Data (N = 11251) from National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) for 2003–2016 for US adults aged ≥20 years were stratified by gender and anemia and analyzed to evaluate the associations between the concentrations of whole blood hemoglobin (WBHGB) and selected perfluoroalkyl acids (PFAAs) in serum by stages of glomerular filtration (GF). Investigated PFAAs were perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), perfluorooctane sulfonic acid (PFOS), perfluorodecanoic acid (PFDA), perfluorohexane sulfonic acid (PFHxS), and perfluorononanoic acid (PFNA). Females with whole blood hemoglobin concentrations <12 g/dL and males with whole blood hemoglobin concentrations <13 g/dL were classified as being anemic. Regression models with log10 transformed concentrations of whole blood hemoglobin as dependent variable and age, poverty income ratio, body mass index, serum cotinine, daily alcohol intake, survey year, and log10 concentrations of one of the PFAA as independent variables were fitted. For anemic females, association between WBHGB and PFAA concentrations were uniformly positive across worsening stages of renal failure and percent increases for 10% increases in PFAAs varied between 0.03% and 0.39%. For anemic males, association between WBHGB and PFAA concentrations were positive except at GF-3A (45 ≤ eGFR<60 mL/min/1.73 m²) and percent increases for 10% increases in PFAAs varied between 0.02% and 0.53%. Thus, more often than not, presence of positive associations between WBHGB and PFAA among anemics imply elevated levels of PFAA are associated with higher levels of WBHGB. Similar results were observed for non-anemic males and females, however strengths of associations between whole blood hemoglobin and PFAAs were several fold higher among anemic compared to non-anemic participants. Hemoglobin is consistently associated with serum PFAAs.

Association between long-term exposure to ambient air pollution and obesity remains inconclusive, and the evidence from rural areas was limited. Thus, this study aimed to assess the association between ambient air pollution and obesity based on different anthropometric indices in Chinese rural adults, and further to compare the effect sizes of different air pollution types. A total of 38,824 participants (aged 18–79 years) were recruited from the Henan Rural Cohort Study. Logistic and multivariable linear regression model were used to examine the association between ambient air pollution exposure (including particulate matter with aerodynamic diameters ≤ 1.0 μm (PM₁), ≤2.5 μm (PM₂.₅), and ≤10 μm (PM₁₀), and nitrogen dioxide (NO₂)) and obesity as well as obese anthropometric indices (including body mass index (BMI), waist circumference (WC), waist-to-hip ratio (WHR), waist-to-height ratio (WHtR), body fat percentage (BFP), and visceral fat index (VFI)). The potential effect modifications were also examined. Positive associations were found between long-term exposure to PM₁, PM₂.₅, PM₁₀ and NO₂ and obesity regardless of how obesity was defined (false discovery rate (FDR) < 0.05). Moreover, BMI, WC, WHR, WHtR, BFP, and VFI displayed increased trends with PM₁, PM₂.₅, PM₁₀ and NO₂ concentrations increasing (all FDR<0.05). PM₁₀ had the largest effects on obesity among the four types of air pollution. The elderly, women, individuals with low level of education and income, and those who had high fat diet were more vulnerable to the adverse effects of air pollution. In addition, the results of the sensitivity analysis showed that those associations between ambient air pollution and obesity remained robust. These findings suggest that long-term exposure to ambient air pollutant (particularly PM₁₀) may be positively associated with obesity in Chinese rural adults, especially among the elderly, women, individuals with low education and income, as well as unhealthy lifestyles.

Based on the panel data of 63 counties of Zhejiang Province from 2003 to 2017, this paper studied the total-factor substitution efficiency of chemical fertilizer input and its spatial-temporal evolution by using the Super-efficiency DEA(Data Envelopment Analysis) model, locational Gini coefficient and Theil index. And the driving factors of the total-factor substitution efficiency of chemical fertilizer input were analyzed by constructing the Panel Tobit model. The results showed that: the comprehensive efficiency of total-factor substitution for chemical fertilizer input in Zhejiang Province is low, and technical efficiency is the main drive for promoting comprehensive efficiency; Gini coefficient is below the warning line of 0.4, and the difference of substitution efficiency, relatively small, mainly comes from the contribution within the region, and the difference ratio of contribution by the Southwestern Zhejiang is rapidly increasing. In detail, financial investment in agriculture serve as the greatest the driving force, and government chemical fertilizer input subsidies have a significantly negative effect. Therefore, we should improve the subsidy policy system, increase government investment in agricultural infrastructure, adjust the structure of agroindustry and improve the income of rural residents under the premise of reducing the fertilizer input intensity.

The Pacific Island Countries and Territories (PICTs) are heavily dependent on the marine resources for food security, employment, government revenue and economic development, hence the concern about the potential exposure of these resources to pollutants. The main goal of this review was to identify ecotoxicology studies published that were done in PICTs. Four major gaps were identified: i) a quantitative gap, with low number of studies published on the PICTs; ii) a geographic gap, where ecotoxicology studies have unevenly covered the different PICTs; iii) a temporal gap, as no biological effect monitoring study has so far been published for the PICTs; and, iv) a pollutants gap, as all of the PICTs studies focused mainly on environmental monitoring studying on average two types of pollutants (heavy metals and pesticides) per PICT only. We suggest, therefore, the potential risk to the marine environment to be estimated by assessing the fate of pollutants via chemical and biological effect monitoring.

In the Pacific region, community engagement, participation and empowerment are key to effective and sustainable marine resource management at the local level. With the prevalence of a local marine tenure systems and the widespread decline of coastal resources, communities need to be part of the solution to facilitate recovery. A novel marine monitoring toolkit was developed in Vanuatu with the participation of community resource monitors to inform local management actions. The Toolkit includes simplified versions of established monitoring methods for marine habitats and resources to achieve a balance between robust science and methods appropriate for communities. Key to its success is that it was developed in response to community needs using a participatory approach and implemented through a series of training workshops with local environmental leaders. Of particular note, the Toolkit includes a standardised process for communities to use monitoring results instantly, without the need for complex data analyses or external support. Using the Toolkit, communities are able to adapt their traditional management to address immediate and medium-term issues in their local marine environment. The observed benefits of the Toolkit include increased local awareness through community-led environmental outreach, increased ownership of and motivation for local monitoring and management, implementation of local management actions, expansion of traditional marine managed areas, and new local ecotourism initiatives to generate revenue to support environmental stewardship.

This article investigates the effects of real income, trade openness, and energy consumption on the ecological footprint using a panel data of 13 Asian countries over the 1973–2014 period. The empirical findings suggest that the panel variance-ratio test confirms the existence of a long-run equilibrium relationship among ecological footprint real income, trade openness, and energy consumption. Results from panel pooled mean group estimates confirm that the long-run elasticity of real income, trade openness, and energy consumption is 0.16, −0.07, and 0.51, respectively. The real income and energy consumption have a positive impact on the ecological footprint. There are three bidirectional causal relationships that were found between ecological footprint and real income; between energy consumption and ecological footprint; and between trade openness and ecological footprint. In addition, three unidirectional causalities can be found: a unidirectional causality running from real income to trade openness; from real income to energy consumption; and from trade openness to energy consumption. Those causal relationships show that economic indicators are highly related to ecological footprint. The findings recommend that various governments should fund more in renewable energy and efficiency upgrade and continue sustaining their growth without hurting the environment.

China has maintained great economic growth in the past and reached the status of a middle-income country. Meanwhile, the relationships among environmental pollution, environmental regulation, and economic growth have attracted wide attention. In addition, some studies have shown that economic growth is not balanced in the division of income between labor and capital, and this has become one of the most important issues in China. The conflict over the environment and income distribution is supposed to cause social welfare loss; therefore, we want to examine the impact of environmental pollution and environmental governance on labor income share. Our empirical results show that the relationship between environmental pollution and share of labor income is positive at the present stage. However, the relationship is not linear but rather an inverted-U shape in the long run. In addition, we tested the effects of environmental regulation on labor income share and found an inverted-U-shaped relationship. Although growing concern about environmental pollution adds to the pressure on the government, our statistical results suggest that there is no perfect way to resolve environmental problems. Additionally, labor unions are expected to play a different role in income distribution.

The role of capital abundance and income in the trade openness and environmental quality debate has long been a concern among academic researchers. The researchers of this paper empirically analyze the effects of trade and other core factors on emissions of four pollutants (SO₂, SM, VOC, and NHX), using panel data from 31 provinces in China from 2000 to 2015. Then the scale, composition, technique, and trade elasticities are calculated, based on lower and higher levels of capital abundance and relative income. Furthermore, the researchers calculate the province-specific trade elasticities and analyze the relationship between the province-specific trade elasticities and capital abundance and relative income, respectively. They find a negative effect of trade openness on pollutant emissions in China. The analysis of the elasticities in terms of China’s pollutant emissions shows that the scale and composition elasticities are positive, while technique and trade elasticities are negative. Moreover, provinces with lower capital abundance tend to have more negative trade elasticities, while provinces with higher relative income tend to have more negative trade elasticities. The result implies that both pollution haven effect and factor abundance effect may be at work in Chinese provinces, but the dominance of one effect over the other depends on a province’s level of capital abundance and income.

Carbon intensity refers to the carbon emission of per unit output generated by a country or a region. It shows the economic system’s close connection with carbon emission and its direct or indirect influence on environment. The carbon intensity curves of many countries visually show significant features of convergence. In order to strictly testify this phenomenon, this thesis chronologically defines convergence of carbon intensity and testifies it with endogenous growth model as theoretical basis. To realize the empirical test on convergence of carbon intensity, the author selects 24 countries as test samples and divides them into 3 groups, on which σ convergence test and cointegration test are conducted. Test result shows that convergence of carbon intensity exists in countries with high or medium high income, while countries with medium or low income shows insignificant convergence tendency in carbon intensity. Besides, σ convergence test demonstrates the time and degree ranking of convergence of carbon intensity of the 3 groups, which provides a concrete referential standard for countries to analyze and control changes in carbon intensity.

Globalization is the paradigm shift to a more integrated world economy broadly shaping economies and societies around the globe. The wave of globalization is much more eminent on its impact on increased energy demand, knowledge and technology transfer, trade, and financial capital flows. The present study focuses on Turkey, a fast-emerging economy that is no exception to the wave of globalization. This current study explores the dynamics between ecological footprints, energy consumption, and real income level for the case of Turkey in a carbon-income function while accounting for other covariate like globalization to avoid omitted variable bias. The study data spans from 1970 to 2017 on an annual frequency basis. The stationarity properties of the outlined variables were investigated. Subsequently, the equilibrium relationship between the variables is confirmed by the battery of recent robust estimation techniques. While to detect the causality of direction among the variables, the Modified Wald test causality test is utilized. This study reveals that an increase in energy consumption in Turkey reduces environmental pollution by a magnitude of 0.37% in the short run and 0.43% long run, while an increase in economic expansion dampens the quality of the environment 0.42% and 0.72% on both short and long-run basis. This is indicative given that Turkey is more energy conscious and energy efficient, while a positive statistically significant relationship is observed between real income level and ecological footprint and globalization index. The causality analysis also supports the growth-induced energy consumption hypothesis. The study further offers policy direction for the energy sector in Turkey in the face of global interconnectedness.