Because compounds accumulate through dry periods and enter aquatic systems in just a few seasonal events such as snowmelt and summer storms, surface waters in semi-arid, cold regions, such as the Canadian Prairies, are particularly vulnerable to loading of contaminant from runoff events from surfaces. This study assessed concentrations of metals and selected trace organics entering a river via surface runoff from an urban region and how these semi-arid regions with large seasonal variations in temperature might differ from more temperate regions. Selected potentially harmful elements (PHEs) including, Mn with Cr, Cu, Zn, Ba and U all exceeded guideline discharge values set by the Canadian Council of the Ministers of the Environment (CCME) by as much as 16-fold. Variation among discharges during spring, summer and winter was observed. For example, across the whole city, an estimated 6 kg of zinc was discharged in a spring storm, 36 kg in a summer storm and 17 tonnes in snowmelt. The mass of Zn discharged is similar to the annual loading estimated for Stockholm, Sweden, but in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada, the bulk of runoff was during snowmelt. The mean sum of poly- and per-fluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in stormwater was 9.0 ng L⁻¹, which is consistent with concentrations observed in other Canadian cities (6.5–16 ng L⁻¹). These concentrations of PFAS are likely due to dispersed sources and orders of magnitude less than thresholds for toxicity to fish and aquatic invertebrates.

In the event of an accident in an industrial plant, the damage caused by it can be enormous. There may be environmental contamination in a large area. Injured persons may be both employees of the plant staying on its premises and local residents. The control of major accidents is realised by implementing the procedures regarding: safety analysis, emergency and operational planning, effective land-use planning (LUP), strategic environmental assessment (SEA), environmental impact assessment (EIA) and public consultation. The paper presents findings of a case study aiming to analyse selected spatial planning documents prepared at the municipality and SEA reports accompanying them, with regard to hazards of major industrial accidents in six Polish cities. In addition, changes of relevant Polish legislation taking place from 1995 till now are explained referring to European Union (EU) law. This article is the very first to present the situation concerning LUP around hazardous plants in Poland based on such extensive data. The assessment shows that the way of recording the major accident hazards is varied, but legal norms, binding at the time when the documents were drawn up, were met in each of the analysed documents. Changes of relevant Poland legislation were not the only reason for differences in the ways of recording the hazards of major industrial accidents in these documents. The case study has revealed that relevant Polish regulations can be still improved. The results of the study have useful implications for the control of major accidents, spatial policy-making and environmental management.

The present work details the effects of injection of higher order alcohols, namely hexanol (Hex) and octanol (Oct) as secondary fuels in a CI engine. The last decade has seen an exponential increase in the carbon emission chief of which have been contributed by fossil fuels. Vegetable oils provide a viable alternative to the current scenario as they can be synthesized easily from nature and can be readily adapted for use in CI engines. Neem oil (NO) is non-edible and widely available and hence taken as a base fuel for this research. The poor properties of neem oil were improved by the addition of novel low viscous biofuel, namely wintergreen oil (WGO). During the course of this research work, a blend containing a mixture of 50% of neat neem oil and 50% of wintergreen oil (NO50-WGO50) was optimized based on trial tests and taken as pilot fuel while Hex and Oct were injected along with intake air as secondary fuels. The alcohols were injected into the engine successively in the 10%, 20%, and 30% (by mass) ratios. Experiments were conducted in a single-cylinder CI engine fabricating 5.2-kW power at a constant speed of 1500 rpm at varying load conditions. It is observed that inferior performance of NO led to more smoke, HC, and CO in comparison to diesel at all the loads and these are improved with NO50-WGO50 blend. Nevertheless, a minor increase in NOx emission was perceived with the blend. Addition of higher order alcohol promoted reduction of both NOx and smoke emission without affecting performance. Among the various combinations, NO50-WGO50 + Hex30 and Oct30 reduced NOx emission by 12% and 9.5% and smoke emission by 13% and 19% respectively. These results are on par with the diesel performance and emission characteristics.

Membrane distillation (MD) has a high heat requirement. Integrating MD with thermophilic bioreactors could remedy this problem. A laboratory-scale thermophilic anaerobic granular sludge membrane distillation bioreactor (ThAGS-MDBR) was used to treat wastewater with a high organic loading rate (OLR). Waste heat from ThAGS was used directly for the MD process to reduce energy consumption. The result demonstrated that the ThAGS-MDBR system achieved a high-efficiency removal of chemical oxygen demand (more 99.5%) and NH₄⁺-N (96.4%). Furthermore, the highest methane production from the proposed system was 332 mL/g CODᵣₑₘₒᵥₑd at OLR of 16 kg COD/m³/day. Specifically, an aggregate of densely packed diverse microbial communities in anaerobic granular sludge was the main mechanism for the enhancement of bioreactor tolerance with environmental changes. High-quality distillate water from ThAGS-MDBR was reclaimed in one step with total organic carbon less than 1.7 mg/L and electrical conductivity less than 120 μS/cm. Furthermore, the result of the DNA extraction kit recorded that Methanosaeta thermophila was a critical archaea for high COD removal and bioreactor stability.

Stresses of antibiotics can cause strains (i.e. effects) on seed at germination and post-germination stages. But there is a lack of research on the period and type of the effects at present. In this study, Chinese cabbage (Brassica rapa L.), a commonly used crop, was selected to investigate the effect of tetracycline (TC), a major-use antibiotic, on its seed during different periods of the stages. Results showed that there were no significant differences among the germination energy (GE) of control (CK) and treatments, but radicle length (RL) of the treatments, the exposure to TC at post-germination stage (i.e. radicle elongation stage), was all significantly less than that of CK. The initial stage of radicle elongation was the earliest and most sensitive period at which the stress of TC caused the plastic effect on seed. Moreover, the action of TC stress on seed did not have a delayed characteristic. The result of RL was identical to the leakage of intracellular substances at radicle fast elongation stage, but not the Evan’s blue trapped by radicle. We concluded that TC inhibited the elongation of radicle through weakening the cellular metabolic activity rather than leading to the loss of cellular membrane integrity. It should be paid more attention to the phytotoxicity of TC in the field due to its active characteristics revealed in our study.

Sludge morphology considerably affects the mechanism underlying microbial anaerobic degradation of phenol. Here, we assessed the phenol degradation rate, specific methanogenic activity, electron transport activity, coenzyme F₄₂₀ concentration, and microbial community structure of five phenol-degrading sludge of varying particle sizes (i.e., < 20, 20–50, 50–100, 100–200, and > 200 μm). The results indicated an increase in phenol degradation rate and microbial community structure that distinctly correlated with an increase in sludge particle size. Although the sludge with the smallest particle size (< 20 μm) showed the lowest phenol degradation rate (9.3 mg COD·gVSS⁻¹ day⁻¹), its methanogenic activity with propionic acid, butyric acid, and H₂/CO₂ as substrates was the best, and the concentration of coenzyme F₄₂₀ was the highest. The small particle size sludge did not contain abundant syntrophic bacteria or hydrogenotrophic methanogens, but contained abundant acetoclastic methanogens. Moreover, the floc sizes of the different sludge varied in important phenol-degrading bacteria and archaea, which may dominate the synergistic mechanism. This study provides a new perspective on the role of sludge floc size on the anaerobic digestion of phenol.

It is an overwhelming concern that increases in global average temperature lead to serious consequences on the natural environment in the form of deteriorating water resource quality and damaging healthcare sustainability agenda. The sustainable innovation forum (COP21) shows a high concern on climate changes and suggested to reduce global average temperature less than 2 °C. The study brings an idea from the stated theme and analyzed the relationship between climate change and water resource quality in order to redesign economic and environmental policies to improve water quality and healthcare sustainability in the context of Pakistan. The country has serious issues regarding the provision of safe drinking water, improved water resource quality, and healthcare sustainability, which can be achieved by sustainable policies to handle the extreme temperature in Pakistan. The study employed simultaneous generalized method of moments (GMM) technique in order to estimate parameters of the study during the period of 1980–2016. The results show that energy demand and industry value added substantially decrease water resource quality (WRQ), while agriculture value added and per capita income significantly increase WRQ in a country. The other regression apparatus, where health expenditures serve as the response variable, shows that average temperature, industry value added, population growth, and foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows significantly increase healthcare expenditures while WRQ has a negative impact on healthcare expenditures in a country. The final regression model shows that average temperature and per capita income decrease, while WRQ and industrial value added increase mortality rate in a country. The overall results confirm that WRQ affected by climate change, energy demand, and population growth that need sustainable water resource policies in order to achieve long-term sustained growth. The climate actions required more policy instruments to combat environmental challenges that should support healthcare sustainability agenda across the globe.

In the study, 305 patients of both genders were enrolled and divided into three groups: obese (BMI > 30 kg/m²), patients who were diagnosed type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), and control, normal weight healthy volunteers. At least one of ten different phthalate metabolites was determined in the urine samples of 49.84% all enrolled participants. In the obese subgroup, the sum of all urinary phthalate metabolites was positively associated with TG levels (p = 0.031) together with derived TC/HDL and TG/HDL ratios (p = 0.023 and 0.015), respectively. Urinary MEP concentration was positively correlated with the HOMA-IR in T2DM subgroup (p = 0.016) while in the control subgroup, log₁₀MEP levels were negatively correlated with total cholesterol (p = 0.0051), and LDL serum levels (p = 0.0015), respectively. Also, in the control subgroup, positive linear correlations between urinary log₁₀MEP levels and TyG and TYG-BMI values (p = 0.028 and p = 0.027), respectively, were determined. Urinary MEHP levels were associated with glucose serum levels (p = 0.02) in T2DM subgroup, while in the control HDL values were negatively associated with log₁₀MEHP (p = 0.0035). Healthy volunteers exposed to phthalates had elevated AST levels in comparison to non-exposed ones (p = 0.023). In control subgroup, ALT and AST values were increased (p = 0.02 and p = 0.01, respectively) in MEP exposed while GGT levels were enhanced (p = 0.017) in MEHP exposed in comparison with non-exposed. Combined phthalates influence on glucose and lipid metabolism may increase the possibility for NAFLD and insulin resistance development among exposed individuals.

CeCu solid solution oxide catalysts were prepared by the complex method and characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET), and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). And its activity in the catalytic wet peroxide oxidation (CWPO) of 4-chlorophenol (4-CP) and 2,4-dichlorophenol (2,4-DCP) in water was investigated. The results showed that the Cu²⁺ ions dissolved into the CeO₂ lattice to form CeCu solid solution oxide with a coarse, interconnected, porous, and cotton-like morphology. The metal-oxygen bonds were weakened by the formation of solid solution in the CeCu oxide catalyst. This weakening facilitated the activation and decomposition of the H₂O₂ to form highly oxidative HO· species that can lead to significant chlorophenol mineralization. The formation of CeCu solid solution oxide can effectively inhibit the Cu ions to be leached from the used CeCu oxide catalysts, which can ensure the CeCu oxide catalysts to adapt to a wide pH range of 2.1–7.9 and exhibit good reusability. CWPO reaction of 4-CP and 2,4-DCP molecules on CeCu oxide catalysts conforms to the first-order kinetic equation: y = 6959.3x − 17.2 and y = 9725x − 25.4, respectively. And the reaction activation energies are 57.8 and 80.8 kJ/mol, respectively. The TOC removals of 4-CP and 2,4-DCP can exceed 88 and 82%, and the dechlorination rates of 4-CP and 2,4-DCP are higher than 95 and 99.5%, respectively.

This study analyzes Kazakhstan’s influencing factors of energy-related carbon emissions in different stages, and the study period (1992–2014) was divided into four stages by using the logarithmic mean Divisia index (LMDI) method. In the low efficiency and high output stage, Kazakhstan had the most energy-related carbon emissions. The total energy-related carbon emissions might be positive or negative in the high efficiency and high output stage and the low efficiency and low output stage, and this was mainly determined by the energy intensity effect or the economic output effect. Different influencing factors had different effects in the different stages from 1992 to 2014. The economic output effect was the first contributor for promoting energy-related carbon emissions, and the energy intensity factor was the first contributor for suppressing energy-related carbon emissions from 1992 to 2014. Finally, policy recommendations in terms of the main influencing factors are put forward, including the low-carbon economic development mode transformation, technological innovation, and renewable energy development.