Shifting seasons greatly influence the use and management practices in residential built environments which subsequently affect the level of exposure to various pollutants indoors. The levels of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) were monitored in fifteen households of Lahore, Pakistan during different seasons. DustTrak aerosol monitors (model 8520, TSI Inc.) were run simultaneously in the kitchens and living rooms of the selected sites for seventy two hours each. To aid analysis, houses were categorized in three groups according to floor area. For non–smoking houses there was little variation between 24h average PM2.5 concentrations in kitchens (270 to 295μg/m3) although there was an increase in concentrations in living rooms as floor area increased. Across all houses the average PM2.5 concentration was observed to vary during the seasons. In the kitchens the average PM levels were 326μg/m3 during the spring falling to 133μg/m3 in summer, 180μg/m3 in monsoon, 395μg/m3 in autumn and 448μg/m3 during the winter. Similarly, in the living rooms, the mean PM levels observed were 190μg/m3 in spring, 101μg/m3 in summer, 158μg/m3 in monsoon, 458μg/m3 in autumn and 590μg/m3 in winter. Factors contributing towards these levels were cooking (involving frequent frying), floor sweeping, and also movement of the occupants. Smoking at two sites and use of gas heaters during the winter were also identified as contributing sources. Apart from these sources, ventilation was identified to be the most singular attributing factor to the above mentioned variations in PM levels. Ventilation during the warm season ranged from 3.51 air changes per hour (ACH) to 7.68 ACH. On the contrary, ventilation decreased during the autumn and winter season (2.5 to 5.64 ACH) and this resulted in an accumulation of PM indoors. The levels of fine particulate matter were observed to be 3 to 23 times higher than the WHO established standard of 25μg/m3.

The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meetings of 2014 were held from November 7–12. In order to guarantee the good air quality of Beijing, the Chinese government has taken the most stringent emission reduction measures to date. This study analyzed and compared the air quality of Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei (BTH) regions just before and after APEC meetings. The observations show that the APEC emission reduction measures have effectively improved the air quality of BTH, especially Beijing. Compared with normal emission period (NEP), the PM2.5, PM10, O3, SO2, NO2 and CO concentrations of Beijing during emission reduction periods were reduced by about 58%, 49%, 9%, 34%, 23%, and 4%. The air quality in Tianjin and Hebei were improved significantly, but the rises were smaller than ones in Beijing. During the APEC meetings, due to the weak southerly wind the contribution of backward trajectories from the neighboring air pollution areas of Beijing was less than 10%. The stringent emission reduction measures and favorable weather conditions ensured the good air qualities during the APEC meetings.

One-hundred and thirty-four samples of mussels (Mytilus galloprovincialis) collected along Central Adriatic Sea in 2013 were examined to determine the levels of fifteen congeners of polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs). The purified samples were analysed by gas-chromatography coupled to tandem mass spectrometry (GC-MS/MS) applying the isotopic dilution. Only four congeners (PBDE 47, PBDE 99, PBDE 49 and PBDE 100) were present above the established limits of quantification with mean concentrations equal to 73, 30, 19 and 18pgg−1, respectively. The concentrations of PBDEs (sum) ranged from 27 to 386pgg−1, with the highest levels around the coastal area of Ancona town. The here found levels were comparable to those measured in mussels collected along Southern Adriatic Sea.

This laboratory study measured the direct effects of three polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) compounds (naphthalene, pyrene, and benzo(a)pyrene) upon cell growth, membrane integrity, and BODIPY-stained lipid fluorescence intensity of the benthic diatom Nitzschia brevirostris using flow cytometry as an analysis tool. Previous field and laboratory studies have reported reductions in algal populations following PAH exposure, but specific, functional responses of the microalgae to these pollutants could not be revealed by cell numbers alone. Using flow-cytometric measurements, we confirmed that maximal cell densities in PAH-exposed diatom cultures were significantly lower compared to controls; however, we also discovered increases in lipids and cells with compromised membranes in PAH-exposed cultures. These results highlight new tools for measuring the direct effects of organic pollutants upon the physiology of taxa comprising microphytobenthic communities important in estuarine food webs.

Contaminant concentrations are reported for surface water, sediment, flora and fauna collected during 2010–2011 from the mangrove fringe along eastern Tampa Bay, Florida. Concentrations of trace metals, chlorinated pesticides, atrazine, total polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, and polychlorinated biphenyls were species-, chemical- and location-specific. Contaminants in sediments did not exceed proposed individual sediment quality guidelines. Most sediment quality assessment quotients were less than one indicating the likelihood of no inhibitory effect based on chemical measurements alone. Faunal species typically contained more contaminants than plant species; seagrass usually contained more chemicals than mangroves. Bioconcentration factors for marine angiosperms were usually less than 10 and ranged between 1 and 31. Mercury concentrations (ppm) in blue crabs and fish did not exceed the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency fish tissue criterion of 0.3 and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration action level of 1.0. In contrast, total mercury concentrations in faunal species often exceeded guideline values for wildlife consumers of aquatic biota.

Hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs) are promoted in China to ease increasing pressures of urban air pollution and oil security. In this paper, we measured two Toyota Prius HEVs by using a portable emission measurement system (PEMS) to evaluate their real–world performance with regard to gaseous emission factors and fuel consumption. Our results indicated that their average exhaust emission factors of CO, THC, NOX and CO2 were 0.25±0.08 gkm–1, 0.015±0.002 gkm–1, 0.009±0.005 gkm–1 and 136±21 gkm–1 (i.e., 5.81±0.90 L 100km–1 for fuel consumption) respectively, while driving the averaged on–road traffic pattern. Compared to conventional gasoline and diesel vehicles, the tested HEVs demonstrated significant advantages in simultaneously mitigating major air pollutants (e.g., NOX), greenhouse gas emissions (CO2) and fuel consumption. For example, average CO2 emission factors are reduced by approximately 35% and 15% relative to conventional gasoline and diesel cars in Macao. Unlike conventional gasoline and diesel cars, relative CO2 emission factors of HEVs were much less sensitive to speed change, while their relative NOX emission factors were reduced as average speed became lower. This indicates significant environmental and energy benefits from HEVs under congested driving conditions. Our assessment suggests that HEVs are a competitive technology option for the taxi fleet in Macao with strong advantages in saving fuel cost for taxi drivers and mitigating NOX emissions.

An assessment of hazard stemming from operational oil ship discharges in the Southern Adriatic and Northern Ionian (SANI) Seas is presented. The methodology integrates ship traffic data, the fate and transport oil spill model MEDSLIK-II, coupled with the Mediterranean Forecasting System (MFS) ocean currents, sea surface temperature analyses and ECMWF surface winds. Monthly and climatological hazard maps were calculated for February 2009 through April 2013. Monthly hazard distributions of oil show that the zones of highest sea surface hazard are located in the southwestern Adriatic Sea and eastern Ionian Sea. Distinctive “hot spots” appear in front of the Taranto Port and the sea area between Corfu Island and the Greek coastlines. Beached oil hazard maps indicate the highest values in the Taranto Port area, on the eastern Greek coastline, as well as in the Bari Port area and near Brindisi Port area.

Methods of calculating wildlife entanglement rates are not standardised between studies and often ignore the influence of observer effort, confounding comparisons. From 1997–2013 we identified 359 entangled Australian fur seals at Seal Rocks, south-eastern Australia. Most entanglement materials originated from commercial fisheries; most frequently entangling pups and juveniles. Using Generalized Additive Mixed Models, which incorporated observer effort and survey frequency, we identified that entanglements were observed more frequently amongst pups from July to October as they approached weaning. Neither the decline in regional fishing intensity nor changing seal population size influenced the incidence of entanglements. Using the models, we estimated that 302 (95% CI=182–510) entangled seals were at Seal Rocks each year, equivalent to 1.0% (CI=0.6–1.7%) of the site population. This study highlights the influence of observer effort and the value of long-term datasets for determining the drivers of marine debris entanglements.

In this study, based on sampling data from 30 sites in August 2010, the environmental risks associated with 16 priority PAHs were estimated in surface sediments from the Yangtze River Estuary (YRE). The results indicated that the toxic equivalent quantities of the benzo[a]pyrene (TEQBap) from 30 sites were in the range of 1.93–75.88ngg−1, and the low-molecular-weight PAHs were the dominated species with higher potential toxicity. The results of the Incremental Lifetime Cancer Risk (ILCR) model indicated that the ILCR values of dermal contact were higher than 10−6 in the northeast region, suggesting that there were significant potential carcinogenic health risks for fishermen exposure to sedimentary PAHs via dermal contact in these areas. RQ values of PAHs indicated the various distributions of ecological risk levels in the study area. These variations might be caused by the natural and anthropogenic inputs and currents in the YRE.

The dynamics and composition of the bacterial community in the coastal waters of Kuwait are poorly understood. In this study, the spatial–temporal variations in the bacterial composition in the surface water along the Kuwaiti coast was examined by 16S rRNA denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) fingerprinting and phylogeny analyses. The sampling sites were Kuwait Bay, Al-Sabbiya (north of the bay) and Al-Khairan (to the south). The bacterial composition was more variable in the summer for all sites. A cluster analysis of the DGGE fingerprint revealed two main clusters, indicating a temporal similarity between sites. Kuwait Bay and Al-Khairan were more similar to each other than to Al-Sabbiya. The bacterial community composition exhibited distinctive spatial variations, with more diversity at Al-Khairan and less diversity at Al-Sabbiya. At all sites, the dominant bacteria were Alphaproteobacteria, in particular Rhodobacteraceae, followed by Alteromonadaceae (Gammaproteobacteria) and Bacteroidetes.