Journal of hazardous materials letters最新文献

The widespread and injudicious usage of antibiotics to contain pathogenic microbial infections, coupled with inadequate treatment of wastes containing non-metabolized antibiotics and their residues is resulting in rising environmental antibiotic concentrations, leading to ‘antibiotic pollution’. Antibiotic pollution is an emerging global challenge as it is proving a major driver for antibiotic- or antimicrobial-resistance (ABR/ AMR) with escalating ramifications worldwide, precipitating a surge in human morbidity. The extensive administration of antibiotics across domains such as human healthcare settings, agriculture, and aquaculture farming endangers the presence of antibiotics in diverse matrices including water, soil, and air. As a result, this dissemination significantly leads to the development of antibiotic resistance in the profuse sectors of the environment further provoking consequential health implications at different trophic levels. Owing to its significance, and to mitigate antibiotic pollution and its subsequential AMR, governmental guidelines and regulations are implemented across the globe to cultivate public awareness as concerted efforts for addressing this global predicament. Given the insufficient attention to the growing antibiotic pollution issues, prompt efforts must be taken to contemplate current circumstances and the rigor of the ongoing research. In this review, we endeavor to elucidate the escalation of antibiotic concentration and antibiotic-driven AMR in water, air, and soil environments with potential public health threats. Further, it focuses on various strategies and interventions to attenuate antibiotic pollution and mitigate its adverse impacts on the healthcare infrastructure, highlighting the success stories, challenges, and future directions.

Sugars and sugar-rich agricultural by-products are cheaper and eco-friendly alternatives to conventional reductants used in recovering metals from spent lithium-ion batteries. Still, they are rarely used due to a poor understanding of their performance and reaction chemistry. In this study, two hypotheses bearing on the role of chemistry and influence of non-sugary organic compounds (impurities) on the performance of sugars, namely: glucose, fructose and sucrose, and a parent sugar-rich agro-industrial by-product – molasses, as reductants in the leaching of Li, Co, Mn and Ni from spent lithium-ion battery cathode material were tested. Statistical analysis using ANOVA revealed that the performance of the sugars and molasses are similar with >85% Mn, >88% Ni, >88%Co and >98% Li leached at 90 °C and 60 min. This shows that the presence of non-sugar organic compounds does not hamper the performance of the sugars-based reductants. The performance of the sugars relies more on temperature than chemistry. Furthermore, evaluation of the oxidation pathway hints at a potential inhibition of secondary oxidation reactions at lower temperatures. This study provides statistically validated proof that the performance of sugarcane molasses, even at lower concentration, is equipollent to the pure sugars in the leaching of critical metals from spent lithium-ion batteries.

The development of adsorbents capable of adsorbing both anionic and cationic dyes in wastewater treatment remains a challenge. This study presents the successful fabrication of Nb₂O₅-MgAl layered double hydroxide (LDH) nanocomposites for the effective removal of methylene blue (MB) and Congo red (CR) dyes via a one-step hydrothermal method. Incorporating a small amount of Nb into MgAl-LDH proved to be an effective strategy for creating nanocomposite materials with dual characteristics. The material’s morphological and crystalline structures were confirmed using FESEM-EDS and XRD. Incorporating Nb during the material preparation led to a remarkable enhancement in the material’s adsorption capacity - up to 3.4-fold and 9.0-fold increases for CR and MB, respectively. The kinetic and point zero charge analysis confirmed that the adsorption of the dyes onto the adsorbent surfaces occurred via an ionic interaction mechanism. These findings offer a promising alternative for fabricating dual-functional adsorbents, enhancing the effectiveness of dye removal in wastewater treatment technologies.

To assess the performance of hazardous waste sites remediation technologies like in situ chemical oxidation (ISCO) with persulfate (S₂O₈²⁻) researchers must periodically measure concentrations of target contaminants. Due to the presence of relatively high concentrations of the residual oxidant expected in many samples, the standard analytical method requires the addition of a relatively high concentration of ascorbic acid to prevent the oxidation process from continuing after sample collection. We discovered that addition of ascorbic acid quencher results in a radical chain reaction that transforms two common halogenated solvents (i.e., tetrachloroethene and hexachloroethane). To avoid the artifact associated with the radical chain reaction, a small quantity of n-hexane can be added to aqueous samples to extract target compounds and protect them from the radical chain reaction initiated by addition of the quencher. We recommend the use of this alternative sample preservation method whenever high concentrations of residual S₂O₈²⁻ are expected to be present in water samples that are contaminated with halogenated solvents.

With growing desire to destroy per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) now known to be detrimental to human health, a sound understanding of fluorocarbon combustion chemistry is important to efficient thermal destruction within incinerators. While most fluorocarbon combustion models and the sets of reactions contained within them were originally developed for the high temperatures encountered in flame suppression applications, they have often been used to assess PFAS destruction in incinerators, which emphasize a lower range of temperatures. We present results that demonstrate that low-temperature fluorocarbon oxidation pathways—not yet known to play a role in fluorocarbon combustion—impact key incinerator performance metrics, including: PFAS surrogate mole fractions, products of incomplete destruction, and waste destruction efficiencies. The results further point to the utility of NO as a potential additive. The present results show the influence of these pathways for CF₃O₂, for which some data are available, but analogous pathways would also occur for other fluoroalkylperoxy radicals, for which little is known. The results demonstrate the need for future work to identify and characterize low-temperature pathways more generally, consider such pathways in kinetic model development, and experimentally probe intermediate temperature conditions to better understand, design, and control thermal destruction technologies for improved PFAS management.

Plastic waste accumulation is a significant environmental concern as it promotes microbial growth and acts as a carrier for heavy metals. This study focuses on a Bacillus sp. strain isolated from the surface of a used plastic bottle, tolerant to various potential toxic elements (PTEs) such as chromium, nickel, cobalt, copper, zinc, arsenite [As(III)], but sensitive to uranium (U) and arsenate [As(V)] toxicity. The strain demonstrates growth under different abiotic stress conditions, with the optimal pH range of 5.0–8.0 and a temperature of 30 °C. It shows remarkable removal capabilities, removing > 23.3% of U, > 38% of As(III)), and > 22.6% of As(V) from an initial dose of 100 mg L⁻¹ in an aqueous solution. The biosorption capacity for U, As(III), and As(V) is 3.12, 3.1, and 1.8 mg g⁻¹ of biomass, respectively. Kinetic modelling suggests that the biosorption of U and As(V) follows a pseudo-second-order mechanism, while As(III) biosorption follows a pseudo-first-order mechanism. Moreover, the strain has the ability to precipitate > 38.1% and ∼67% of U using bacterially released phosphate from inorganic and organic sources, respectively. These findings highlight the strain's potential for bioremediation of PTE-contaminated environments, providing valuable insights for optimizing metal removal and immobilization processes in future research.

Heavy metal pollution is consistently a critical issue in many parts of the world, affecting living systems remarkably. Many microorganisms possess such toxic metals utilizing capacities that can be explored for remediation. The present study demonstrates a comparative analysis of Mercury (Hg), Lead (Pb), Cobalt (Co), Zinc (Zn), and Magnesium (Mg) resistance genes in genomes of 11 different Georgenia sps. and confirmation of this gene pool in Georgenia sp. SUBG003 by growth on HgCl_2, CdCl_2, CoCl_2, and ZnCl₂ with varying concentrations and periods of up to 144hrs in a liquid medium and on a solid medium. Over a period HgCl₂ initial concentrations 0.01 mM, 0.03 mM, and 0.05 mM showed controlled growth, at interim concentrations of 0.07 mM, 0.09 mM were found to be an interim effect while 0.11 mM, 0.13 mM and 0.15 mM higher concentrations showed increased growth. While CdCl_2, CoCl_2, and ZnCl₂ showed growth inhibition upon increasing concentration from 0.01 mM to 0.5 mM. The concentrations tested are in a higher range than the polluted sources observed and the probable role in remediation is discussed.

Organochlorine pesticides have been widely used in agriculture to control agricultural pests. Although effective in controlling pests, organochlorine pesticides present numerous hazards to ecosystems and human health due to their persistence in the environment, bioaccumulation, and toxicity. Scientific studies have shown that organochlorines may be associated with endocrine and neurological problems. Several strategies have been developed to apply treatment techniques to remove pesticides from various ecosystems, both aquatic and terrestrial. Physicochemical and biological methods have revealed other potentialities for remediation of aqueous environments contaminated with organochlorine pesticides. In addition, combined processes using different approaches have been highlighted as efficient alternatives to mitigate the impacts of agrochemicals on the environment, e.g., physical technique followed by a biological process. However, there are still numerous gaps that need to be explored and elucidated. Therefore, this review addressed the impacts of organochlorine pesticides on ecosystems and some treatment techniques used to remove agrochemicals from water. Furthermore, new findings, technological perspectives, and opportunities on this subject were presented and discussed.

Since 2007, the market for e-cigarettes has resulted in increasing demand for newer technologies and flavorings contributing to the complexity of these products. As a result, methodologies for e-cigarette aerosol capturing and testing have become a necessity in understanding the toxicities surrounding e-cigarette products. This study tests an alternative aerosol capture method followed by toxicity testing of the sample collected on a lung in vitro model.

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) have been used in paper products since the 1960s. PFAS emissions during the life cycle of these products have been substantial sources of these substances to the environment. Here, a total of 37 PFAS were analysed in 13 paper products sampled in 2021, for which some were made of virgin paper and others recycled paper, including food contact materials (FCM), packaging, and a notebook. In addition, different fractions of the recycling process of corrugated paper and board were sampled at a Norwegian cardboard recycling plant and analysed for the same PFAS, to get an overview of PFAS in the recycling stream of these materials in Norway. PFAS were found in recycled paper and board, indicating PFAS can be a non-intentionally added substance (NIAS) in recycled paper products. Sum of targeted PFAS detected in paper products (including products made of virgin and recycled materials) ranged between 0.4 and 971 µg kg⁻¹, dominated by SAmPAP diester and 6:2 FTS (0–62% and 0–98%, respectively). The sum of targeted PFAS in returned corrugated paper and board in Norway is at least 32 kg per year (6 mg per capita per year). Recycling is important to ensure sustainability. As part of the broad PFAS restriction in Europe, PFAS are to be restricted in paper and board materials. Thus, lower levels of PFAS entering the recycling stream are expected in the future. Monitoring is necessary to assess reductions of PFAS in the paper waste stream due to PFAS regulations in Europe.