Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) have been produced and used in a broad range of products since the 1950s. This class, comprising of thousands of chemicals, have been used in many different products ranging from firefighting foam to personal care products and clothes. Even at relatively low levels of exposure, PFAS have been linked to various health effects in humans such as lower birth weight, increased serum cholesterol levels, and reduced antibody response to vaccination. Human biomonitoring data demonstrates ubiquitous exposure to PFAS across all age groups. This has been attributed to PFAS-contaminated water and dietary intake, as well as inadvertent ingestion of indoor dust for adults and toddlers. In utero exposure and breast milk have been indicated as important exposure pathways for foetuses and nursing infants. More recently, PFAS have been identified in a wide range of products, many of which come in contact with skin (e.g., cosmetics and fabrics). Despite this, few studies have evaluated dermal uptake as a possible route for human exposure and little is known about the dermal absorption potential of different PFAS. This article critically investigates the current state-of-knowledge on human exposure to PFAS, highlighting the lack of dermal exposure data. Additionally, the different approaches for dermal uptake assessment studies are discussed and the available literature on human dermal absorption of PFAS is critically reviewed and compared to other halogenated contaminants, e.g., brominated flame retardants and its implications for dermal exposure to PFAS. Finally, the urgent need for dermal permeation and uptake studies for a wide range of PFAS and their precursors is highlighted and recommendations for future research to advance the current understanding of human dermal exposure to PFAS are discussed.

We explored acquired immunity resulting from vaccination in 3 to 7-year-old children, chronically exposed to multiple heavy metals and metalloids, in an e-waste recycling area (Guiyu, China). Child blood levels of ten heavy metals and metalloids, including lead (Pb), arsenic (As), mercury (Hg), chromium (Cr), cadmium (Cd), manganese (Mn), nickel (Ni), copper (Cu), zinc (Zn) and selenium (Se), and seven vaccine antibodies (diphtheria, pertussis, tetanus, hepatitis B, Japanese encephalitis, polio, measles) were measured. The exposed group had higher levels of blood Pb, Mn, Cu, Zn and Cr compared to the reference group (P < 0.05). Levels of all vaccine antibodies in the exposed group were significantly lower than in the reference group (P < 0.01). All vaccine antibodies negatively correlated with blood concentrations of Cu, Zn and Pb, based on spearman rank correlation analysis. Multiple logistic regression and univariate analyses identified the location of residence (Guiyu), high blood Pb (>10 μg/dL) and high blood Cu and Zn (upper median value of each group) to be inversely associated with seven antibody titers. Antibody titers increased with age, BMI, high blood Mn (>15 μg/L), and high blood Cd and Ni (upper median value of each group). Results suggest multiple heavy metal and metalloid exposure, especially to Pb, Zn and Cu, may be a risk factor inhibiting the development of child immunity, resulting in decreased child antibody levels against vaccines.

The rise in the use of single-use plastics and personal protective equipment (PPE) has increased plastic waste in the marine environment. In this study, we surveyed the presence of PPE (face masks and gloves) discharged in 6 beaches along the coast of India. A total of 496 PPE were counted with an average density of 1.08 × 10⁻³ PPE m⁻². The PPE density found was comparable to previous studies. Face masks were the most recorded type of PPE (98.39%), with gloves accounting for only 1.61% of the total. However, a significant reduction in the appearance of PPE was recorded on all six beaches, likely due to the increase in vaccination rates. The most contaminated places were the beaches with recreational activities + fishing. It has been noticed that the lack of awareness of environmental pollution and the negligence of the population and the mismanagement of municipal waste are the main causes of beach pollution by PPE. This study confirms the potential threat of PPE to terrestrial and aquatic organisms of multiple taxa in India, but further studies are needed to quantify the impact of this type of waste on marine animals.

Globally, vaccination plays a vital role in controlling the Covid-19 pandemic. However, the cold supply chain is essential for vaccine storage and logistics services. In a country like India, the last-mile logistics of vaccines is a challenging task. The cold chain is indispensable for the Covid-19 vaccine drive to the rural areas. The demand for cold storage increases rapidly due to the rapid Covid-19 vaccine drive. The conventional cold storage facility has a more significant threat to the grid power quality and environmental impacts. The energy demand and greenhouse gas emission of traditional cold storage lead to global warming. The micro cold storage facility has to be developed rapidly to accelerate the vaccine drive to the last mile of the county with reliable and affordable energy sources. In addition, climate change mitigation is ensured by the renewable energy utilization in the Covid-19 vaccine drive. The proposed novel micro cold storage aims to be silent, clean, mobile, without moving parts, and reliable for the last-mile vaccine logistics as a vaccine carrier to the remote rural areas. This paper deals with the novel design, development, and experimental investigation of solar photovoltaic powered thermoelectric-based micro cold storage as a Covid-19 vaccine carrier for rural areas. The design consideration of Covid-19 vaccine storage has been reported. The experimental results ensure the World Health Organization recommended vaccine storage (i.e., vaccine carrier) temperature range of +2 to +8 °C. Therefore, green energy and refrigeration system provide environmental sustainability by mitigating 700kg of annual carbon emission.

COVID-19 has become one of the few leading causes of death and has evolved into a pandemic that disrupts everyone’s routine, and balanced way of life worldwide, and will continue to do so. To bring an end to this pandemic, scientists had put their all effort into discovering the vaccine for SARS-CoV-2 infection. For their dedication, now, we have a handful of COVID-19 vaccines. Worldwide, millions of people are at risk due to the current pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by SARS-CoV-2 (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2). Despite the lack of clinically authorized antiviral medications and vaccines for COVID-19, clinical trials of many recognized antiviral agents, their combination, and vaccine development in patients with confirmed COVID-19 are still ongoing. This discovery gave us a chance to get immune to this disease worldwide and end the pandemic. However, the unexpected capacity of mutation of the SARS-CoV-2 virus makes it difficult, like the recent SAS-CoV-2 Omicron variant. Therefore, there is a great necessity to spread the vaccination programs and prevent the spread of this dreadful epidemic by identifying and isolating afflicted patients. Furthermore, several COVID-19 tests are thought to be expensive, time-consuming, and require the use of adequately qualified persons to be carried out efficiently. In addition, we also conversed about how the various COVID-19 testing methods can be implemented for the first time in a developing country and their cost-effectiveness, accuracy, human resources requirements, and laboratory facilities.

We conducted the current analysis to determine the potential role of measles vaccination in the context of the spread of COVID-19. Data were extracted from the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Global Health Observatory data repository about the measles immunization coverage estimates and correlated to overall morbidity and mortality for COVID-19 among different countries. Data were statistically analyzed to calculate the Spearman rank correlation coefficient (rho). There was a significant positive correlation between the vaccine coverage (%) and new cases per one million populations (rho = 0.24; p-value = 0.025); however, this correlation was absent in deaths per one million populations (rho = 0.17; p-value = 0.124). On further analysis of the effect of first reported year of vaccination policy, there was no significant correlation with both of total cases per one million populations (rho = 0.11; p-value = 0.327) and deaths per one million populations (rho = −0.02; p-value = 0.829). Claims regarding the possible protective effect of measles vaccination seem to be doubtful.

The infectiousness of COVID-19 is high among the susceptible population, making the calculation of the reproduction number (R) an essential step to implement preventive measures. We aim to estimate COVID-19 transmission to determine if the disease is successfully controlled or extra measured should be adopted to attain this goal. The daily incidence data of COVID-19 in Saudi Arabia from March 2ⁿᵈ, 2020, to April 4ᵗʰ, 2021, were obtained from the continuously updated Saudi Ministry of Health COVID-19 repository. To get accurate estimation of the situation over the last 4 months (from December 1ˢᵗ, 2020, to April 4ᵗʰ, 2021), we calculated the weekly (every 7 days) R starting from March 2ⁿᵈ, 2020, and till the last week of the available data. The calculated values of R were represented as median, first quantile (Q1), and third quantile (Q3). As early as the first week of December 2020, the median R was 0.81 (0.80–0.83) which means that each existing infected case would transmit infection to only one person. This was followed by fluctuations over the next few weeks around R value of 1, reaching its highest level of 1.45 (1.42–1.47) between December 31ˢᵗ, 2020, and January 6ᵗʰ, 2021. This was followed by a relatively steady decline over the following weeks, with some till mid-March where the R values started to slightly rise again. Social distancing, protective precautions, avoiding abuse of the partial lifting, expanding the screening process, and other Saudi measures sound to be successful and should be replicated in similar communities. This measure should be continued till the vaccination process is completed, to reduce the number of contacts and to avoid uncontrolled transmission of the disease.

The inception of the novel coronavirus has forced the world into despair. Rapid progress has been made in addressing the situation, and various clinical diagnostic methods were developed for early detection of transmission. However, with a rapidly increasing number of infected populations worldwide, the testing of each individual was impractical. The wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) has been implemented to evaluate disease outbreaks as an early warning system for pandemic preparedness. Numerous studies reported the presence of SARS-CoV-2 in the open drains and STPs across the globe via recovery efficiency of surrogate virus from existing virus concentration protocols. However, the such reported studies did not justify the use of WBE to identify or pinpoint the specific hotspots of transmission which could be prioritized for rapid efforts to contain or accelerate active vaccination efforts. Identifying precise locations of hotspots could be an essential aspect in controlling the outbreak and surge of wave by prioritizing the region for primary outbreak response. This article focuses on the issues relating to the primary focus for WBE that can be adapted, and its suitability for utilization in the mass vaccination program is discussed. Effective use of WBE information in terms of source tracking might be crucial as we move towards mass vaccination to control outbreaks of COVID-19 pandemic.

The unforeseen outbreak of the COVID-19 epidemic has significantly stipulated the use of plastics to minimize the exposure and spread of the novel coronavirus. With the onset of the vaccination drive, the issue draws even more attention due to additional demand for vaccine packaging, transport, disposable syringes, and other allied devices scaling up to many million tonnes of plastic. Plastic materials in personal protective equipment (PPE), disposable pharmaceutical devices, and packaging for e-commerce facilities are perceived to be a lifesaver for the frontline healthcare personnel and the general public amidst recurring waves of the pandemic. However, the same material poses a threat as an evil environmental polluter when attributed to its indiscriminate and improper littering as well as mismanagement. The review not only highlights the environmental consequences due to the excessive use of disposable plastics amidst COVID-19 but also recommends mixed approaches to its management by adopting the combined and step-by-step methodology of adequate segregation, sterilization, sanitization activities, technological intervention, and process optimization measures. The overview finally concludes with some crucial way-forward measures and recommendations like the development of bioplastics and focusing on biodegradable/bio-compostable material alternatives to holistically deal with future pandemics.

We conducted the current analysis to determine the potential role of polio vaccination in the context of the spread of COVID-19. Data were extracted from the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Global Health Observatory data repository regarding the polio immunization coverage estimates and correlated to the overall morbidity and mortality for COVID-19 among different countries. Data were analyzed using R software version 4.0.2. Mean and standard deviation were used to represent continuous variables while we used frequencies and percentages to represent categorical variables. The Kruskal-Wallis H test was used for continuous variables since they were not normally distributed. Moreover, the Spearman rank correlation coefficient (rho) was used to determine the relationship between different variables. There was a significantly positive correlation between the vaccine coverage (%) and both of total cases per one million populations (rho = 0.37; p-value < 0.001) and deaths per one million populations (rho = 0.30; p-value < 0.001). Moreover, there was a significant correlation between different income groups and each of vaccine coverage (%) (rho = 0.71; p-value < 0.001), total cases per one million populations (rho = 0.50; p-value < 0.001), and deaths per one million populations (rho = 0.39; p-value < 0.001). All claims regarding the possible protective effect of Polio vaccination do not have any support when analyzing the related data. Polio vaccination efforts should be limited to eradicate the disease from endemic countries; however, there is no evidence to support the immunization with live-attenuated vaccines for the protection against COVID-19.