A rough estimate of the annual amount of sulfur, arsenic, mercury and fluoride emission from spontaneous combustion of coal gangue in China was determined. The weighted mean concentrations of S, As, Hg, and F in coal gangue are 1.01%, 7.98, 0.18, and 365.54 mg/kg, respectively. Amounts of S, As, Hg, and F emissions from coal gangue spontaneous combustion show approximately 1.13 Mt, and 246, 45, and 63,298 tons in 2013, respectively. The atmospheric release amount of sulfur from coal gangue is more than one tenth of this from coal combustion, and the amounts of As, Hg, and F are close to or even exceed those from coal combustion. China's coal gangue production growth from 1992 to 2013 show an obvious growth since 2002. It may indicate that Chinese coal gangue has become a potential source of air pollution, which should be included in emission inventories.

Plastic pollution is recognised as an emerging threat to aquatic ecosystems, with microplastics now the most abundant type of marine debris. Health effects caused by microplastics have been demonstrated at the species level, but impacts on ecological communities remain unknown. In this study, impacts of microplastics on the health and biological functioning of European flat oysters (Ostrea edulis) and on the structure of associated macrofaunal assemblages were assessed in an outdoor mesocosm experiment using intact sediment cores. Biodegradable and conventional microplastics were added at low (0.8 μg L−1) and high (80 μg L−1) doses in the water column repeatedly for 60 days. Effects on the oysters were minimal, but benthic assemblage structures differed and species richness and the total number of organisms were ∼1.2 and 1.5 times greater in control mesocosms than in those exposed to high doses of microplastics. Notably, abundances of juvenile Littorina sp. (periwinkles) and Idotea balthica (an isopod) were ∼2 and 8 times greater in controls than in mesocosms with the high dose of either type of microplastic. In addition, the biomass of Scrobicularia plana (peppery furrow shell clam) was ∼1.5 times greater in controls than in mesocosms with the high dose of microplastics. This work indicates that repeated exposure to high concentrations of microplastics could alter assemblages in an important marine habitat by reducing the abundance of benthic fauna.

Lead (Pb) has been proved to exert immunotoxicity to influence immune homeostasis in humans. To monitor the internal Pb level and evaluate its effect on natural killer (NK) cells and cytokine/chemokine concentrations, we recruited 285 preschool children from Guiyu, one of the largest electronic waste (e-waste) destinations and recycling areas in the world, and known to have high concentrations of Pb in the air, soil, water, sediment and plants. A total of 126 preschool children were selected from Haojiang as a reference group. Results showed that children in Guiyu, the exposed area, had higher blood Pb levels and lower percentages of NK cells than children from the reference area. A significantly negative association was found between the percentage of NK cells and increasing Pb levels. Moreover, children in Guiyu area had higher platelet counts and IL-1β concentrations, and lower levels of IL-2, IL-27, MIP-1α and MIP-1β were observed in the exposed children. These changes might not be conducive to the development and differentiation of NK cells. Taken together, the elevated Pb levels result in the lower percentages of NK cells, but also alter the levels of platelets, IL-1β and IL-27, which might be unconducive to the activity and function of NK cells.

Research directions from the 27th conference for Specialists in Air Pollution and Climate Change Effects on Forest Ecosystems (2015) reflect knowledge advancements about (i) Mechanistic bases of tree responses to multiple climate and pollution stressors, in particular the interaction of ozone (O3) with nitrogen (N) deposition and drought; (ii) Linking genetic control with physiological whole-tree activity; (iii) Epigenetic responses to climate change and air pollution; (iv) Embedding individual tree performance into the multi-factorial stand-level interaction network; (v) Interactions of biogenic and anthropogenic volatile compounds (molecular, functional and ecological bases); (vi) Estimating the potential for carbon/pollution mitigation and cost effectiveness of urban and peri-urban forests; (vii) Selection of trees adapted to the urban environment; (viii) Trophic, competitive and host/parasite relationships under changing pollution and climate; (ix) Atmosphere–biosphere–pedosphere interactions as affected by anthropospheric changes; (x) Statistical analyses for epidemiological investigations; (xi) Use of monitoring for the validation of models; (xii) Holistic view for linking the climate, carbon, N and O3 modelling; (xiii) Inclusion of multiple environmental stresses (biotic and abiotic) in critical load determinations; (xiv) Ecological impacts of N deposition in the under-investigated areas; (xv) Empirical models for mechanistic effects at the local scale; (xvi) Broad-scale N and sulphur deposition input and their effects on forest ecosystem services; (xvii) Measurements of dry deposition of N; (xviii) Assessment of evapotranspiration; (xix) Remote sensing assessment of hydrological parameters; and (xx) Forest management for maximizing water provision and overall forest ecosystem services. Ground-level O3 is still the phytotoxic air pollutant of major concern to forest health. Specific issues about O3 are: (xxi) Developing dose–response relationships and stomatal O3 flux parameterizations for risk assessment, especially, in under-investigated regions; (xxii) Defining biologically based O3 standards for protection thresholds and critical levels; (xxiii) Use of free-air exposure facilities; (xxiv) Assessing O3 impacts on forest ecosystem services.

Most of the organohalogenated contaminants (OHCs) have high environmental stability and are lipophilic in nature, thus bioaccumulate through the various routes e.g., inhalation, dermal contact and food intake. Human exposure to these OHCs can induce adverse health effects. Studies on the occurrence of OHCs in human samples from Saudi Arabia are scarce. Therefore, this study aimed at providing preliminary insight on the occurrence of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), organochlorine pesticides (OCPs) and polybrominated biphenyl ethers (PBDEs) in diabetic and non-diabetic donors from KSA. Serum samples were collected from type 2 diabetic patients (n = 40) and control donors (n = 20) to study the impact of OHCs on their health. For the first time we studied the difference of ƩOHCs in type 2 diabetic and control participants. The order of obtained results was ƩOCPs (35–650 ng/g lw)> ƩPCBs (15–90 ng/g lw)> ƩPBDEs (1.5–68 ng/g lw). The major contributors were p,p′-DDE (median 44 ng/g lw), PCB 153 (2.3 ng/g lw), PCB 138 (2.1 ng/g lw), BDE 153 (1.2 ng/g lw) and BDE 47 (0.85 ng/g lw). Exposure to different OHCs between male and female donors was not significantly different (p > 0.05). However, ƩPCBs and ƩOHCs were significantly higher (p < 0.05) in diabetic donors than those of control group. We computed significantly positive correlations (p < 0.05) among different OHCs and between OHCs and age factor. The current study highlights the presence of different OHCs in humans from Jeddah, KSA. This is a preliminary study based on small sample size but our results suggested that detailed studies are required to understand the sources of these pollutants and their impact on human health.

A pot experiment was conducted to investigate the effects of biochars on the availability of heavy metals (Cd, Cu, Mn, Ni, Pb, and Zn) to ryegrass in an alkaline contaminated soil. Biochars only slightly decreased or even increased the availability of heavy metals assesses by chemical extractant (a mixture of 0.05 mol L−1 ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid disodium, 0.01 mol L−1 CaCl2, and 0.1 mol L−1 triethanolamine). The significantly positive correlation between most chemical-extractable heavy metals and the ash content in biochars indicated the positive role of ash in this extraction. Biochars significantly reduced the plant uptake of heavy metals, excluding Mn. The absence of a positive correlation between the chemical-extractable heavy metals and the plant uptake counterparts (except for Mn) indicates that chemical extractability is probably not a reliable indicator to predict the phytoavailability of most heavy metals in alkaline soils treated with biochars. The obviously negative correlation between the plant uptake of heavy metals (except for Mn) and the (O + N)/C and H/C indicates that biochars with more polar groups, which were produced at lower temperatures, had higher efficiency for reducing the phytoavailability of heavy metals. The significantly negative correlations between the plant uptake of Mn and ryegrass biomass indicated the “dilution effect” caused by the improvement of biomass. These observations will be helpful for designing biochars as soil amendments to reduce the availability of heavy metals to plants in soils, especially in alkaline soils.

Over the past 20 years, global production of copper (Cu) and zinc (Zn) rank in the top three compared to other metals such as Pb, Cd, Cr, Ni, As and Hg. However, due to the potential for exposure and toxicity to humans, more attention of environmental pollution was paid to other metals such as Cd and Hg. Aquatic organisms are sensitive to Cu and Zn. Even though internal concentrations of these required elements are homeostatically controlled, toxic effects can occur at the fish gill surface. In this work, concentrations in surface waters and toxic effects of Cu, Zn, Ni, Cr, Pb, Cd, As, Hg were determined and risk of various metals in Tai Lake, China were evaluated using both risk quotients and joint probability distributions. Two transition metals, Cu and Zn posed the greatest risks to aquatic organisms while measured concentrations of other metals were less than thresholds for adverse effects. Approximately 99.9% and 50.7% of the aquatic organisms were predicted to be affected by Cu and Zn in surface water of Tai Lake respectively. Our results highlight ecological risks of Cu and Zn in water of a typical, large, urban lake in Eastern China, which was ignored in the past.

Demonstration of an ecotoxicological effect of raised toxic metal bioavailabilities on benthic macroinvertebrate communities in contaminated freshwater streams typically requires the labour-intensive identification and quantification of such communities before the application of multivariate statistical analysis. A simpler approach is the use of accumulated trace metal concentrations in a metal-resistant biomonitor to define thresholds that indicate the presence of raised trace metal bioavailabilities causing ecotoxicological responses in populations of more metal-sensitive members of the community. We explore further the hypothesis that concentrations of toxic metals in larvae of species of the caddisfly genus Hydropsyche can be used to predict metal-driven ecotoxicological responses in more metal-sensitive mayflies, especially ephemerellid and heptageniid mayflies, in metal-contaminated rivers. Comparative investigation of two caddisflies, Hydropsyche siltalai and Hydropsyche angustipennis, from metal-contaminated rivers in Cornwall and Upper Silesia, Poland respectively, has provided preliminary evidence that this hypothesis is applicable across caddisfly species and contaminated river systems. Use of a combined toxic unit approach, relying on independent data sets, suggested that copper and probably also arsenic are the drivers of mayfly ecotoxicity in the River Hayle and the Red River in Cornwall, while cadmium, lead and zinc are the toxic agents in the Biala Przemsza River in Poland. This approach has great potential as a simple tool to detect the more subtle effects of mixed trace metal contamination in freshwater systems. An informed choice of suitable biomonitor extends the principle to different freshwater habitats over different ranges of severity of trace metal contamination.

In this current work, the magnetic composite microsphere containing glutamine modified chitosan and silica coated Fe3O4 nanoparticles (CS-Gln-MCM) has been successfully prepared and extensively characterized, which is a kind of biodegradable materials. CS-Gln-MCM shows enhanced removal efficiency for both acid green 25 (AG25), an amphoteric dye, and mercury ions (Hg²⁺) from water in the respective while measured pH range compared with chitosan magnetic composite microsphere (CS-MCM) without modification. It is due to the fact that the grafted amino acid provides a variety of additional adsorption active sites and diverse adsorption mechanisms are involved. In AG25 and Hg²⁺ aqueous mixture, the modified adsorbents bear preferential adsorption for AG25 over Hg²⁺ in strong acidic solutions ascribed to multiple interactions between AG25 and CS-Gln-MCM, such as hydrogen bonding and electrostatic interactions. While, in weak acidic conditions, an efficient simultaneous removal is observed for different adsorption effects involved in aforementioned two pollutants. Besides, CS-Gln-MCM illuminates not only short equilibrium time for adsorption of each pollutant less than 20.0 min but also rapid magnetic separation from water and efficient regeneration after saturated adsorption. Therefore, CS-Gln-MCM bears great application potentials in water treatment.

We studied mercury contamination in 25 seabird species breeding along a latitudinal gradient across the Southern Ocean, from Gough Island (40°S) through Marion Island (47°S) to Byers Peninsula (63°S). Total mercury concentrations in body feather samples of adults caught at breeding colonies from 2008 to 2011 were determined. Krill (Euphausia spp.) and other zooplankton consumers had low mercury concentrations (gentoo penguin Pygoscelis papua, chinstrap penguin Pseudomonas Antarctica, common diving petrel Pelecanoides urinatrix, broad-billed prion Pachyptila vittata; mean levels 308–753 ng g−1), whereas seabirds consuming squid or carrion had high mercury concentrations (ascending order: Kerguelen petrel Aphrodroma brevirostris, southern giant petrel Macronectes giganteus, soft-plumaged petrel Pterodroma mollis, sooty albatross Phoebetria fusca, Atlantic petrel Pterodroma incerta, northern giant petrel Macronectes halli, great-winged petrel Pterodroma macroptera; 10,720–28038 ng g−1). The two species with the highest mercury concentrations, northern giant petrels and great-winged petrels, bred at Marion Island. Among species investigated at multiple sites, southern giant petrels had higher mercury levels at Marion than at Gough Island and Byers Peninsula. Mercury levels among Byers Peninsula seabirds were low, in two species even lower than levels measured 10 years before at Bird Island, South Georgia. Replicate measurements after about 25 years at Gough Island showed much higher mercury levels in feathers of sooty albatrosses (by 187%), soft-plumaged petrels (53%) and Atlantic petrels (49%). Concentrations similar to the past were detected in southern giant petrels at Gough and Marion islands, and in northern giant petrels at Marion. There were no clear indications that timing of moult or migratory behavior affected mercury contamination patterns among species. Causes of inter-site or temporal differences in mercury contamination could not be verified due to a lack of long-term data related to species’ diet and trophic levels, which should be collected in future together with data on mercury contamination.