals, all of which were significantly associated with various mortality and morbidity. Exposure to BC, OC, NO₃⁻, SO₄²⁻, and NH₄⁺ mainly affected mortality and morbidity from cardiovascular diseases and respiratory diseases and might influence subclinical markers such as blood pressure and serum cytokines. NO₃⁻, OC, and BC were reported to be associated with increased risk of diabetes, cancer, and infant mortality.

Summary

This review systematically summarized the study evidence on the effects of the constituents of PM_2.5 on population health in recent years. BC, OC, soil dust, NO₃⁻, SO₄²⁻, and NH₄⁺ were significantly associated with multisystem health outcomes. We found that the majority of studies were investigating the short-term effects, and mainly focusing on mortality and morbidity endpoints, while there were relatively few literatures on subclinical indicators and other endpoints like adverse birth outcomes. Future studies should be supplemented in this area.

Purpose of Review

The air quality in Taiwan is significantly impacted by ambient ozone (O₃) pollution, which poses a challenge in terms of control due to the involvement of precursors and influencing factors in its photochemical process. This review investigates the measures that have been implemented in Taiwan over the past two decades to address this issue and evaluate their effectiveness in reducing O₃ concentrations. Furthermore, it highlights relevant studies that have employed advanced methods to examine the O₃ problem.

Recent Findings

Comprehending the complex formation of O₃ and its driving factors is crucial in efficiently managing O₃ pollution. Nevertheless, accurately quantifying the impacts of these factors can be challenging due to their interconnections. To bridge this gap in knowledge, conducting a robust causality analysis becomes imperative to accurately quantify the causal influence of major factors. Furthermore, eliminating seasonal variations can improve the precision and accuracy of trend analyses concerning long-term changes in O₃ concentrations. Deep learning, in particular, holds significant advantages in predicting O₃ concentrations as it can capture non-linear and long-term memory characteristics effectively.

Summary

In summary, attaining acceptable O₃ levels in Taiwan is challenging due to its geographical location, which makes it susceptible to air pollution from both local sources as well as distant upwind areas. The utilization of advanced methods is essential for comprehensively studying the evolution of O₃ and formulating effective mitigation measures. While there is a necessity to develop new analytical methods, implementing existing robust methodologies can also provide valuable insights into the dynamics and impacts of O₃. By leveraging these approaches, we can enhance our comprehension of O₃ pollution in Taiwan and develop effective strategies to mitigate its harmful effects on air quality.

Purpose of Review

This study aims to review recent literature reporting wastewater-based surveillance (WBS) of the monkeypox virus (MPXV) with a major focus on sample collection, processing, and public health safety issues.

Recent Findings

Various studies revealed the presence of MPXV genetic markers in sewage, wastewater treatment plants, and drainage systems of hospitals in multiple countries.

Summary

Mpox (formally monkeypox) has been identified in more than a hundred countries, confirming at least 93,937 cases from 06 May 2022 to 03 February 2024. The MPXV, the causative agent for mpox, is a zoonotic virus having genome DNA. Major symptoms of the disease are rash, fever, headache, and chills with lymph pain. It has about a 10% case fatality rate, without any approved vaccine, but researchers are investigating the development of therapeutic vaccines. The virus DNA signature has been long reported in urine, stool, saliva, semen, and spit samples of clinical patients, make feasible for tracking the virus in wastewater. Furthermore, recent studies have reported MPXV DNA from environmental samples. As MPXV is a zoonotic virus with possible multiple hosts (e.g., small mammals and rodents), their detection in environmental samples might indicate the possible circulation of the virus including non-human hosts. The persistence of the infective virus particles in the ambient environment has not been fully investigated. Also, their possible risks of transmission through the contaminated milieu are unknown. The WBS can be an effective tool for identifying their hotspots and trends in communities.

Graphical Abstract

Purpose of Review

Nickel oxide nanoparticles (NiO NPs) have attracted considerable interest in multiple industries because of their distinct properties and wide range of potential applications. However, concerns regarding their potential adverse health effects have prompted extensive research efforts to understand their toxicity and develop appropriate safety guidelines.

Recent Findings

Recent studies have demonstrated that exposure to NiO NPs can induce harm in a variety of animal models, plants, ecological systems, and in vitro cell models. Research on the mechanism of signaling pathways implicated in respiratory system toxicity and hepatotoxicity has shown that NiO NPs can lead to organ damage by triggering downstream signaling through the nuclear factor kappa-B (NF-κB), mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK)/Smad, phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K/AKT), and hedgehog signaling pathways. High-throughput RNA sequencing has been used in toxicity studies to detect important changes in the transcriptome at the mRNA and pathway levels. Additionally, NiO NPs have been found to cause NiO NPs induce neurotoxicity, genotoxicity, and ecotoxicity in plants and earthworms, potentially through mechanisms involving oxidative stress and inflammatory factors.

Summary

This review provides a comprehensive summary of current research progress on the health effects of NiO NPs, focusing on their application, routes of exposure, and potential toxicity mechanisms. The study also evaluates evidence on the impact of NiO NPs on organ systems, including the respiratory, liver, nervous, genotoxic, reproductive and developmental effects. Lastly, the review suggests further research directions to improve understanding of the toxic effects and mechanisms of NiO NPs for safer application.

Purpose of Review

This review examines recent publications on rare earth elements (REE) in soils, critically evaluating their role as emerging soil contaminants. We emphasized new findings and main gaps using a previous review paper published in 2016 by our research group as a reference point. Three major subjects were prioritized: (1) sources, background levels, and behavior of REE in soils; (2) plant development and metabolism as affected by REE exposure; and (3) environmental and human health risk assessments of REE in the soil environment.

Recent Findings

Publications addressing the occurrence and fate of REE in the soil environment have more than tripled in the last decade. Coincidentally, global REE exploration has more than doubled in the past 7 years. Because of their unique features, the global demand for REE is expected to increase by at least 50% in the next 10 years. As soils are the main sink of contaminants, we must continue to investigate the consequences of the unceasing addition of these elements in soil ecosystems.

Summary

We highlighted the main sources of REE, their background levels in selected global soils, and their physicochemical behavior. The relationship between REE and plants revealed potential benefits such as environmental stress tolerance. Finally, ecological and human health risk assessment data for REE in soils were carefully discussed in terms of their potential adverse effects on biota. We conclude with a survey in which prominent authors working with REE answered questions about challenges and opportunities for innovative research on REE in soil-plant-animal/human systems.

Graphical Abstract

Purpose of Review

The increasing occurrence of emerging chemicals of concern in the environment has caused high public attention. Assessing their hematologic toxicities is of high priority, as the blood circulation system is usually essential in transporting these exogenous substances to diverse target tissues in vivo. The plasma kallikrein-kinin system (KKS) is one of the most abundant protease enzyme systems and regulates a series of crucial hematologic functions. As a vulnerable target, the KKS may sensitively respond to circulatory pollutants, and combing the current studies on the interaction of the environmental contaminants with the KKS would help understand the toxicological or pathological significance of this system.

Recent Findings

The current studies have revealed that some environmental contaminants, such as small molecular organic chemicals, engineered nanoparticles (NPs), and atmospheric fine particulate matter (PM), can directly interact with the KKS, causing the autoactivation of the Hageman factor XII (FXII), the subsequent cascade cleavage of the plasma prekallikrein (PPK), and high molecular kininogen (HK). The consequent downstream hematological effects and other related toxicities can be concomitantly induced via the crosstalk with the KKS. In addition, multiple approaches, based on in vitro, ex vivo, and in vivo experimental models, have been developed to characterize the binding of exogenous substances with FXII, conformational changes of the protein, the cascade activation of the KKS, and downstream toxicological or pathological responses.

Summary

As a vulnerable target, the plasma KKS sensitively responds to the exposure of environmental pollutants and is promising for biomonitoring hematotoxicity in future studies.

Air pollution and the various chemicals that are a part of this complex mixture have been associated with several adverse infant health outcomes. One major area of research is describing the underlying biological mechanism between air pollution and adverse infant health outcomes. Metabolomics, a new omics field, studies small molecules present in a biological matrix and may provide insight into underlying biological mechanism. We conducted a narrative review of the literature to identify studies utilizing metabolomics with air pollution, or some potential component of it, and adverse infant health. We identified seven studies that met our inclusion criteria. These studies described a range of potential air pollutants including tobacco smoke, PAH, NO₂, PM_2.5, O₃, BC, heavy metals, and PFAS. The studies mainly focused on gestational age and weight outcomes. Metabolic analysis revealed many altered metabolomic pathways including those related to amino acid metabolism, glycan metabolism, lipid metabolism, and cofactor and vitamin metabolism. These studies provide valuable insight into the potential biological mechanisms that underpin the association between air pollution and adverse gestational outcomes. Future studies should utilize longitudinal study design and use complex mixture analysis for air pollution exposure assessment, as well as focus on the use of more toxicologically relevant target tissue for infant health outcomes.

Purpose of Review

This review collates and analyses data on noise exposure of birds in relation to avian hearing system performance. It provides new insights into the mechanistic pathways of anthropogenic noise impact on avian species.

Recent Findings

Noise impacts both humans and wildlife. Birds are of conservation concern, given the recent reports of major global declines in bird populations and that one in eight bird species is threatened with extinction. Studies of noise impacts on birds have been, and continue to be, published. Whilst many of these studies report associations between noise and a response in birds, relatively few provide clear demonstration of the mechanisms of impact.

Summary

Anatomical and physiological datasets were compiled for species representing nineteen avian orders. Information on noise sources, propagation path and habitat selection was also collated. Bird order was not a good predictor of bird hearing frequencies, but body dimensions were. In general, smaller birds were found to have higher peak hearing frequencies than larger birds. Cranium height was the strongest predictor of peak hearing frequency for birds. These findings provide mechanistic context to noise impacts on birds and a potential basis for predicting responses of avian species to different noise environments.