In this paper, we briefly described the ecological consequences of six space rocket accidents launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome between 1999 and 2018 and focused on an assessment of efficiency of soil remediation following the accidental crash of launch vehicle Proton-M on July 2, 2013, which resulted in the severest environmental impact in the modern Russian space industry. On the day after the accident, the content of carcinogenic unsymmetrical dimethylhydrazine and nitrosodimethylamine, as well as nitrate in soils of the crash site exceeded their maximal permissible concentrations by 8900, 6100 and 85 times, respectively. Mitigation measures included soil detoxication by a solution of 10% H₂O₂ and 1% iron complexonate, soil excavation and ploughing. Two years later (in April 2015), both unsymmetrical dimethylhydrazine and nitrosodimethylamine concentrations were below 0.05 mg/kg and nitrate concentration did not exceed 3.9 g/kg. As compared to background sites, soils of the crash site had significantly (P-value<0.05) lower values of pH and the content of total organic carbon, basicity from soda and carbonates and higher total nitrogen and soluble salt contents. Soil microbial communities were the most vulnerable component of the disturbed arid ecosystems, as their suppressed condition was indicated by a low biochemical oxygen demand and a very low cellulase activity.

This review synthesises information from published articles on the incorporation of pollutants by macroinvertebrates from sandy beaches, including both field samplings and bioassays. The hypothesis that macroinvertebrates quantitatively reflect the presence of pollutants in sediment, acting as biomonitors, was tested through a meta-analysis based on studies performed in situ. More than half of the studies were conducted in the Mediterranean. Of the 53 articles based on field samplings, less than half (40%) determined the concentration of pollutants in the sediment as well as in the organisms. Donacidae, Talitridae, and Hippidae were tested as biomonitors, mainly of trace elements. Donacidae and Talitridae reflected in their soft tissues the presence of most trace elements in the sediment, which was not the case with Hippidae. Few studies (≤2 articles) evaluated the response of these macroinvertebrates to persistent organic pollutants, hydrocarbons, or microplastic. A selection based on sampling of sediment and species not yet tested as biomonitors is necessary due to the scarcity of a baseline worldwide and because responses to pollutants may be species-specific.

Toxicological studies have demonstrated the associations between fine particle (PM₂.₅) components and various cytotoxic endpoints. However, few studies have investigated the toxicological effects of source-specific PM₂.₅ at the individual level. To investigate the potential impact of source-specific PM₂.₅ on cytotoxic effects, we performed repeated personal PM₂.₅ monitoring of 48 adult participants in Hong Kong during the winter and summer of 2014–2015. Quartz filters were analyzed for carbonaceous aerosols and water-soluble ions in PM₂.₅. Teflon filters were collected to determine personal PM₂.₅ mass and metal concentrations. The toxicological effects of personal PM₂.₅ exposure—including cytotoxicity, inflammatory response, and reactive oxygen species (ROS) production—were measured using A549 cells in vitro. Personal PM₂.₅ samples collected in winter were more effective than those collected in summer at inducing cytotoxicity and the expression of proinflammation cytokine IL-6. By contrast, summer personal PM₂.₅ samples induced high ROS production. We performed a series of statistical analyses, Spearman correlation and a source apportionment approach with a multiple linear regression (MLR) model, to explore the sources contributing most significantly to personal PM₂.₅ bioreactivity. Secondary inorganic species and transition metals were discovered to be weak-to-moderately associated with cytotoxicity (rₛ: 0.26–0.55; p < 0.01) and inflammatory response (rₛ: 0.26–0.44; p < 0.05), respectively. Carbonaceous aerosols (i.e., organic and elemental carbon; rₛ: 0.23–0.27; p < 0.05) and crustal material (Mg and Ca) was positively associated with ROS generation. The PMF–MLR models revealed that tailpipe exhaust and secondary sulfate contributed to ROS generation, whereas secondary nitrate was the major contributor to PM₂.₅ cytotoxicity and inflammation. These results improve and variate the arguments for practical policies designed to mitigate the risks posed by air pollution sources and to protect public health.

Previous ecological risk assessments were mainly concentration-oriented rather than source-oriented. Moreover, land use is usually related to source emissions but was rarely used to improve the source apportionment accuracy. In this study, the land-use effects of heavy metals (HMs) in surface (0–20 cm) and subsurface (20–40 cm) soils were first explored using ANOVA in a suburb of Changzhou City, China; next, based on robust absolute principal component scores-robust geographically weighted regression (RAPCS/RGWR), this study proposed RAPCS/RGWR with land-use type (RAPCS/RGWR-LUT) and compared its source apportionment accuracy with those of basic RAPCS/RGWR and commonly-used absolute principal component scores/multiple linear regression (APCS/MLR); then, the source-oriented ecological risks were apportioned based on RAPCS/RGWR-LUT and Hakanson potential ecological risk index method; finally, this study proposed robust residual kriging with land-use type (RRK) for spatially predicting the source-oriented ecological risks, and compared its spatial prediction accuracy with those of robust ordinary kriging (ROK) and traditionally-used ordinary kriging (OK). Results showed that: (i) by incorporating land-use effects, RAPCS/RGWR-LUT obtained higher source apportionment accuracy than RAPCS/RGWR and APCS/MLR; (ii) the two most important external input sources of the ecological risks were 'atmospheric deposition' (PERIₛᵤᵣfₐcₑ = 47.11 and PERIₛᵤbₛᵤᵣfₐcₑ = 35.27) and 'agronomic measure' (PERIₛᵤᵣfₐcₑ = 28.93 and PERIₛᵤbₛᵤᵣfₐcₑ = 20.37); (iii) the biggest ecological risk factor was soil Cd (ERₛᵤᵣfₐcₑ = 57.14 and ERₛᵤbₛᵤᵣfₐcₑ = 47.62), which was mainly contributed by 'atmospheric deposition' (ERₛᵤᵣfₐcₑ=33.14 and ERₛᵤbₛᵤᵣfₐcₑ=25.71); (iv) RRK obtained higher spatial prediction accuracy than ROK and OK; (v) the high-risk areas derived from 'atmospheric deposition' were mainly located in the southwest of the study area, and the high-risk areas derived from 'agronomic measure' were scattered in the agricultural land in the north and south of the study area. The above information provided effective spatial decision support for reducing the source-oriented input of the ecological risks of soil HMs in a large-scale area.

The use of chemotherapy agents has been growing worldwide, due to the increase number of cancer cases. In several countries, mainly in Europe countries, these drugs have been detected in hospitals and municipal wastewaters. In Brazil this issue is poorly explored. The main goal of this study was to assess the presence of three anti-cancer drugs, 5-fluorouracil (5-FU), gemcitabine (GEM) and cyclophosphamide (CP), and two metabolites, alpha-fluoro-beta-alanine (3-NH₂-F) and 2′-deoxy-2′,2′-difluorouridine (2-DOH-DiF), in effluents from a large cancer hospital, in the municipal wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) influent and effluent, and also to evaluate toxicity of the mixtures of these compounds by ecotoxicological testing in zebrafish. The sample collections were performed in Barretos Cancer Hospital of the large cancer center in Brazil. After each collection, the samples were filtered for subsequent Liquid Chromatography Mass Spectrometry analysis. The presence of CP, GEM, and both metabolites (3-NH₂-F and 2-DOH-DiF) were detected in the hospital wastewater and the WWTP influent. Three drugs, GEM, 2-DOH-DiF and CP, were detected in the WWTP effluent. Two drugs were detected below the limit of quantification, 2-DOH-DiF: <LOQ (above 1400 ng L⁻¹) and CP: <LOQ (above 300 ng L⁻¹), and GEM was quantified at 420 ng L⁻¹. Furthermore, 2-DOH-DiF (116,000 ng L⁻¹) was detected at the highest level in the hospital wastewater. There were no zebrafish deaths at any of the concentrations of the compounds used. However, we observed histological changes, including aneurysms and edema in the gills and areas of necrosis of the liver. In summary, we found higher concentrations of CP, GEM and both metabolites (3-NH₂-F and 2-DOH-DiF) were detected for the first time. There is currently no legislation regarding the discharge of anti-cancer drugs in effluents in Brazil. This study is first to focus on effluents from specific treatments from a large cancer hospital located in small city in Brazil.

The main objective of the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) was to achieve a Good Environmental Status (GES) in European waters by 2020, according to 11 descriptors. Descriptor 10 is related to marine litter and envisages that the properties and quantities of marine litter are at a level that does not cause harm to the coastal and marine environment. Even if GES was not achieved by 2020, the first MSFD implementation cycle filled many gaps in knowledge. Here we present the first data (2015–2018) on beach litter densities along Italian coasts and discuss lessons learnt and future perspectives. The beach litter median density was 477 items/100 m (interquartile range: 261–934 items/100 m), but subregional differences emerged both in terms of litter quantities and composition. The Adriatic Sea was the most polluted subregion (590 items/100 m), followed by the Western Mediterranean Sea (491 items/100 m) and the Ionian Sea and Central Mediterranean Sea subregion (274 items/100 m). A high presence of aquaculture-related litter (mainly mussel nets) characterised beaches in the Adriatic Sea. At the same time, the numbers of cotton bud sticks were extremely high in some beaches of the Western Mediterranean Sea. General litter (items discarded or left by the public on the coast or inland and carried by winds and rivers or objects originating from tourism and recreation at land or sea, poor waste management practices, etc.) was the most common litter typology (38.8%). The results of this study represent the first baseline to compare achievement towards GES in the next years and the efficacy of the program of measures which entered into force in 2016, concerning beach litter densities and composition. They also highlight the necessity of a joint effort for deploying harmonised marine litter monitoring methodologies across the European Member States to obtain comparable results.

The characteristics and transport pathways of air masses vary during heavy pollution episodes (HPEs). Three categories of HPEs have been defined: HPE Ι, II, and III, corresponding to HPE durations of 1, 2, and at least 3 days, respectively. Sixty HPEs were investigated in this study. The number of HPEs decreased from 2013 to 2017 and then increased from 2017 to 2019, dominated by emission reductions and meteorological conditions. The average and maximum PM₂.₅ (i.e., aerodynamic diameter of <2.5 μm) concentrations during those HPEs in 2019 decreased by 5.6%–11.8% and 11.9%–38.5%, respectively, compared with those in 2013. The longer the duration of an HPE, the higher the PM₂.₅ concentration. Secondary inorganic aerosol concentrations and their contents in PM₂.₅ during HPE Ⅲ were found to be higher than those during HPEs Ι and Ⅱ, as secondary transformations of precursor gases are more intense during long-term HPEs. The dominant trajectories of airflow arriving in Jinan originated from the southern and southeastern regions during HPEs, realized using the Hybrid Single Particle Lagrangian Integrated Trajectory. The trajectories from the north and west of Jinan contained the highest PM₂.₅ concentrations of 323.3–432.1 μg/m³ during HPE Ⅲ, although these trajectories only contributed 5.6%–11.1% of the total dominant transport pathways, while those in trajectories from the northwest were highest during HPEs Ι and Ⅱ. The highest contributions of air masses from short distances were found during HPE Ⅲ, of 77.8%, while they were only 65.6% and 47.8% during HPEs Ι and II, respectively. More attention should be given to transport pathways within the short distance from Jinan. Therefore, enhancing regional cooperation in Jinan and surrounding regions (particularly in the south, southeast, northwest, west, and north) is critical for improving air quality in the North China Plain.

Intensive aquaculture has largely changed the global phosphorus (P) flow and become one of the main reasons for the eutrophication of global aquatic ecosystem. Artificial planting submerged macrophytes has attracted enormous interest regarding the restoration of eutrophic lakes. However, few large-scale (>80 km²) studies have focused on the restoration of aquatic vegetation in the subtropical lakes, and the mechanism underlying the restrain of sediment P release by macrophytes remains unknown. In this study, field surveys and the diffusive gradients in thin films (DGT) technique were used to elucidate the effects of macrophytes on internal P loading control in a typical eutrophic aquacultural lake. Results showed that half of the P content in overlying water and sediments, particularly dissolved P in overlying water and calcium bound P (Ca–P) in sediment, were removed after restoration. Temperature, as well as dissolved oxygen (DO) and P concentration gradients near the sediment-water interface (SWI) jointly controlled the release of labile P from surface sediments. Submerged macrophytes can effectively inhibit the release of sediment P into the overlying water, which depended on DO concentration in the bottom water. Future restoration projects should focus on the temperature response of submerged macrophytes of different growth forms (especially canopy-forming species) to avoid undesirable restoration effects. Our results complement existing knowledge about submerged macrophytes repairing subtropical P-contaminated lakes and have positive significance for lake restoration by in situ phytoremediation.

Biorefineries provide a platform for different industries to produce multiple bio-products enhancing the economic value of the system. The production of these biorefineries has led to an increase in the generation of biowaste. To minimize the risk of environmental pollution, numerous studies have focused on a variety of strategies to mitigate these concerns reflected in the vast amount of literature written on this topic. This paper aims to systematically analyze and review the enormous body of scientific literature in the biowaste and biorefinery field for establishing an understanding and providing a direction for future works. A bibliometric analysis is first performed using the CorTexT Manager platform on a corpus of 1488 articles written on the topic of biowaste. Popular and emerging topics are determined using a terms extraction algorithm. A contingency matrix is then created to study the correlation of scientific journals and key topics from this field. Then, the connection and evolution of these terms were analyzed using network mapping, to determine relationships among key terms and analyze notable trends in this research field. Finally, a critical review of articles was presented across three main categories of biowaste management such as mitigation, sustainable utilization, and cleaner disposal from the perspective of the biorefinery concept. Operational and technological challenges are identified for the integration of anaerobic digestion in biorefineries, especially in developing nations. Moreover, logistical challenges in the biorefinery supply-chain are established based on the economics and collection aspect of handling biowaste.