Little is known about the occurrence of emerging pollutants (EPs) in waters in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region despite the extensive use of low-quality water there. Available data dealing with the sources, occurrence and removal of EPs within the MENA region in different categories of water is collected, presented and analyzed in this literature review. According to the collected database, the occurrence and removal efficiency of EPs in the water matrix in the MENA region is available, respectively, for 13 and six countries of the 18 in total; no available data is registered for the rest. Altogether, 290 EPs have been observed in different water matrices across the MENA countries, stemming mainly from industrial effluents, agricultural practices, and discharge or reuse of treated wastewater (TWW). Pharmaceutical compounds figure among the most frequently reported compounds in wastewater, TWW, surface water, and drinking water. Nevertheless, pesticides are the most frequently detected pollutants in groundwater. Worryingly, 57 cases of EPs have been reported in different fresh and drinking waters, exceeding World Health Organization (WHO) and European Commission (EC) thresholds. Overall, pharmaceuticals, organic compounds, and pesticides are the most concerning EP groups. The review revealed the ineffectiveness of treatment processes used in the region to remove EPs. Negative removals of some EPs such as carbamazepine, erythromycin, and sulfamethoxazole were recorded, suggesting their possible accumulation or release during treatment. This underlines the need to set in place and strengthen control measures, treatment procedures, standards, and policies for such pollutants in the region.

peer reviewed | Recently, the World Health Organization’s International Association for Research on Cancer classified outdoor air pollution as carcinogenic to humans and puts air pollution in the same category as tobacco smoke, UV radiation, and plutonium. The ambient air is polluted by emissions from motor vehicles, industrial processes, power generation, household combustion of solid fuel, and other sources. Dust storms lead to particulate levels that exceed internationally recommended levels, especially near the Sahara. However, this source of air pollution appears to be under-studied, particularly in the literature devoted to human health impacts in West Africa. More than 50 % of the total dust emitted into the atmosphere comes from the Sahara. These aerosols contribute to increase the concentrations of particles smaller than 10 μm (PM10), which are breathable particles. This study is the first designed to assess the real impact of Saharan dust on air quality and respiratory health of children in a region of West Africa. Dust events having affected the Northern Benin during the dry seasons between 2003 and 2007 were determined. The analyzed health data are the monthly rates of acute lower respiratory infections (ALRI). Over the entire study period, 61 days of dust events were observed in the region. They recorded on average a daily PM10 concentration of 1017 μg m−3, more than 18 times higher than that calculated on all days without dust events. The study also highlighted a mean increase of 12.5 % of ALRI rates during the months recording dust events. The use of daily health data should help to refine these initial results in the future.

Black carbon (BC) exposure in China continues to be relatively high, prompting researchers to assess BC exposure levels using data from monitoring sites, satellite remote sensing, and models. However, data regarding the application of a combined strategy comprising the analysis of monitoring data and various types of data to simulate BC exposure levels are lacking. Hence, the current study seeks to estimate short- and long-term BC exposure levels by combining national monitoring data with data from the second Modern-Era Retrospective analysis for Research and Applications (MERRA-2). Furthermore, this study attempts to improve the spatio-temporal resolution of BC exposure levels using Bayesian maximum entropy (BME). The BME model performed well in terms of estimating short- (R² = 0.74 and RMSE = 1.76 μg/m³) and long-term (R² = 0.76 and RMSE = 1.3 μg/m³) exposure. Premature mortalities and economic losses were also assessed by applying localised concentration–response coefficients simulated in China. A total of 74,500 (95% confidence interval (CI): 23,900–124,500) and 538,400 (95% CI: 495,000–581,300) all-cause premature mortality cases were found to be associated with short- and long-term BC exposure, respectively. Meanwhile, short-term BC exposure was associated with economic losses ranging from 7.5 to 13.2 billion US dollars (USD) (1 USD = 6.36 RMB on January 19, 2022) based on amended human capital (AHC) and willingness to pay (WTP), accounting for 0.06%–0.1% of China's total gross domestic product (GDP) in 2017 (1.2 × 10⁴ billion USD), respectively. The economic losses for long-term exposure varied from 53 to 93.2 billion USD based on AHC and WTP, accounting for 0.4%–0.8% of China's total GDP in 2017, respectively.

Heavy metal toxicity has become an impediment to agricultural productivity, which presents major human health concerns in terms of food safety. Among them, arsenic (As) a non-essential heavy metal has gained worldwide attention because of its noxious effects on agriculture and public health. The increasing rate of global warming and anthropogenic activities have promptly exacerbated As levels in the agricultural soil, thereby causing adverse effects to crop genetic and phenotypic traits and rendering them vulnerable to other stresses. Conventional breeding and transgenic approaches have been widely adapted for producing heavy metal resilient crops; however, they are time-consuming and labor-intensive. Hence, finding new mitigation strategies for As toxicity would be a game-changer for sustainable agriculture. One such promising approach is harnessing plant microbiome in the era of ‘omics’ which is gaining prominence in recent years. The use of plant microbiome and their cocktails to combat As metal toxicity has gained widespread attention, because of their ability to metabolize toxic elements and offer an array of perquisites to host plants such as increased nutrient availability, stress resilience, soil fertility, and yield. A comprehensive understanding of below-ground plant-microbiome interactions and their underlying molecular mechanisms in exhibiting resilience towards As toxicity will help in identifying elite microbial communities for As mitigation. In this review, we have discussed the effect of As, their accumulation, transportation, signaling, and detoxification in plants. We have also discussed the role of the plant microbiome in mitigating As toxicity which has become an intriguing research frontier in phytoremediation. This review also provides insights on the advancements in constructing the beneficial synthetic microbial communities (SynComs) using microbiome engineering that will facilitate the development of the most advanced As remedial tool kit in sustainable agriculture.

Antimicrobial resistance genes (ARGs) and virulence factor genes (VFGs) constitute a serious threat to public health, and climate change has been predicted to affect the increase in bacterial pathogens harboring ARGs and VFGs. However, studies on bacterial pathogens and their ARGs and VFGs in permafrost region have received limited attention. In this study, a metagenomic approach was applied to a comprehensive survey to detect potential ARGs, VFGs, and pathogenic antibiotic resistant bacteria (PARB) carrying both ARGs and VFGs in the active layer and permafrost. Overall, 70 unique ARGs against 18 antimicrobial drug classes and 599 VFGs classified as 38 virulence factors were detected in the Arctic permafrost region. Eight genes with mobile genetic elements (MGEs) carrying ARGs were identified; most MGEs were classified as phages. In the metagenome-assembled genomes, the presence of 15 PARB was confirmed. The soil profile showed that the transcripts per million (TPM) values of ARGs and VFGs in the sub-soil horizon were significantly lower than those in the top soil horizon. Based on the TPM value of each gene, major ARGs, VFGs, and these genes in PARB from the Arctic permafrost region were identified and their distribution was confirmed. The major host bacteria for ARGs and VFGs and PARB were identified. A comparison of the percentage identity distribution of ARGs and VFGs to reference databases indicated that ARGs and VFGs in the Arctic soils differ from previously identified genes. Our results may help understand the characteristics and distribution of ARGs, VFGs, and these genes in PARB in the Arctic permafrost region. This findings suggest that the Arctic permafrost region may serve as potential reservoirs for ARGs, VFGs, and PARB. These genes could pose a new threat to human health if they are released by permafrost thawing owing to global warming and propagate to other regions.