Exposure to endocrine disrupting chemicals during the first 1000 days of life may have long-lasting adverse effects on cardio-metabolic risk in later life. This study aimed to examine the associations between maternal prenatal Bisphenol A (BPA) exposure and child cardio-metabolic risk factors at age 2 years in a prospective cohort. During 2012–2013, 218 pregnant women were enrolled at late pregnancy from Shanghai, China. Urinary BPA concentration was measured in prenatal and child 2-year spot urine samples, and classified into high, medium and low tertiles. Child adiposity anthropometric measurements, random morning plasma glucose, serum insulin, and lipids (high-density lipoprotein, low-density lipoprotein, cholesterol, triglyceride), systolic (SBP) and diastolic blood pressure (DBP) were measured. Linear regression was used to evaluate the associations between prenatal BPA and each of the cardio-metabolic risk factors in boys and girls, respectively, adjusting for pertinent prenatal, perinatal and postnatal factors. BPA was detectable (>0.1 μg/L) in 98.2% of mothers prenatally and 99.4% of children at age 2 years. Compared to those with low prenatal BPA, mean SBP was 7.0 (95%CI: 2.9–11.2) mmHg higher, and DBP was 4.4 (95%CI: 1.2–7.5) mmHg higher in girls with high prenatal BPA levels, but these associations were not found in boys. In boys, medium maternal prenatal BPA level was associated with 0.36 (95% CI: 0.04–0.68) mmol/L higher plasma glucose. No associations were found between prenatal BPA and child BMI, skinfold thicknesses, serum lipids, or insulin in either girls or boys. There were no associations between concurrent child urinary BPA and cardio-metabolic risk factors. These results support that BPA exposure during prenatal period, susceptible time for fetal development, may be associated with increase in child BP and plasma glucose in a sex-specific manner. Further independent cohort studies are needed to confirm the findings.

In this work, three gastropods Patella vulgata, Osilinus turbinata, and Tahis clavigera, one echinoderm Parancetrotus lividus, one coelenterate Anemonia sulcata, and two seaweed Padina pavonica, and Cystoseira mediterranea were collected from three different marine areas of Sardinia in the Mediterranean sea and studied for heavy metals and metalloid content and accumulation trends.Inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES) was used for the determination of Al, AS, B, Ba, Be, Cd, Co, Cr, Cu, Fe, Hg, Mn, Mo, Ni, Pb, Sb, Se, Sn, Sr, Te, Ti, V and Zn in the selected samples. The results showed that gastropods were capable of accumulating Al, Ba, Cu, Fe, Sr, and Zn; seaweeds can better concentrate Al, Fe, and Zn than all other species. At the same time, echinoderms and coelenterate had limited ability to store specific metals, showing a much more homogeneous distribution. PCA analysis allowed us to discriminate among the sites and the species. Cala Zafferano was the area with the higher values of accumulation of all metals in all species as expected, considering its proximity to industrial sites. The results of the analysis showed clearly that heavy metal and metalloid accumulation was different for each species studied. Therefore, for a correct environmental assessment of a given area, a comprehensive approach is strongly recommended by exploiting the different properties of both accumulation and concentration of the metals by different aquatic species.

A pilot study was initiated in 2018 under the Global Atmospheric Passive Sampling (GAPS) Network named GAPS-Megacities. This study included 20 megacities/major cities across the globe with the goal of better understanding and comparing ambient air levels of persistent organic pollutants and other chemicals of emerging concern, to which humans residing in large cities are exposed. The first results from the initial period of sampling are reported for 19 cities for several classes of flame retardants (FRs) including organophosphate esters (OPEs), polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs), and halogenated flame retardants (HFRs) including new flame retardants (NFRs), tetrabromobisphenol A (TBBPA) and hexabromocyclododecane (HBCDD). The two cities, New York (USA) and London (UK) stood out with ∼3.5 to 30 times higher total FR concentrations as compared to other major cities, with total concentrations of OPEs of 15,100 and 14,100 pg/m³, respectively. Atmospheric concentrations of OPEs significantly dominated the FR profile at all sites, with total concentrations in air that were 2–5 orders of magnitude higher compared to other targeted chemical classes. A moderately strong and significant correlation (r = 0.625, p < 0.001) was observed for Gross Domestic Product index of the cities with total OPEs levels. Although large differences in FR levels were observed between some cities, when averaged across the five United Nations regions, the FR classes were more evenly distributed and varied by less than a factor of five. Results for Toronto, which is a ‘reference city’ for this study, agreed well with a more in-depth investigation of the level of FRs over different seasons and across eight sites representing different urban source sectors (e.g. traffic, industrial, residential and background). Future sampling periods under this project will investigate trace metals and other contaminant classes, linkages to toxicology, non-targeted analysis, and eventually temporal trends. The study provides a unique urban platform for evaluating global exposome.

Few studies have explored the links of air pollution and childhood lipid profiles and dyslipidemias. We aimed to explore this topic in Chinese children and adolescents. This study included 12,814 children aged 7–18 years who participated in a national survey in 2013. Satellite-based spatial-temporal model was used to predict 3-y (2011–2013) average particles with diameters ≤ 1.0 μm (PM₁), ≤2.5 μm (PM₂.₅), ≤10 μm (PM₁₀), and nitrogen dioxide (NO₂) concentrations. Generalized linear mixed models were employed to evaluate the relationships of air pollution and total cholesterol (TC), triglycerides (TG), high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), and dyslipidemias. Every 10 μg/m³ increase in PM₁, PM₂.₅, PM₁₀, and NO₂ was related to increases of 6.20% [95% confidence interval (CI): 2.44, 10.10], 5.31% (95%CI: 0.41, 10.44), 3.49% (95%CI: 0.97, 6.08), and 5.25% (95%CI: 1.56, 9.07) in TC, respectively. The odds ratio of hypercholesterolemia associated with a 10 μg/m³ increase in PM₁, PM₂.₅, and NO₂ was 2.15 (95%CI: 1.27, 3.65), 1.70 (95%CI: 1.12, 2.60), and 1.43 (95%CI: 1.05, 1.93), respectively. No associations were found for air pollution and other blood lipids. Long-term PM₁, PM₂.₅, PM₁₀, and NO₂ exposures were positively associated with TC levels and risk of hypercholesterolemia in children and adolescents.

Cardiovascular diseases (CVD) are leading global health issue. More studies have linked indoor air pollution from solid fuel usage to hypertension risk, a leading risk factor for CVD. We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis of observational studies assessing the relationship of indoor air pollution from solid fuel with hypertension risk. Using a protocol standardized a priori, two independent reviewers searched PubMed, the Cochrane Library, Ovid MEDLINE, Web of Science and EMBASE for available studies published before Dec.1, 2019. A random effects model was used to analyse the pooled results. Out of 3740 articles, 47 were reviewed in depth and 11 contributing to this meta-analysis. The use of household solid fuel was significantly associated with an increased risk of hypertension (OR = 1.52, 95% CI = 1.26 to 1.85). The smoking-controlled group (OR = 2.38, 95% CI = 1.58 to 3.60) had greater effect size of hypertension than the uncontrolled group (OR = 1.11, 95% CI = 1.10 to 1.11). These findings implicate that indoor air pollution from solid fuel may be an important risk factor for hypertension.

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in soil are not only detrimental to environment but also to human health. Double dielectric barrier discharge (DDBD) plasma reactor used for the remediation of pyrene contaminated soil was studied. The performance of DDBD reactor was optimized with influential parameters including applied voltage, type of carrier gas, air feeding rate as well as pyrene initial concentration. The analysis of variance (ANOVA) results showed that input energy had a great effect on pyrene remediation efficiency followed by pyrene initial concentration, while, the effect of air feeding rate was insignificant. More specifically, the remediation efficiency of pyrene under air, nitrogen and argon as carrier gas were approximately 79.7, 40.7 and 38.2% respectively. Pyrene remediation efficiency is favored at high level of applied voltages and low level of pyrene initial concentration (10 mgkg⁻¹) and air feeding rate (0.85 L/min). Moreover, computation of the energy efficiency of the DDBD system disclosed that an optimal applied voltage (35.8 kV) and higher initial pyrene concentration (200 mgkg⁻¹) favored the high energy efficiency. A regression model predicting pyrene remediation under DDBD plasma condition was developed using the data from a face-centered central composite design (FCCD) experiment. Finally, the residual toxicity analysis depicted that the respiratory activity increased more than 21 times (from 0.04 to 0.849 mg O₂ g⁻¹) with a pyrene remediation efficiency of 81.1%. The study demonstrated the DDBD plasma technology is a promising method not only for high efficiency of pyrene remediation, but also recovering biological function without changing the physical-chemical properties of soil.

The prevalence of pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs) in lotic habitats is increasing, with the main source of these contaminants being effluent from waste water treatment works (WwTW). There is still much uncertainty about the impacts of these PPCPs at environmentally relevant concentrations and their potential effects on aquatic ecology. Behaviour is a sensitive endpoint which can help evaluate possible population level effects from changes in physiology. This paper evaluates the effects of WwTW effluent on a range of behaviours in the freshwater invertebrate, Gammarus pulex. Effluent taken from the outflow of two WwTW in southern England was used in the study. Behavioural analyses, namely feeding rate, phototaxis, activity, velocity and precopula pairing, were measured in G. pulex following a period of one and three weeks after exposure to a 50% or 100% effluent and a control. Mortality remained very low throughout the 3 week experiment (0–10%, n = 20) and no significant changes in moulting frequency were observed (p > 0.05). No significant effects on feeding or velocity or phototaxis following 3 weeks of effluent exposures were observed (p > 0.05). However, significant reductions were observed in the overall activity over 3 weeks across which appeared to be exacerbated by exposure to effluents. Interestingly, males exposed for 3 weeks to WwTW effluent re-paired with unexposed females significantly faster (4-6x) than control animals. This result was consistent between the effluents taken from the two WwTW. The implications of these behavioural changes are currently unknown but highlight the need for a varied set of tools to study the behavioural changes in wildlife.

Given the ubiquitous presence of microplastics in aquatic environments, an evaluation of their toxicity is essential. Microplastics are a heterogeneous set of materials that differ not only in particle properties, like size and shape, but also in chemical composition, including polymers, additives and side products. Thus far, it remains unknown whether the plastic chemicals or the particle itself are the driving factor for microplastic toxicity. To address this question, we exposed Daphnia magna for 21 days to irregular polyvinyl chloride (PVC), polyurethane (PUR) and polylactic acid (PLA) microplastics as well as to natural kaolin particles in high concentrations (10, 50, 100, 500 mg/L, ≤ 59 μm) and different exposure scenarios, including microplastics and microplastics without extractable chemicals as well as the extracted and migrating chemicals alone. All three microplastic types negatively affected the life-history of D. magna. However, this toxicity depended on the endpoint and the material. While PVC had the largest effect on reproduction, PLA reduced survival most effectively. The latter indicates that bio-based and biodegradable plastics can be as toxic as their conventional counterparts. The natural particle kaolin was less toxic than microplastics when comparing numerical concentrations. Importantly, the contribution of plastic chemicals to the toxicity was also plastic type-specific. While we can attribute effects of PVC to the chemicals used in the material, effects of PUR and PLA plastics were induced by the mere particle. Our study demonstrates that plastic chemicals can drive microplastic toxicity. This highlights the importance of considering the individual chemical composition of plastics when assessing their environmental risks. Our results suggest that less studied polymer types, like PVC and PUR, as well as bioplastics are of particular toxicological relevance and should get a higher priority in ecotoxicological studies.

Pesticides used in agriculture are some of the most common pollutants in the world. This study aimed to investigate the effects of Organophosphorus Pesticides (OPPs) and Organochlorine Pesticides (OCPs) on the families of farmworkers in the southeast of Iran.In the present case-control study, 141 family members of farmworkers (as the case group) and 59 family members of non-farmworkers (as the controls) were recruited. Serum levels of OCPs such as α-HCH, β-HCH, γ-HCH, 2,4-DDE, 4,4-DDE, 2,4-DDT, and 4,4-DDT were determined. In addition, erythrocyte acetylcholinesterase (AChE) activity, malondialdehyde (MDA), total antioxidant capacity (TAC), protein carbonyl (PC), nitric oxide (NO) serum levels, arylesterase activity of paraoxonase 1 (PON-1), superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT), and glutathione peroxidase (GPx) activity were determined in all participants. Furthermore, distance to farmlands, education, crops, type, and the number of consumed fruits were evaluated for each individual separately.The erythrocyte AChE activity and serum activities of GPx, SOD, and PON-1 and TAC levels were significantly decreased, whereas the concentration of MDA, PC, NO, and seven OCPs were significantly increased in the farmworkers’ families as compared to the controls. Spearman correlation and linear regression suggest that OCPs increase the oxidative stress in farmworkers’ family members. Moreover, distance, education, farming precedence, products, and ventilation had significant effects on the OCP levels and increased the odds ratio of OCP levels in farmworkers’ families.With regards to the data obtained in this study, it was revealed that OCPs as illegal pesticides and OPPs were higher than expected in the farmworkers’ family members. Furthermore, exposure to OCPs and OPPs, apart from the other effects on the body, leads to oxidative stress (OS) that may cause serious diseases in the exposed populations.

In ecological risk assessment, acute to chronic ratio (ACR) uncertainty factors are routinely applied to acute mortality benchmarks to estimate chronic toxicity thresholds. To investigate variability of aquatic ACRs, we first compiled and compared 56 and 150 pairs of acute and subchronic/chronic growth/reproductive toxicity data for fishes (Pimephales promelas (53), Danio rerio (2), and Oryzias latipes (1)) and the crustacean Daphnia magna, respectively, for 172 chemicals with different modes of action (MOA). We found that there were only significant relationships between P. promelas acute median lethal concentrations and growth lowest-observed effect concentrations for class 1 (nonpolar narcosis) chemicals, though significant relationships were demonstrated for D. magna to all Verhaar et al. MOA classes (Class 1: nonpolar narcosis, Class 2: polar narcosis, Class 3: reactive chemicals, and Class 4: AChE inhibitors and estrogenics). Probabilistic ecological hazard assessment using chemical toxicity distributions was subsequently employed for each MOA class to estimate acute and chronic thresholds, respectively, to identify MOA and species specific ecological thresholds of toxicological concern. Finally, novel MOA and species specific ACRs using both chemical toxicity distribution comparison and individual ACR probability distribution approaches were identified using representative MOA and chemical categories. Our data-driven approaches and newly identified ACR values represent robust alternatives to application of default ACR values, and can also support future research and risk assessment and management activities for other chemical classes when toxicity information is limited for chemicals with specific MOAs within invertebrates and fish.