This study deals with the toxicity of the treated solutions of two types of dyes, namely, the anthraquinonic Reactive Bleu 19 dye (RB19) and the bi-azoic Direct Red 227 dye (DR227), which are treated in single and binary mixture systems. The target molecules were removed by the photocatalysis process using ZnO as a catalyst, which was calcined at two temperatures 250 and 420 °C (ZnO₂₅₀ and ZnO₄₂₀) prepared in the lab by the one-step calcination method. XRD, TEM, EDX, XPS, FT-IR, BET, RAMAN, and EPR analyses were carried out to characterize the catalyst material. While the phytotoxicity was being conducted using watercress seeds, the cytotoxicity took place using a cell line (raw) and an intestinal cell (caco-2). The XRD analysis showed the partial calcination of ZnO₂₅₀ and the presence of anhydrous zinc acetate along with the ZnO nanoparticles (NPs). This result was not observed for ZnO₄₂₀. Despite the complete discoloration (100%) of all the final solutions, ZnO₂₅₀ exhibited a high cytotoxicity and phytotoxicity against the RB19 dye after the photocatalytic treatment; however, it was not the case of ZnO₄₂₀ which was selected as an eco-friendly photocatalyst for the degradation of organic dyes based on the results of removal efficiency, cytotoxicity, and phytotoxicity.

The increasing presence of pharmaceutical products in municipality wastewaters has raised serious environmental concerns. Ozonation is one of the advanced oxidation processes that can degrade these substances, instead of simply transferring them from aqueous to another phase. Treatability studies applying ozonation to degrade benzodiazepine drugs are scarce. The aim of this investigation was to apply design of experiments (DoE) to optimize ozonation processes for removal of bromazepam, clonazepam, and diazepam from two effluents of municipal wastewater treatment plants (WWTP1 and WWTP2) both located in Rio de Janeiro City, Brazil. During a preliminary study using ultrapure water, OHº radicals were more efficient (removal efficiency greater than 99% (< LOQ) at pH = 10, 15 min) than O₃ in degrading all psychoactive drugs (removal efficiency from 46 to 85% at pH = 4, 15 min). The optimum values for the tested variables were pH = 8.03; O₃ specific dose = 4.8 mgO₃.mgDOC⁻¹; and O₃ mass flow rate = 22.07 mgO₃.min⁻¹. The WWTP1 and WWTP2 effluents were treated under optimized conditions by ozonation in two effluent volumes (5L and 8L). When 8 L effluent was treated, the degradation of all benzodiazepine drugs was improved, due to the higher water column used, which favors the mass transfer of O₃ from the gas phase to the liquid phase, promoting greater contact between oxidant and target compounds. Using a specific dose of 1.8 mgO₃.mgDOC⁻¹, more than 93% of all anxiolytic drugs were removed from 8 L of WWTP2 effluent, whereas for the WWTP1, more than 90% were removed using 2.7 times higher specific dose (4.8 mgO₃.mgDOC⁻¹).

Ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA) washing has been used extensively to remediate heavy metal-contaminated soils. Electrochemical reduction treatment of spent washing solution is an effective method of EDTA regeneration. However, at present, these two technologies are usually regarded as two independent treatment processes. This research raised a new heavy metal-contaminated soil treatment strategy—a combination technique of coupled EDTA washing and electrochemical reduction. We speculated that the combination of EDTA washing and electroreduction treatment could improve the efficiency of Cd and Pb removal from contaminated soil. In this study, the removal performance and mechanisms of Cd and Pb under different current conditions were investigated based on a coupling of EDTA washing and electrochemical reduction. The combination technique can increase Cd and Pb removal efficiencies by 13.37–15.24% and 14.91–27.05%, respectively, compared with EDTA washing alone. Sequential extraction analysis showed that the reducible fraction improved metal removal efficiency. The percentage of metal removed increased with an increased current value and EDTA concentration. In addition, pulse current mode removed more Cd and Pb than continuous current, although the difference was not significant (p > 0.05). However, pulse current could effectively eliminate the cathodic hydrogen evolution reaction, resulting in a further heavy metal deposition at the cathode. The combination technique exhibited enhanced removal efficiency due to EDTA regeneration in the suspension and the cathodic reduction reaction. The most cost-effective treatment in 48 h was a pulse current mode of 32 min on/16 min off-32 mA-EDTA-10 mM, where 47.56% of Cd and 77.00% of Pb were removed from the soil with an electric energy consumption of 8.24 Wh.

The utilization of novel compounds as cancer treatments offers enormous potential in this field. The advantages of nanomedicine-based therapy include efficient cellular uptake and selective cell targeting. In this study, we employ selenium nanoparticles’ green-synthesized by apigenin (SeNPs-apigenin) to treat breast cancer. We used various assays to show that SeNPs-apigenin can reduce MCF-7 cell viability and trigger apoptosis in vitro. Flow cytometry and PCR methods were used to detect apoptosis, while cell migration and invasion methods were used to quantify the possible effect of SeNPs-apigenin therapy on cell migration and invasion. According to cytotoxicity testing, the SeNPs-apigenin treatment can successfully limit MCF-7 cell proliferation and viability in a concentration-dependent manner. Flow cytometric and PCR analyses revealed that SeNPs-apigenin treatment induced apoptosis in MCF-7 cells, demonstrating that SeNPs-apigenin treatment could directly target Bcl-2, Bax, and caspase-3 and result in the discharge of cytochrome C from mitochondria into the cytosol, accompanied by the initiation of cell death, leading to permanent DNA damage and killing of MCF-7 cells. Furthermore, treatment with SeNPs-apigenin increased reactive oxygen species production and oxidative stress in MCF-7 cells. Our findings indicate that SeNPs-apigenin has cytotoxic potential in the treatment of breast cancer.

After the treatment of liquid radioactive waste, there is a certain amount of Cs in the waste resin, and these Cs-doped resins are prone to volatilize during the thermal treatment process and cause radionuclide leakage. The molten salt oxidation (MSO) can effectively prevent the volatilization of toxic metal, especially the volatilization of Cs. Under nitrogen and air conditions, it is found that the oxidation behavior between Cs-doped and clean cation exchange resins (CERs) is quite different. In the presence of oxygen and molten carbonate salt, Cs₂CO₃ is generated by the destruction of functional groups in Cs-doped CERs. The Cs₂CO₃ in Na₂CO₃-K₂CO₃-Li₂CO₃ reacts with oxygen to form Li₂O₂, which reduces the content of S in residue from 26.33 to 13.38% in air conditions at 400 °C and promotes the generation of sulfate in the molten carbonate salt. The elements Cs and S in the Cs doped CERs spontaneously form thermally stable Cs₂SO₄ in the molten carbonate salt.

For the past few years, the environmental safety problems of radioactive nuclides caused wide public concern. In this work, the dodecyl trimethyl ammonium bromide-modified silicon dioxide composite (DTAB/SiO₂) was synthesized for the elimination of uranium. The dodecyl trimethyl ammonium bromide can decorate the surface of the silicon dioxide and change its surface topography, which can offer more active sites and functional groups for the combination of U(VI). The removal capacity of U(VI) on DTAB/SiO₂ reached 78.1 mg/g, which was greater than that of the silicon dioxide nanopowder. In the adsorption process, the surface oxygen-containing functional groups formed surface complexation with uranium. The results may provide helpful content to eliminate U(VI) and expand the application of surfactant in radioactive nuclide cleanup.

Applying the principles of healthy products through agriculture practices has become an important issue due to significant environmental impacts of agrochemicals application. The agrochemicals have been recognized as an essential component of modern agriculture, but they are also an important source of environmental pollution that threatens the human’s health and are main sources of carbon emissions. Pesticides and fertilizers application are important in the process of Iran’s food production. In Iran, intensifying the agricultural production has led to overuse of chemical fertilizers and pesticides. This work is the first effort to quantify and compare the decoupling index pollution from agricultural sector using Tapio decoupling indicator and predict climate change impacts on this index by using Bayesian network across the whole country of Iran. For this purpose, required annual data of predictor variables for the period of 2008 to 2018 was used to calculate the decoupling index. For projecting climate change impacts on this index by using Bayesian network, monthly mean values of climatic variables were used. While Iranian farmers are criticized for pesticide overuse, these study findings showed that during the period of 2008–2018, decoupling index for pesticides (agricultural pollution by using pesticide) and decoupling index for fertilizer (agricultural pollution by using fertilizer) in the selected provinces fluctuate between RD-SD, SD-SD, SD-SD, and RD-SD. Therefore, the decoupling states show that in most study years, there is a strong decoupling of agricultural growth in selected provinces. This means that in the selected provinces, pollutant emissions of chemical fertilizer and pesticides use for agricultural productions have decreased and it has been well controlled. Therefore, by expansion of agricultural sector, the situation of agricultural pollution in these provinces in most years has not been intensified. Control of agricultural pollution in these provinces has shown a positive and significant impact on public health. In selected provinces, the cleaner agricultural products and application of organic fertilizers have been increased. This study results also showed that the climate change will accelerate increment of pests population and thus pesticides application in different climatic regions.

Green supply chain management (GSCM) is an important part of most production organisations in developed countries. Meanwhile, developing countries are yet to fully embrace the concept. This study, therefore, investigated the drivers of GSCM using a close-up approach in a leading manufacturing organisation in Nigeria with sustainability initiatives. One hundred and fifty-four questionnaires retrieved from the supply chain management team of the organisation were subjected to descriptive and inferential statistics such as mean score, standard deviation, and factor analysis. Based on the results of the analyses, the drivers of GSCM in the organisation could be grouped as government-related, organisational-related, and societal-related drivers. The study concluded that synergy of the government, organisations, non-government organisations, and individual is important for achieving green supply chain practices in developing countries. It was recommended that training at all levels is essential to improve the awareness and importance of sustainable production to the environment.

This study offers an updated mean annual water discharge of 10 large and 11 coastal basins of the Indian Peninsula and looks into environmental parameters influencing the water flux and discharge trends. The mean annual discharge of large and coastal rivers is estimated to be 221 and 294 km³. Thus, despite draining 25% of the Indian Peninsula, coastal rivers deliver more than half of the annual flux, and west-flowing coastal rivers contribute 85% of it. This study demonstrates temporal changes in the water discharge of various river basins. The presence of dams regulates discharge regimes of large rivers. The construction of large dams resulted in a significant decline in the water discharge of the Krishna, Cauvery, and Narmada. Through this study, we demonstrate the role of rainfall, catchment size, water loss through evapotranspiration and infiltration, and societal use of water in determining the runoff of each basin. We recommend tapping the water resources of the west-flowing rivers for proper planning, development, and management to reduce the water stress in the peninsular region and promoting sustainable management.

The most essential component of human capital is health capital; however, expenditures on health are gaining attention from practitioners, policymakers, and researchers. Accordingly, this study determined the dynamic association between health expenditures (HEP), economic growth (ECGW), carbon emissions (COEM), information and communication technology (ICT), institutional quality (IQ), and energy consumption (EC) in the context of Saudi Arabia. The autoregressive distributed lag and vector error correction model was employed to identify the dynamic linkages among under-considered variables by using data of 1995–2019. The empirical analysis indicated that COEM, ECGW, and EC have a positive influence on HEP, while ICT and IQ have a negative effect on HEP. There is bidirectional causality is identified between COEM, ICT, IQ, and EC, while one-way long-run causality is recognized from HEP and ECGW to these variables. Moreover, two-way short-run causality is identified between ICT and EC, whereas one-way causality is recognized from HEP and COEM to ICT. This study empirically established the essential role of IQ and ICT to enhance air quality and decrease the HEP. Consequently, policymakers should strengthen the institution and implement advanced ICTs to provide a healthy economy.