Psychiatric pharmaceuticals, such as anxiolytics, sedatives, hypnotics and antidepressors, are among the most prescribed active substances in the world. The occurrence of these compounds in the environment, as well as the adverse effects they can have on non-target organisms, justifies the growing concern about these emerging environmental pollutants. This study aims to analyse the effects of six psychotropic drugs, valproate, cyamemazine, citalopram, sertraline, fluoxetine and oxazepam, on the survival and locomotion of Japanese medaka Oryzias latipes larvae. Newly hatched Japanese medaka were exposed to individual compounds for 72 h, at concentrations ranging from 10 μg L⁻¹ to 10 mg L⁻¹. Lethal concentrations 50 % (LC₅₀) were estimated at 840, 841 and 9,136 μg L⁻¹ for fluoxetine, sertraline and citalopram, respectively, while other compounds did not induce any significant increase in mortality. Analysis of the swimming behaviour of larvae, including total distance moved, mobility and location, provided an estimated lowest observed effect concentration (LOEC) of 10 μg L⁻¹ for citalopram and oxazepam, 12.2 μg L⁻¹ for cyamemazine, 100 μg L⁻¹ for fluoxetine, 1,000 μg L⁻¹ for sertraline and >10,000 μg L⁻¹ for valproate. Realistic environmental mixture of the six psychotropic compounds induced disruption of larval locomotor behaviour at concentrations about 10- to 100-fold greater than environmental concentrations.

The overuse of pig slurry for fertilization purposes could involve an environmental risk. Pig slurry has been scarcely treated using constructed wetlands and stabilization ponds. Further information on hydraulic retention time comparison at full-scale in farms is desired. This survey aims to optimize a low-cost system comparing two hydraulic retention times (3 and 7 days) to purify pig slurry. Physical, chemical and microbial parameters were tested. A mechanical separator provided homogenous influent to feed the constructed wetland. Seven days of retention presented higher COD and N removal while 3 days of retention was more effective to remove TP and SO₄ ²⁻ in the constructed wetland. However, higher removal efficiencies were registered performing 7 days of retention for Mn (148.1 %), TP (113.4 %), KN (102.6 %), COD (102.5 %), NH₄ ⁺-N (94.0 %), TC (87.9 %), Cu (64.2 %), FS (47.4 %), NO₃ ⁻ (36.6 %), Ca²⁺ (32.1 %), and Br⁻ (26.0 %) in the whole system, pointing out the positive effect of the storage pond. Though the main potential pollutants were effectively reduced, parameters such as Fe, SO₄ ²⁻, SS, Zn and NO₂ ⁻ increased after purification.

Although 8-hydroxy-2-deoxyguanosine (8-OHdG) is a widely used promising biomarker of DNA damage, there are concerns about which tissues or body fluids should be sampled. The objective of this study is to evaluate the correlation of DNA oxidative damage biomarkers, 8-OHdG, between blood and urine and risk factors associated with 8OHdG. The study population was recruited from a baseline survey of a worksite lifestyle study including 92 office workers aged 23 to 60 years. A self-administered questionnaire was used to collect information on personal characteristics. The plasma and urinary 8-OHdG was measured by liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS). In linear regression, a positive relation was found (p < 0.01) between the log-transformed plasma and urinary 8-OHdG levels adjusted for gender, age, BMI, and smoking status. Our findings showed that age, gender and smoking were significantly associated with plasma 8-OHdG, but not with urinary 8-OHdG. Our results suggest that there is a positive relation between the biomarkers of plasma (steady state DNA damage) and urinary 8-OHdG (total DNA damage). However, the plasma 8-OHdG is more sensitive than urinary 8-OHdG to detect increased oxidative damages induced by risk factors.

A series of nano-BiOBr were prepared by an effective hydrothermal method in the presence of cetyltrimethyl ammonium bromide (CTAB) and ethanol at different calcination temperatures. The as-prepared nano-BiOBr samples were characterized by measuring the specific area (S BET), UV-Vis diffuse reflectance spectrum, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and X-ray diffraction (XRD). The results show that the calcination temperature has an important impact on the morphology and microstructure of BiOBr. The nano-BiOBr calcined at 120 °C showed excellent photocatalytic degradation properties for benzene, with photocatalytic degradation rate of 75 % for benzene under UV irradiation for 90 min, and removal efficiency of benzene was significantly enhanced by using nano-BiOBr catalyst compared to UV irradiation alone. BiOBr catalyst possessed good photocatalytic activity even after three consecutive photocatalytic reaction cycles, illustrating its excellent stability. The photocatalytic degradation of benzene followed the first-order kinetics, and the good catalytic capability of nano-BiOBr catalyst can be attributed to its crystalline, hierarchical nanostructure and nanosheet thickness.

We conducted multiday continuous monitoring of indoor and outdoor particulate matter (PM) in classrooms with fan-assisted natural ventilation (NV) at five primary schools in Singapore. We monitored size-resolved number concentration of PM with diameter 0.3–10 μm at all schools and alveolar deposited surface area concentrations of PM with diameter 0.01–1.0 μm (SA₀.₀₁–₁.₀) at two schools. Results show that, during the monitoring period, schools closer to expressways and in the downtown area had 2–3 times higher outdoor PM₀.₃–₁.₀ number concentrations than schools located in suburban areas. Average indoor SA₀.₀₁–₁.₀ was 115–118 μm² cm⁻³ during periods of occupancy and 72–87 μm² cm⁻³ during unoccupied periods. There were close indoor and outdoor correlations for fine PM during both occupied and unoccupied periods (Pearson’s r = 0.84–1.0) while the correlations for coarse PM were weak during the occupied periods (r = 0.13–0.74). Across all the schools, the size-resolved indoor/outdoor PM ratios (I/O ratios) were 0.81 to 1.58 and 0.61 to 0.95 during occupied and unoccupied periods, respectively, and average infiltration factors were 0.64 to 0.94. Average PM net emission rates, calculated during periods of occupancy in the classrooms, were lower than or in the lower range of emission rates reported in the literature. This study also reveals that indoor fine and submicron PM predominantly come from outdoor sources, while indoor sources associated with occupancy may be important for coarse PM even when the classrooms have high air exchange rates.

In early April 2011, radiostrontium was accidentally released from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant to the Pacific coast of eastern Japan. We developed a simple procedure to analyze radiostrontium levels in marine mussels (Septifer virgatus) and seawater using crown ether (Sr Resin; Eichrom). Then, we used our method to describe the spatial and temporal distribution of radiostrontium in mussels and seawater on the Pacific coast of eastern Japan from 2011 to 2013 and for 2015. Activity of ⁹⁰Sr in mussels and seawater decreased with distance from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant and between 2011 and 2013 tended to be higher in areas south of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant than to the north of it. Activity in mussels and seawater also tended to decrease from 2011 to 2013 and by 2015 had reached levels experienced prior to the Fukushima accident. Our results suggest that radiostrontium discharged from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant was dispersed by coastal currents in a southerly direction along the Pacific coast of eastern Japan from 2011 to 2013, following which its activity decreased to background levels by 2015.

Improved understanding of the fractionation and geochemical characteristic of rare earth elements (REEs) from steel plant emissions is important due to the unclear atmospheric signature of these elements and their adverse impact on human health and the environment. In this study, ambient particulate matter of different sizes was collected from one site in an integrated iron and steelmaking industrial zone (HG) and one urban background site with no direct industrial emissions (ZWY) during a 1-year sampling campaign in China. The total concentrations of REEs for TSP, PM₁₀, and PM₂.₅ were 27.248, 14.989, 3.542 ng/m³ in HG and 6.326, 5.274, 1.731 ng/m³, respectively, in ZWY, which revealed the local influence of the steelmaking activities to the air quality. With respect to ZWY, the REEs in HG site are obviously fractionated in the coarser fraction, and LREEs account for more than 80 % of the total REE burden in all of the samples. Additionally, the REEs in HG and ZWY show a homogeneous trend with successively increased LREE/HREE ratios from the coarse particles to the fine particles. In our samples, La, Ce, Nd, and Sm are the most enriched rare earth elements, especially in the HG site. Moreover, ternary diagrams of LaCeSm indicate that the REEs in HG are potentially contributed by steelworks, carrier vehicles, coal combustion, and road dust re-suspension.

The presence of surfactants in groundwater and in drinking and superficial waters is a major public health concern. Recently, various treatment technologies have been studied to remove these pollutants; among them, the treatments based on the sorption onto natural adsorbing materials appear more eco-friendly and with very interesting removal efficiencies. The sorption of the cationic surfactant benzyldimethyldodecyl ammonium chloride (BDC-12) onto zeolitic tuff (Si/Al ratio = 2.4) was well described by a pseudo-second-order equation with a kinetic constant not depending on the exchangeable cationic form of the zeolite. The isosteric enthalpies and entropies (∆ᵢₛₜH and ∆ᵢₛₜS) obtained from sorption isotherms were negative, and their absolute values increased with decreasing amounts of BDC-12 bound at the equilibrium (qₑ). Zeolite sorbitivity (qₑ/unit dry mass sorbent) for BDC-12 increased with NaCl concentration in the batch solution, suggesting that the sorption process does not involve cation exchange.

Changes in soil exchangeable cations relative to soil acidification are less studied particularly under long-term cash crop plantation. This study investigated soil acidification in an Ali-Periudic Argosols after 10-year (2002–2012) long-term continuous tobacco plantation. Soils were respectively sampled at 1933 and 2143 sites in 2002 and 2012 (also 647 tobacco plants), from seven tobacco plantation counties in the Chongqing Municipal City, southwest China. After 10-year continuous tobacco plantation, a substantial acidification was evidenced by an average decrease of 0.20 soil pH unit with a substantial increase of soil sites toward the acidic status, especially those pH ranging from 4.5 to 5.5, whereas 1.93 kmol H⁺ production ha⁻¹ year⁻¹ was mostly derived from nitrogen (N) fertilizer input and plant N uptake output. After 1 decade, an average decrease of 27.6 % total exchangeable base cations or of 0.20 pH unit occurred in all seven tobacco plantation counties. Meanwhile, for one unit pH decrease, 40.3 and 28.3 mmol base cations kg⁻¹ soil were consumed in 2002 and 2012, respectively. Furthermore, the aboveground tobacco biomass harvest removed 339.23 kg base cations ha⁻¹ year⁻¹ from soil, which was 7.57 times higher than the anions removal, leading to a 12.52 kmol H⁺ production ha⁻¹ year⁻¹ as the main reason inducing soil acidification. Overall, our results showed that long-term tobacco plantation not only stimulated soil acidification but also decreased soil acid-buffering capacity, resulting in negative effects on sustainable soil uses. On the other hand, our results addressed the importance of a continuous monitoring of soil pH changes in tobacco plantation sites, which would enhance our understanding of soil fertility of health in this region.

Improved understanding of the relationships between heavy metals fractionation in agricultural soils and biological uptake could be obtained by analysing samples of biota in parallel with sequential extraction of their grown media. The overall goals of this study were to identify the characteristics of metal fractions and their bioavailability to maize and potato plants in the agricultural land of the Ibar River in southern Serbia and northern Kosovo. The concentrations of Pb, Zn, Cd, Ni, Cr and Cu in soil and vegetable samples were determined by the ICP-OES method. Pb/Zn production and industrial waste disposal significantly increased the pseudo-total concentrations of heavy metals in the soil together with their mobile and potentially bioavailable amounts. The Pb concentrations in the vegetable samples were generally above the EU maximum permitted concentrations in foodstuffs. However, the concentrations of Zn, Ni, Cr and Cu in the vegetables were below the critical levels. The results of the present study indicated that the intensive industrial production of Pb/Zn over the years and permanent pollution were responsible for the environmental contamination by heavy metals in the study area, particularly by Pb and Zn. The quantity of the mobile and potentially bioavailable heavy metals in the studied soils threatens the quality of Zea mays L. and Solanum tuberosum L. crops, with a real risk that these elements could enter the food chain.