Environmental Sciences Europe最新文献

Beyond climate change, the planet faces several other environmental challenges that are at least as threatening, such as the loss of biodiversity. In each case, the problems are driven by similar factors, such as fossil fuels and intensive livestock farming. This paper presents a legal analysis concerning the binding nature of the Convention on Biological Diversity’s (CBD) overarching objective to halt biodiversity loss, within the framework of international environmental and human rights law. Using the established legal techniques encompassing grammatical, systematic, teleological, and historical interpretations, the article demonstrates that the CBD’s objective to halt biodiversity loss is indeed legally binding and justiciable. This conclusion is directly drawn from interpreting Article 1 CBD. Furthermore, a comparable obligation emerges indirectly from international climate law. The imperative to curtail biodiversity loss also finds grounding in human rights law, albeit necessitating a re-evaluation of certain aspects of freedom, similar to what has been explored in the context of climate protection. Moreover, the article underscores that various other biodiversity-related regulations within international law, including those laid out in the CBD, the Aichi Targets, and the Kunming–Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, also carry partial legal significance. Nonetheless, it is crucial to note that these regulations, including the Kunming–Montreal Framework, do not modify the obligation mandate to halt biodiversity loss, which was established at the latest when the CBD entered into force in 1993. Because this obligation has been violated since then, states could potentially be subject to legal action before international or domestic courts for their actions or inactions contributing to global biodiversity loss.

The United Nations Food Systems Summit and the European Green Deal have prompted various policy and regulatory initiatives aiming to transition agricultural practices to become more sustainable. An array of agricultural systems (e.g., regenerative, conservation agriculture, integrated crop management) have been lauded as potential solutions to improve food production sustainability. These systems use combinations of agricultural tools (e.g., crop rotation) to modify the crop environment to reduce weeds, pests and disease, alongside chemical (e.g., plant protection products) tools. Each tool has the potential to impact both the abiotic and biotic environment, with different combinations of tools having different overall outcomes. To improve the sustainability of agricultural practices it is important to understand, and where possible, quantify the environmental costs and benefits of the various tools that are applied within diverse cropping systems, as well as their potential interactions. While extensive literature exists, practical approaches are needed to cost-effectively synthesise key impacts and interactions to support decision making. A cost-effective methodology, adapting a rapid evidence assessment, was developed to review evidence and enable identification of the key environmental impacts for commonly applied agricultural tool options. The approach was applied to each tool individually (e.g., inversion tillage, crop rotation) to, where possible, isolate their specific impacts on the environment. Focused categories were assessed, considering biotic (insect, earthworms, etc.) and abiotic (soil, water, air quality, climate) impacts. This paper considers inversion tillage (also known as ploughing) as a case study to illustrate findings using the approach. Evidence is presented for direct and indirect impacts on the environment, selectivity of impacts and data gaps. The approach quickly provided robust evidence summaries of the key environmental implications of inversion tillage, facilitating identification of opportunities and trade-offs that can inform practice. The evidence highlighted how inversion tillage can offer effective weed control to reduce herbicide use, but carries increased risk to soil health, with connected implications for water, air and climate. This time-efficient review methodology can facilitate development of clear guidance to inform farmers in their decision making to improve on-farm sustainability, while serving as a useful starting point for conducting evidence reviews for policy development.

Background

Current regulatory discussions about microplastics are often questioned based on a lack of data indicating high ecotoxic hazards of these particles within standard and recognized definitions. Moreover, there is scientific debate on what metrics to report the micro-nanoplastics toxicity (i.e. mass or particle counts-based exposure). We present here the high potential sensitivity of three genotypically different clones of the European Daphnia longispina species complex exposed to non-functionalized polystyrene nanobeads of 50 nm and 100 nm in diameter according to adapted OECD 202 test protocol.

Results

EC₅₀s _48 h varied from 0.2 to 8.9 mg L⁻¹ (mean 2.49 mg L⁻¹) for 50 nm beads, and from 32.7 to 90.3 mg L⁻¹ (mean 59.39 mg L⁻1) for the 100 nm. EC₁₀s _48 h varied from 0.0007 to 7.5 mg L⁻¹ (mean 0.28 mg L⁻¹) for 50 nm beads, and from 25.5 to 69.1 mg L⁻¹ (mean 47.51 mg L⁻¹) for the 100 nm. Inter-clonal variability was about tenfold. Therefore, several 1000 s-fold variations in mass-based ecotoxicity for these polystyrene beads was observed if particle size and Daphnia genotype are considered jointly.

Conclusions

Such ecotoxicity potential is comparable to highly toxic chemicals in global and EU-based regulatory classification and labelling. Ecotoxicity based on particle counts suggested convergence of EC50s, with effects generally observed around 10¹¹ to10¹⁵ particles L⁻¹. The present results highlight the potential high hazard of these particles and the relevance of particle size and exposure metrics on hazard conclusion.

Graphical Abstract

Disinfectants and preservatives used as biocides may contain or release active substances (a.s.) that can form by-products with the surrounding matrices during their application which may be released into the environment. Over the past 40 years, several hundred of these so-called disinfection by-products (DBPs) have been detected after applications of biocides used for disinfection. Due to intensive research and further development of analytical capabilities, many new DBP classes, such as iodinated DBPs (I-DBPs), halonitromethanes (HNMs), haloacetamides (HaAms), or halomethanesulfonic acids were detected worldwide in various matrices and applications. Due to the possible hazards and risks for humans and the environment, frequently occurring DBP classes, such as trihalomethanes (THM), haloacetic acids (HAA) and nitrosamines (NDMA), have already been included in many legislations and given limit values. In the European Union, biocides are assessed under the Biocidal Products Regulation 528/2012 (BPR) regarding their efficacy, potential hazards, and risks to human health and the environment. However, the available guidance for the environmental risk assessment (ERA) of DBPs remains vague. To identify knowledge gaps and to further develop the assessment scheme for the ERA of DBPs, a literature search on the multiple uses of biocides and their formation potential of DBPs was performed and the existing process for ERA was evaluated. The results show knowledge gaps on the formation of DBP in non-aqueous systems and DBP formation by non-halogen-based biocidal active substances. Based on the literature research on biocides, a possible proposal of grouping a.s. to consider their DBP formation potential is presented to simplify future ERAs. However, this also requires further research. Until then, a pragmatic approach considering the DBPs formation potential of the active substances and the identified knowledge gaps need to be established for the environmental risk assessment of DBPs in the EU.

Graphical Abstract

Misinformation has always existed, but it became a major preoccupation during the COVID-19 pandemic due to its ability to affect public health choices, decisions, and policy. In their article, “Misinformation in the media: Global coverage of GMOs 2019–2021” (GM Crops & Food, 17 Nov 2022), Mark Lynas et al. characterise critics of agricultural genetically modified organisms (GMOs) and their associated pesticides as purveyors of “misinformation”. They draw an equivalence between critics of agricultural GMOs and people who make false claims about climate change, COVID-19, and vaccines. We examined their main claims on these GMOs—for example, that there is a scientific consensus that they are safe for health and the environment—in the light of the scientific evidence and public discussion on this topic. We found that their claims are biased and misleading and ignore or omit crucial evidence. We conclude that based on the evidence provided, Lynas et al. article can itself be classed as misinformation and could therefore mislead the general public as well as the scientific community.

Increasing production and use of chemicals and awareness of their impact on ecosystems and humans has led to large interest for broadening the knowledge on the chemical status of the environment and human health by suspect and non-target screening (NTS). To facilitate effective implementation of NTS in scientific, commercial and governmental laboratories, as well as acceptance by managers, regulators and risk assessors, more harmonisation in NTS is required. To address this, NORMAN Association members involved in NTS activities have prepared this guidance document, based on the current state of knowledge. The document is intended to provide guidance on performing high quality NTS studies and data interpretation while increasing awareness of the promise but also pitfalls and challenges associated with these techniques. Guidance is provided for all steps; from sampling and sample preparation to analysis by chromatography (liquid and gas—LC and GC) coupled via various ionisation techniques to high-resolution tandem mass spectrometry (HRMS/MS), through to data evaluation and reporting in the context of NTS. Although most experience within the NORMAN network still involves water analysis of polar compounds using LC–HRMS/MS, other matrices (sediment, soil, biota, dust, air) and instrumentation (GC, ion mobility) are covered, reflecting the rapid development and extension of the field. Due to the ongoing developments, the different questions addressed with NTS and manifold techniques in use, NORMAN members feel that no standard operation process can be provided at this stage. However, appropriate analytical methods, data processing techniques and databases commonly compiled in NTS workflows are introduced, their limitations are discussed and recommendations for different cases are provided. Proper quality assurance, quantification without reference standards and reporting results with clear confidence of identification assignment complete the guidance together with a glossary of definitions. The NORMAN community greatly supports the sharing of experiences and data via open science and hopes that this guideline supports this effort.

We conducted a comprehensive investigation into the protective roles of boron (B) against trichloroacetic acid (TCA)-induced hepatotoxicity by assessing TCA exposure in vivo and exploring the potential mechanisms by which B protects against TCA-induced hepatotoxicity in vitro. For the in vivo study, we evaluated TCA-induced hepatotoxicity in adult male B6C3F1 mice exposed to 25, 50, 125, and 500 mg/kg/day of TCA, respectively, for 21 days. We found that the mice’s liver weight was significantly increased, and that there were changes in hepatic histopathology, particularly in mice treated with the highest dosage (500 mg/kg/day). TCA also increased the hepatic oxidoreductase activity of medium-chain and long-chain acyl-coenzyme A (CoA), which are biomarkers of peroxisome proliferation, in a dose-dependent manner. Subsequently, we established a TCA-induced HepG2 cell model of oxidative damage to estimate the cytotoxicity and determine the positive effects of B administration in vitro. We found that B administration significantly reduced oxidative stress by attenuating the production of TCA-induced reactive oxygen species and malondialdehyde. B also significantly downregulated the concentrations of certain cytokines, including interleukin (IL)-6, IL-8, and transforming growth factor-beta, which are predominantly associated with the p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) signaling pathway. In addition, B significantly upregulated phospho-p38 levels and downregulated Bax and p21 levels in the cytoplasm and downregulated p38 and p21 levels in the nucleus. Taken together, our findings suggest that the protective role of B against TCA-induced hepatotoxicity primarily involves alleviation of oxidative damage and cell apoptosis caused by TCA and might be mediated via the p38 MAPK pathway.

Background

Lifetime (or long-term) exposure to air pollution has been linked to an increased risk of premature death. This association might persist even at low air pollutant concentrations level. The objective was to describe and compare lifetime exposures to PM₁₀, PM_2.5, NO₂, benzene, and benzo(a)pyrene in two differently polluted localities and quantify years of life lost due to all-cause mortality attributable to PM₁₀, PM_2.5, NO₂.

Methods

The study population was selected from two differently polluted localities of the Czech Republic from the period 2000–2017. For determination of lifetime exposures specially developed methodology for historical air pollutants time series concentrations estimation was used. Estimated lifetime exposures, new WHO air quality guideline levels and relative risks were used to quantify years of life lost due to all-cause mortality attributable to air pollutants.

Results

Significant differences in lifetime exposures of air pollutants between study areas were found. Average lifetime exposure to PM₁₀, PM_2.5, NO₂, benzene and B(a)P was 45.6 μg/m³, 34.9 μg/m³, 18.1 μg/m³, 2.1 μg/m³and 2.6 ng/m³, respectively, in high-polluted area, against 24.9 μg/m³, 19.4 μg/m³, 13.3 μg/m³, 0.8 μg/m³, 0.4 ng/m³ in low-polluted area. All-cause mortality and years of life lost due to all-cause mortality (non-external) were higher in high-polluted area. The highest contribution was found for PM_2.5, when the population attributable fraction was at the 23% level for the high polluted area and at the 14% level for the low polluted area. The highest losses of 35,776 years per 100,000 men or 131 days per 1 man were achieved in the high polluted area and in a case of PM_2.5 exposure, namely for men in the age category of 80–84 years. Additionally, the results were expressed per number of deaths. The average value for the number of deaths attributable to PM_2.5 exposure was 4.75 years per1 death man, or 3.51 years per 1 death woman in a high-polluted area.

Conclusions

Expression of years of life lost due to all-cause mortality attributable to air pollution per number of deaths can be more appropriate for communication about health risks or in the field of public health protection.

Information on transformation and persistence of chemical substances in the environment is important for hazard and risk assessment within a regulatory context or as a decision criterion in a safe and sustainable by design framework. Half-lives for human and veterinary medicinal products available from marketing authorization applications were compared between soil (OECD 307) and aquatic water/sediment systems (OECD 308). The comparison shows, that there is no obvious correlation between the total system half-lives in the two different compartments and that surpassing persistence criteria is compartment-specific in 45% of the cases.

Toxicity of single pollutants or microplastics (MPs) on organisms have been widely reported. However, their combined toxicity with boron has not been investigated. This study examined effects of individual polypropylene microplastics (PP-MPs) or mixed PP-MPs and boron on biochemical biomarkers in red tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus). O. niloticus were exposed for 21 days to pristine PP-MPs concentrations (10 or 100 mg/L), concentrations of boron alone (30 or 70 mg/L), and identical concentrations of boron in the presence of PP-MPs in laboratory aquaria. Results showed that higher concentrations of individual PP-MPs lead to significantly decreased acetylcholinesterase (AChE) in the brain and malondialdehyde (MDA) in fish liver. In contrast, superoxide dismutase (SOD), glutathione peroxidase (GPx), and glutathione (GSH) were significantly increased in fish liver exposed to higher concentrations of individual PP-MPs. Mixed concentrations of boron and PP-MPs significantly decreased AChE, GSH, and MDA activity in fish. In contrast, mixed concentrations of boron and PP-MPs significantly increased CAT, SOD, and GPx activity in fish. Findings highlight that PP-MPs may increase adverse effects of boron in O. niloticus. We present evidence that individual MPs in long-term exposure have a significant impact on biomarker responses in O. niloticus.