Despite the abundance of epidemiological evidence concerning the association between pesticide exposure and adverse health outcomes including acute childhood leukemia (AL), evidence remains inconclusive, and is inherently limited by heterogeneous exposure assessment and multiple statistical testing. We performed a literature search of peer-reviewed studies, published until January 2021, without language restrictions. Summary odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) were derived from stratified random-effects meta-analyses by type of exposure and outcome, exposed populations and window of exposure to address the large heterogeneity of existing literature. Heterogeneity and small-study effects were also assessed. We identified 55 eligible studies (n = 48 case-control and n = 7 cohorts) from over 30 countries assessing >200 different exposures of pesticides (n = 160,924 participants). The summary OR for maternal environmental exposure to pesticides (broad term) during pregnancy and AL was 1.88 (95%CI: 1.15–3.08), reaching 2.51 for acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL; 95%CI: 1.39–4.55). Analysis by pesticide subtype yielded an increased risk for maternal herbicide (OR: 1.41, 95%CI: 1.00–1.99) and insecticide (OR: 1.60, 95%CI: 1.11–2.29) exposure during pregnancy and AL without heterogeneity (p = 0.12–0.34). Meta-analyses of infant leukemia were only feasible for maternal exposure to pesticides during pregnancy. Higher magnitude risks were observed for maternal pesticide exposure and infant ALL (OR: 2.18, 95%CI: 1.44–3.29), and the highest for infant acute myeloid leukemia (OR: 3.42, 95%CI: 1.98–5.91). Overall, the associations were stronger for maternal exposure during pregnancy compared to childhood exposure. For occupational or mixed exposures, parental, and specifically paternal, pesticide exposure was significantly associated with increased risk of AL (ORₚₐᵣₑₙₜₐₗ: 1.75, 95%CI: 1.08–2.85; ORₚₐₜₑᵣₙₐₗ: 1.20, 95%CI: 1.07–1.35). The epidemiological evidence, supported by mechanistic studies, suggests that pesticide exposure, mainly during pregnancy, increases the risk of childhood leukemia, particularly among infants. Sufficiently powered studies using repeated biomarker analyses are needed to confirm whether there is public health merit in reducing prenatal pesticide exposure.

The on-road remote sensing test was conducted in Zhengzhou to obtain a large dataset of ammonia emissions from in-use vehicles. The ammonia emission characteristics and high-emitter vehicles of different manufacture years, vehicles with different emission standards, and vehicles with different types of other fuel vehicles were analysed. The results show that the average ammonia emission concentration obtained through remote sensing tests fluctuated after the initial reduction. The ammonia emission factors generally range from 0.30 to 0.47 g/kg, 0.34–0.50 g/kg and 0.29–0.60 g/kg for gasoline vehicles, diesel vehicles and other fuel vehicles respectively. Improving the emission standards of new vehicles has a direct role in reducing exhaust pollution from in-use vehicles. However, after the China III emission standard, the ammonia emission level showed a stable trend and no obvious downward trend. The distributions of ammonia emission rates were highly skewed as the dirtiest 10% of vehicles emitted much higher emissions than other vehicles. In the group with the highest emissions, the emissions from other fuel vehicles were lower than those from gasoline and diesel vehicles. However, the percentage of high-emitters decreased with newer emission standards for vehicles. The results indicate that remote sensing test technology will be very effective in screening vehicles with high ammonia emissions. However, some clean vehicles can be exempted from annual inspection through remote sensing test technology. Finally, based on the comprehensive analysis of big data from remote sensing, the ammonia emissions of diesel vehicles and other fuel vehicles cannot be ignored.

Lakes and lake sediments are significant components of the global carbon (C) cycle, and may store very large amounts of organic matter. Carbon sequestration in lakes is subject to substantial temporal and spatial variation and may be strongly affected by human activities. Here, we report accumulation rates (AR) of organic C (OC), total nitrogen (TN) and total phosphorous (TP), and investigate their responses to anthropogenic impact over the past 150 years by analyzing 62 sediment cores from 11 shallow lakes in the Songnen Plain, northeast China. From the center of each of the lakes, we selected one master core for age determination by ²¹⁰Pb and ¹³⁷Cs radioisotopes. The contents of OC, TN, TP, dry bulk density and mass specific magnetic susceptibility were then determined for all cores. The regional OCAR, TNAR and TPAR up-scaling from the multiple cores yielded mean values of 51.63 ± 15.13, 2.50 ± 0.98, and 0.90 ± 0.21 g m⁻² yr⁻¹, respectively. Nutrient AR in the studied lakes increased by a factor of approximately 2 × from the middle 19th century to the 1950s, and approximately 5 × after the 1950s. Elemental ratios show that the increase in OCAR is mainly the result of C autogenesis from the growth of aquatic plants stimulated by agricultural intensification, including increased chemical fertilizer application and farmland expansion. Significantly enhanced nutrient burial by these lakes after the 1950s resulted from increased anthropogenic impacts in northeast China. More sustainable agricultural practises, including a decrease in P fertilizer use, would result in a lowering of OCAR, TNAR and TPAR in the future.

Although groundwater nitrogen pollution has been widely studied, the control of hydrogeological conditions on behavior of nitrogen compounds has been poorly understood. In this study, multiple stable isotopes (N/C/H/O), spectral characteristics of DOM coupled with water chemistry were used to reveal the sources and fate of nitrate and ammonium in three subareas with different hydrogeological conditions in the Central Yangtze River Basin. We identified three contrasting patterns of nitrogen sources and fate in groundwater controlled by different aquifer features. In a reducing porous aquifer mainly composed of carbonate minerals overlain by a thick low-permeability layer, the NH₄–N concentration is high (mean 4.12 mg/L) but with quite low NO₃–N concentration (mean 0.28 mg/L). The high ammonium is mainly from intense degradation of organic matter (OM), while denitrification at a higher rate results in nitrate removal. Feammox may be favored owing to abundant humics acting as the electron shuttle. In a weakly reducing to oxidizing porous aquifer mainly composed of aluminosilicate minerals overlain by a varying thickness of low-permeability layer, high ammonium occurs in a weakly reducing condition and is affected by both anthropogenic input and OM degradation, while high nitrate occurs in a more oxidizing condition and could be mainly from soil nitrogen, manure or sewage. Feammox may be also favored due to more acidic environment formed by weathering of aluminosilicate minerals, fluctuating redox condition and low abundance of labile organic carbon, while denitrification occurs at a slower rate coupled with concurrent re-oxidation of nitrite to nitrate. In an oxidizing porous - fissured aquifer system overlain by a thin low-permeability layer, the concentrations of ammonium and nitrate are both low, possibly due to strong hydrodynamic and flushing condition, although slightly higher concentration of nitrate exhibit similar sources and fate with the weakly reducing to oxidizing porous aquifer mentioned above.

Because of environmental and societal concerns, new strategies are being developed to mitigate the effects of road salt. These include new deicers that are alternatives to or mixtures with the most common road salt, sodium chloride (NaCl), improved techniques and equipment, and biotic mitigation methods. Using outdoor mesocosms, we investigated the impacts of NaCl and two common alternatives, magnesium chloride (MgCl₂) and calcium chloride (CaCl₂) on freshwater communities. We also investigated the mitigation ability of a common macrophyte, Elodea. We hypothesized that road salt exposure reduces filamentous algae, zooplankton, and macrocrustaceans, but results in increases in phytoplankton and gastropods. We also hypothesized that MgCl₂ is the most toxic salt to communities, followed by CaCl₂, and then NaCl. Lastly, we hypothesized that macrophytes mitigate some of the effects of road salt, specifically the effects on primary producers. We found that all three salts reduced filamentous algal biomass and amphipod abundance, but only MgCl₂ reduced Elodea biomass. MgCl₂ had the largest and longest lasting effects on zooplankton, specifically cladocerans and copepods, which resulted in a significant increase in phytoplankton and rotifers. CaCl₂ increased ostracods and decreased snail abundance, but NaCl increased snail abundance. Lastly, while we did not find many interactions between road salt and macrophyte treatments, macrophytes did counteract many of the salt effects on producers, leading to decreased phytoplankton, increased filamentous algae, and altered abiotic responses. Thus, at similar chloride concentrations, NaCl alternatives, specifically MgCl₂, are not safer for aquatic ecosystems and more research is needed to find safer road management strategies to protect freshwater ecosystems.

This study provided a monitoring of phenolic compounds occurrence in a river and in its treated water by a conventional water treatment plant (WTP) throughout a year-period, in Minas Gerais - Brazil. Furthermore, the environmental risk (hazard quotient - HQ), the human health risk (margin of exposure - MOE), and the cancer risk were calculated for the compounds. The results indicated that sixteen out of the seventeen investigated phenolic compounds were detected at some point during the sampling campaign. The most frequent compounds in the raw surface water were 2,3,4–trichlorophenol (234TCP), 2,4–dimethylphenol (24DMP), and 4–nitrophenol (4NP), whereas in treated water were 4NP and bisphenol A (BPA). In addition, the highest total concentration values were corelated to the months in which there was less precipitation, demonstrating that the presence of this micropollutants may be subject to seasonality. From the treated water results, it was not possible to state the efficiency of the conventional WTP in eliminating the phenols, since in some samples the phenolic compounds were totally removed and in others their increase or formation occurred. Regarding to the risk assessments, most of the evaluated compounds were considered highly toxic to some trophic level and posed a significant human health risk. Additionally, the risk reduction of phenolics using conventional WTP was low.The sixteen phenols contamination in surface and drinking waters appears to be subject to seasonality. Besides that, an alarming risk for environment and human health was identified.

Antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) are emerging contaminants that pose a potential risk to human health worldwide. In this study, a metagenomic analysis was performed to investigate the distribution of ARGs in paddy field ecosystems, crayfish monoculture pond ecosystems, and rice-crayfish cultivation field ecosystems. The results showed that MacB and BcrA are two dominant ARGs, and macrolide is the dominant antibiotic not only in the water, but also in the sediment and gut of crayfish, in both the crayfish monoculture and the rice-crayfish cultivation ecosystems. Meanwhile, some lower-abundance ARGs in the water and sediment of crayfish cultivation ecosystems were significantly different in their abundance than those in rice paddy fields, and the ARGs in crayfish culture system and rice paddy fields showed even higher dissimilarities of diversity. Comprehensive analysis with redundancy analysis（RDA）and the distribution of dominant ARGs showed that the dissimilarity was related to the higher concentrations of total nitrogen (TN), total phosphorus (TP), chlorophyll a (Chla), permanganate index (CODMₙ₎, and nitrate in the water of rice paddy fields, and was related to the higher contents of N, P, K, and organic matter (OM) in the sediment of rice paddy fields. The source trackers of ARGs within the crayfish cultivation ponds and the rice-crayfish cultivation fields showed that the sediment in crayfish cultivation ponds mainly played the role of the ‘sink’ for ARGs, and the water and gut of crayfish mutually contributed to the high rates of ARGs. The ARG contribution rates of crayfish gut and sediment decreased and increased, respectively, in rice-crayfish cultivation fields and in crayfish monoculture ponds, which might be related to the lower crayfish biomass and the lower water depth in rice-crayfish cultivation fields.

Wastewater reclamation and reuse for agriculture have attracted a great deal of interest, due to water stress caused by rapid increase in human population and agricultural water demand as well as climate change. However, the application of treated wastewater for irrigation can lead to the accumulation of pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs) in the agricultural crops, grazing animals, and consequently to human dietary exposure. In this study, a model was developed to simulate the fate of five PPCPs; triclosan (TCS), carbamazepine (CBZ), naproxen (NPX), gemfibrozil (GFB), and fluoxetine (FXT) during wastewater reuse for agriculture, and potential human dietary exposure and health risk. In a reclaimed wastewater-irrigated grazing farm growing alfalfa, it took 100–535 days for PPCPs to achieve the steady-state concentrations of 1.43 × 10⁻⁶, 4.73 × 10⁻⁵, 1.17 × 10⁻⁶, 1.53 × 10⁻⁵, and 7.38 × 10⁻⁶ mg/kg for TCS, CBZ, NPX, GFB, and FXT in soils, respectively. The accumulated concentration of PPCPs in the plant (alfalfa) and grazing animals (beef) ranged 2.86 × 10⁻⁷− 4.02 × 10⁻³ and 4.39 × 10⁻¹⁵− 6.27 × 10⁻⁷ mg/kg, respectively. Human dietary exposure to these compounds through beef consumption was calculated to be 1.67 × 10⁻¹⁸− 1.74 × 10⁻¹⁰ mg/kg bodyweight/d, much lower than the acceptable daily intake (ADI). Similar results were obtained for a ‘typical’ reclaimed wastewater irrigated farm based on the typical setup using our model. Screening analysis showed that PPCPs with relatively high LogD value and lower ratios of degradation rate (in soils) to plant uptake have a greater potential to be transferred to humans and cause potential health risks. We established a modeling method for evaluating the fate and human health effects of PPCPs in reclaimed wastewater reuse for the agricultural system and developed an index for screening PPCPs with high potential to accumulate in agricultural products. The model and findings are valuable for managing water reuse for irrigation and mitigating the harmful effects of PPCPs.

Epidemiological research on the adverse health outcomes due to PM₂.₅ exposure frequently relies on measurements from regulatory air quality monitors to provide ambient exposure estimates, whereas personal PM₂.₅ exposure may deviate from ambient concentrations due to outdoor infiltration and contributions from indoor sources. Research in quantifying infiltration factors (Fᵢₙf), the fraction of outdoor PM₂.₅ that infiltrates indoors, has been historically limited in space and time due to the high costs of monitor deployment and maintenance. Recently, the growth of openly accessible, citizen-based PM₂.₅ measurements provides an unprecedented opportunity to characterize Fᵢₙf at large spatiotemporal scales. In this analysis, 91 consumer-grade PurpleAir indoor/outdoor monitor pairs were identified in California (41 residential houses and 50 public/commercial buildings) during a 20-month period with around 650000 h of paired PM₂.₅ measurements. An empirical method was developed based on local polynomial regression to estimate site-specific Fᵢₙf. The estimated site-specific Fᵢₙf had a mean of 0.26 (25ᵗʰ, 75ᵗʰ percentiles: [0.15, 0.34]) with a mean bootstrap standard deviation of 0.04. The Fᵢₙf estimates were toward the lower end of those reported previously. A threshold of ambient PM₂.₅ concentration, approximately 30 μg/m³, below which indoor sources contributed substantially to personal exposures, was also identified. The quantified relationship between indoor source contributions and ambient PM₂.₅ concentrations could serve as a metric of exposure errors when using outdoor monitors as an exposure proxy (without considering indoor-generated PM₂.₅), which may be of interest to epidemiological research. The proposed method can be generalized to larger geographical areas to better quantify PM₂.₅ outdoor infiltration and personal exposure.

Polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), such as pyrene, benzo[a]pyrene, phenanthrene, and anthracene induce toxic, carcinogenic, and mutagenic effects on living organisms and are considered as primary pollutants. Traditional methods for their identification are often laborious and time-consuming and do not account for the heterogeneous nature of their distribution. Here we present confocal microscopy as a rapid and accurate technique for direct analysis of PAHs in soil samples without the complexity of sample pre-processing which might delay results for several days. The method uses the intrinsic fluorescence of PAHs for detection and their emission spectra for the identification of different PAHs. A clear difference was observed in the fluorescence spectral properties of phenanthrene, pyrene and naphthalene in real-time environmental samples. The post-processing of confocal scans obtained in the detection stage of PAHs was completed through the application of ImageJ software. Intrinsic fluorescence-based detections of PAHs may open new avenues in terms of rapid detection and identification of PAHs in heterogeneous complex soil samples.