The aim of the study was to estimate the influence of the 2,4-dichlorophenoxy acetic acid and 2-methyl-4-chlorophenoxyacetic acid on the uptake and translocation of Cd, Co, Ni, Cu, Zn, Pb and Mn by wheat (Triticum aestivum L.). Two farmland soils typical for the central Polish rural environment were used. Studies involved soil analyses, contents of bioavailable, exchangeable and total forms for all investigated metals. Atomic absorption spectrometry was used to determine the concentration of the elements. The best correlation between the herbicide rate and the metal concentration was visibly for the underground part of plants. Analysis of variance proved that herbicide treatment of wheat frequently influences the metal transfer from soil and their concentration in roots and shoots. In particular, higher herbicide rates prompted the significant increase of all metals concentration in roots. Additionally, transfer coefficients depended on the type of soil and the herbicide rate applied. Uptake of metals may be also influenced by the formation of sparingly water-soluble metal-herbicide complexes. Its intensity would then depend on the solubility of particular chemical entity with the low solvable Pb, Cu and Cd complexes being the least mobile.

This study evaluates the in-situ use of field portable X-ray Fluorescence (pXRF) for metal-contaminated site assessments, and assesses the advantages of increased sampling to reduce risk, and increase confidence of decision making at a lower cost. Five metal-contaminated sites were assessed using both in-situ pXRF and ex-situ inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP–MS) analyses at various sampling resolutions. Twenty second in-situ pXRF measurements of Mn, Zn and Pb were corrected using a subset of parallel ICP–MS measurements taken at each site. Field and analytical duplicates revealed sampling as the major contributor (>95% variation) to measurement uncertainties. This study shows that increased sampling led to several benefits including more representative site characterisation, higher soil-metal mapping resolution, reduced uncertainty around the site mean, and reduced sampling uncertainty. Real time pXRF data enabled efficient, on-site decision making for further judgemental sampling, without the need to return to the site. Additionally, in-situ pXRF was more cost effective than the current approach of ex-situ sampling and ICP–MS analysis, even with higher sampling at each site. Lastly, a probabilistic site assessment approach was applied to demonstrate the advantages of integrating estimated measurement uncertainties into site reporting.

We assessed the bioavailability of Ag from Ag nanoparticles (NPs), stabilized with polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP), to terrestrial isopods which were exposed to 10, 100 and 1000 μg Ag NPs/g of dry food. Different Ag species were determined in the NP suspension that was fed to isopods: (i) total Ag by atomic absorption spectroscopy, (ii) the sum of Ag-PVP complexes and free Ag+ by anodic stripping voltammetry at the bismuth-film electrode, and (iii) free Ag+ by ion-selective potentiometry. The amounts of Ag species in the consumed food were compared to the masses of Ag accumulated in the isopod digestive glands. Our results show that all three Ag species (Ag NPs, Ag-PVP complexes and free Ag+) could be the source of bioaccumulated Ag, but to various degrees depending on the exposure concentration and transformations in the digestive system. We provide a proof that (i) Ag NPs dissolve and Ag-PVP complexes dissociate in the isopod digestive tract; (ii) the concentration of free Ag+ in the suspension offered to the test organisms is not the only measure of bioavailable Ag. The type of NP stabilizer along with the NP transformations in the digestive system needs to be considered in the creation of new computational models of the nanomaterial fate.

Both occupational and environmental exposure to asbestos-mineral fibres can be associated with lung diseases. The pathogenic effects are related to the dimension, biopersistence and chemical composition of the fibres. In addition to the major mineral elements, mineral fibres contain trace elements and their content may play a role in fibre toxicity. To shed light on the role of trace elements in asbestos carcinogenesis, knowledge on their concentration in asbestos-mineral fibres is mandatory. It is possible that trace elements play a synergetic factor in the pathogenesis of diseases caused by the inhalation of mineral fibres. In this paper, the concentration levels of trace elements from three chrysotile samples, four amphibole asbestos samples (UICC amosite, UICC anthophyllite, UICC crocidolite and tremolite) and fibrous erionite from Jersey, Nevada (USA) were determined using inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). For all samples, the following trace elements were measured: Li, Be, Sc, V, Cr, Mn, Co, Ni, Cu, Zn, As, Rb, Sr, Y, Sb, Cs, Ba, La, Pb, Ce, Pr, Nd, Sm, Eu, Gd, Tb, Dy, Ho, Er, Tm, Yb, Lu, Th, U. Their distribution in the various mineral species is thoroughly discussed.The obtained results indicate that the amount of trace metals such as Mn, Cr, Co, Ni, Cu and Zn is higher in anthophyllite and chrysotile samples, whereas the amount of rare earth elements (REE) is higher in erionite and tremolite samples. The results of this work can be useful to the pathologists and biochemists who use asbestos minerals and fibrous erionite in-vitro studies as positive cyto- and geno-toxic standard references.

This study presents a novel system for online, field measurement of copper (Cu) in ambient coarse (2.5–10 μm) particulate matter (PM). This new system utilizes two virtual impactors combined with a modified liquid impinger (BioSampler) to collect coarse PM directly as concentrated slurry samples. The total and water-soluble Cu concentrations are subsequently measured by a copper Ion Selective Electrode (ISE). Laboratory evaluation results indicated excellent collection efficiency (over 85%) for particles in the coarse PM size ranges. In the field evaluations, very good agreements for both total and water-soluble Cu concentrations were obtained between online ISE-based monitor measurements and those analyzed by means of inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). Moreover, the field tests indicated that the Cu monitor could achieve near-continuous operation for at least 6 consecutive days (a time resolution of 2–4 h) without obvious shortcomings.

We investigated total daily intake of As by residents in Prey Veng province in the Mekong River basin of Cambodia. Groundwater (n = 11), rice (n = 11) and fingernail (n = 23) samples were randomly collected from the households and analyzed for total As by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry. Calculation indicated that daily dose of inorganic As was greater than the lower limits on the benchmark dose for a 0.5% increased incidence of lung cancer (BMDL0.5 equals to 3.0 μg d−1 kg−1body wt.). Moreover, positive correlation between As in fingernail and daily dose of As from groundwater and rice and total daily dose of As were found. These results suggest that the Prey Veng residents are exposed to As in groundwater. As in rice is an additional source which is attributable to high As accumulation in human bodies in the Mekong River basin of Cambodia.

Rare earth elements have been increasingly used in modern societies and soils are likely to be the final destination of several REE-containing (by)products. This study reports REE contents for topsoils (0–20 cm) of 175 locations in reference (n = 68) and cultivated (n = 107) areas in Brazil. Benchmark soil samples were selected accomplishing a variety of environmental conditions, aiming to: i) establishing natural background and anthropogenic concentrations for REE in soils; ii) assessing potential contamination of soils - via application of phosphate fertilizers - with REE; and, iii) predicting soil-REE contents using biomes, soil type, parent material, land use, sand content, and biomes-land use interaction as forecaster variables through generalized least squares multiple regression. Our hypotheses were that the variability of soil-REE contents is influenced by parent material, pedogenic processes, land use, and biomes, as well as that cultivated soils may have been potentially contaminated with REE via input of phosphate fertilizers. The semi-total concentrations of REE were assessed by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) succeeding a microwave-assisted aqua regia digestion. Analytical procedures followed a rigorous QA/QC protocol. Soil physicochemical composition and total oxides were also determined. Natural background and anthropogenic concentrations for REE were established statistically from the dataset by the median plus two median absolute deviations method. Contamination aspects were assessed by REE-normalized patterns, REE fractionation indices, and Ce and Eu anomalies ratios, as well as enrichment factors. The results indicate that differences in the amounts of REE in cultivated soils can be attributed to land use and agricultural sources (e.g., phosphate-fertilizer inputs), while those in reference soils can be attributed to parent materials, biomes, and pedogenic processes. The biomes, land use, and sand content helped to predict concentrations of light REE in Brazilian soils, with parent material being also of special relevance to predict heavy REE contents in particular.

Soil and groundwater contamination with potentially toxic elements (PTEs) including cadmium (Cd) and copper (Cu) has become a serious problem for ecosystem functioning. Silicon (Si) may precipitate these metals as silicates, and may also form, at undersaturation of silicates, ‘Si-contaminant compounds’, i.e. particles of polymerized silica with PTEs incorporated or adsorbed by inner-sphere complexes. While the formation of these compounds in aqueous solution has been proven, their formation in soil remains unclear yet. Therefore, we conducted column experiments with a topsoil horizon artificially contaminated with Cd or Cu solutions (10 mM) in the presence (10 mM) and absence of monomeric Si, and monitored the elemental composition of the eluates during 12 irrigation steps with artificial rainwater by microwave-plasma atomic emission spectrometry, the size and charge of the particles eluted by dynamic light scattering and phase analysis light scattering, and determined the spatial distribution of total and exchangeable Cd and Cu in soil after the experiments. When Si was previously applied to soil, significantly larger particles (up to > 200 nm) in the eluates indicated Si polymerization and formation of Si-contaminant compounds. However, Cd and Cu concentrations were very low (<0.4 μM), pointing to efficient retardation in soil. In any variant, the particles formed were slightly negatively charged (−11 mV). The molar metal:Si ratios in the eluates and significant correlations between the amounts of Si and metals in soil extracted by NH₄NO₃ pointed to the formation of Si-contaminant compounds, too. More Cu than Cd was retained in soil, and significantly more in the presence of Si, but less Cu than Cd was in exchangeable form. While particularly Cu formed Si-contaminant compounds, which reduced the concentration of Cu ions, the Si-contaminant-compound particles in the eluates remained very small, thus potentially susceptible to particulate export from soil into the groundwater.

The incidence of thyroid cancer (TC) has increased rapidly worldwide in recent years. Exposure to endocrine disruptors can affect thyroid hormones and is probably carcinogenic to humans. The effects of polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs), some heavy metals (Cd, Pb, As and Hg) on risk of TC have been rarely reported. Hence, we aimed to examine the associations of TC risk with exposure to PBDEs and four heavy metals. This case-control study involved 308 TC cases and 308 age- and sex-matched controls. Plasma PBDEs concentrations were determined by gas chromatograph-mass spectrometry. Concentrations of heavy metals concentrations in urine specimens were detected by graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrometry or inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry. Conditional logistic regression models were used to explore associations of PBDEs and 4 heavy metals exposures with TC risk. A joint-effect interaction term was inserted into the logistic regression models to assess the multiplicative interaction effects of PBDEs-heavy metals on TC risk. Some PBDE congeners (BDE-028, -047, −099, −183, −209) were positively correlated with TC risk. As and Hg were also associated with the increased TC risk. Compared with low exposure levels, participants with high exposure levels of As and Hg were 5.35 and 2.98 times more likely to have TC, respectively. Co-exposure to BDE-209 and Pb had a negative interaction effect on TC risk. Some PBDE congeners (e.g. BDE-028, -047, −209) and Hg had a significant positive interaction effect on the risk of TC. The joint exposure of BDE-183 and Hg showed a negative interaction effect on TC risk, but the corresponding OR value was still statistically significant. Exposure to PBDEs, As and Hg may be associated with TC development. Joint exposure to PBDEs and Pb or Hg has interaction effects on TC risk. Further prospective research with large sample is required to confirm these findings.

Goiter is one of common endocrine diseases, and its etiology has not been fully elucidated. The changes in trace elements' levels have an important impact on the thyroid. We designed a case-control study, which involved 383 goiter cases and 383 matched controls. We measured these elements in the urine of participants by inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES), graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrometry (GFAAS) and As³⁺-Ce⁴⁺ catalytic spectrophotometry. Least Absolute Shrinkage and Selection Operator (LASSO) regression was used to select the elements into multi-element models, conditional logistic regression models were applied to analyze the association between elements and goiter risk. Bayesian kernel machine regression (BKMR) model was used to depict elements’ mixtures and evaluate their joint effects. Finally, 7 elements were included in the multi-element model. We found that the concentrations of lithium (Li), strontium (Sr) and barium (Ba) had a negative effect with goiter risk, and lead (Pb) and iodine (I) showed an extreme positive effect. Additionally, compared with the lowest levels, patients with highest quartiles of I and Pb were 6.49 and 1.94 times more likely to have goiter, respectively. On the contrary, in its second and third quartiles, arsenic (As) showed a negative effect (both OR<1). BKMR model showed a certain interaction among Pb, As, Sr and Li on goiter risk. Further large sample studies are needed to confirm these findings in the future.