This study investigated the distinctive PAHs adsorbed on street dust near various industries in the three typical industrialized cities of Daqing (DQ), Harbin (HEB) and Jilin (JL) in northeastern China. The mean ∑PAHs concentrations in street dust of DQ, HEB and JL were 1.84, 4.87, 12.38 μg/g, respectively. Typical petroleum resource city DQ had higher proportions of low and medium ringed PAHs with higher proportions of phenanthrene (Phe), naphthalene (Nap), fluoranthene (Flua) and chrysene (Chr) at industrial sites. Typical chemical processing city JL had higher proportions of medium and high ringed PAHs with higher proportions of Flua, benz[a]anthracene (BaA), pyrene (Pyr) and benzo[a]pyrene (BaP) at industrial sites. Phe, Flua, Pyr and Chr were four major PAHs from most studied industries. The distinctive PAH emissions from the ferroalloy plant were BaA and BaP. BaA and BaP concentrations decreased by 90% at sites more than 2 km away from the ferroalloy plant.

Short-term effects of air pollution on mortality have been well documented in the literature worldwide. Less is known about which subpopulations are more vulnerable to air pollution. We conducted a case-only study in Hong Kong to examine the potential effect modification by personal characteristics and specific causes of death. Individual information of 402,184 deaths of non-external causes and daily mean concentrations of air pollution were collected from 2001 to 2011. For a 10 μg/m3 increase of pollution concentration, people aged ≥∇65 years (compared with younger ages) had a 0.9–1.8% additional increase in mortality related to PM, NO2, and SO2. People dying from cardiorespiratory diseases (compared with other non-external causes) had a 1.6–2.3% additional increase in PM and NO2 related mortality. Other subgroups that were particularly susceptible were females and those economically inactive. Lower socioeconomic status and causes of cardiorespiratory diseases would increase the likelihood of death associated with air pollution.

The European Union authorization procedure for pesticides includes an assessment of the leaching risk posed by pesticides and their degradation products (DP) with the aim of avoiding any unacceptable influence on groundwater. Twelve-year's results of the Danish Pesticide Leaching Assessment Programme reveal shortcomings to the procedure by having assessed leaching into groundwater of 43 pesticides applied in accordance with current regulations on agricultural fields, and 47 of their DP. Three types of leaching scenario were not fully captured by the procedure: long-term leaching of DP of pesticides applied on potato crops cultivated in sand, leaching of strongly sorbing pesticides after autumn application on loam, and leaching of various pesticides and their DP following early summer application on loam. Rapid preferential transport that bypasses the retardation of the plow layer primarily in autumn, but also during early summer, seems to dominate leaching in a number of those scenarios.

Pacific lampreys (Entosphenus tridentatus) have resided in the Columbia River Basin for millennia and have great ecological and cultural importance. The role of habitat contamination in the recent decline of the species has rarely been studied and was the main objective of this effort. A wide range of contaminants (115 analytes) was measured in sediments and tissues at 27 sites across a large geographic area of diverse land use. This is the largest dataset of contaminants in habitats and tissues of Pacific lamprey in North America and the first study to compare contaminant bioburden during the larval life stage and the anadromous, adult portion of the life cycle. Bioaccumulation of pesticides, flame retardants, and mercury was observed at many sites. Based on available data, contaminants are accumulating in larval Pacific lamprey at levels that are likely detrimental to organism health and may be contributing to the decline of the species.

The size characteristics of atmospheric aerosol over the tropical region of Lagos, Southern Nigeria were investigated using two years of continuous spectral aerosol optical depth measurements via the AERONET station for four major bands i.e. blue, green, red and infrared. Lagos lies within the latitude of 6.465°N and longitude of 3.406°E. Few systems of dispersion model was derived upon specified conditions to solve challenges on aerosols size distribution within the Stokes regime. The dispersion model was adopted to derive an aerosol size distribution (ASD) model which is in perfect agreement with existing model. The parametric nature of the formulated ASD model shows the independence of each band to determine the ASD over an area. The turbulence flow of particulates over the area was analyzed using the unified number (Un). A comparative study via the aid of the Davis automatic weather station was carried out on the Reynolds number, Knudsen number and the Unified number. The Reynolds and Unified number were more accurate to describe the atmospheric fields of the location. The aerosols loading trend in January to March (JFM) and August to October (ASO) shows a yearly 15% retention of aerosols in the atmosphere. The effect of the yearly aerosol retention can be seen to partly influence the aerosol loadings between October and February.

Rapid monitoring and discriminating different anthropogenic pollution is a key scientific issue. To detect the applicability and sensitivity of magnetic measurements for evaluating different industrial pollution in urban environment, characteristics of topsoil from three typical fast developing industrial cities (Jinchang, Baiyin and Jiayuguan in Gansu province, northwestern China) were studied by magnetic and geochemical analyses. The results showed that magnetic susceptibility was enhanced near industrial areas, and PSD-MD magnetite dominated the magnetic properties. Magnetic concentration parameters (χlf, SIRM, and χARM) showed different correlations with heavy metals and PLI in the three cities, indicating significantly different magnetic response to different pollution sources. Principal component analysis showed that ferrimagnetic minerals coexist with heavy metals of Fe, As, Cu, Pb, and Zn in Baiyin and Fe, V, Cu, Mn, Pb, and Cr in Jiayuguan. Fuzzy cluster analysis and regression analysis further indicated that the sensitivity of magnetic monitoring to fuel dust is higher than that to mineral dust near non-ferrous metal smelters, and fossil fuel consumption is an important factor for increasing magnetite content. In all the three cities, the sensitivity of magnetic monitoring to pollutants from steel plants is much higher than that from non-ferrous metal plants. Therefore, magnetic proxies provide a rapid means for detecting heavy metal contamination caused by multi-anthropogenic pollution sources in a large scale area, however, the sensitivity was controlled by pollution sources.

To evaluate the effects of propranolol on Daphnia magna (D. magna), we employed a multi-generational exposure period for eight generations and an environmentally relevant low concentration with 1.5 ng/L, 0.2 μg/L and 26 μg/L to reflect a realistic exposure scenario. Physiological endpoints were checked, including growth, number of neonates, heart rate, frequency of abdominal appendage movement and malformation rate of neonates. In the results, growth and abdominal appendage movement were affected by environmental concentration during several generations, and the responses showed consistent tendencies of response increase with concentration increase. Heart rate was the only endpoint affected throughout all exposure generations. Inhibitory and acceleratory effects on heart rate, growth and abdominal appendage movement suggest that it is necessary to cover sub-lethal endpoints of non-targeted organisms in eco-toxicity study because the physiological responses were detected at much lower concentrations than the results of traditional toxicity tests, including environmental concentration.

The reuse of treated wastewater for agricultural irrigation in arid and hot climates where plant transpiration is high may affect plant accumulation of pharmaceutical and personal care products (PPCPs) and endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs). In this study, carrot, lettuce, and tomato plants were grown in solution containing 16 PPCP/EDCs in either a cool-humid or a warm-dry environment. Leaf bioconcentration factors (BCF) were positively correlated with transpiration for chemical groups of different ionized states (p < 0.05). However, root BCFs were correlated with transpiration only for neutral PPCP/EDCs (p < 0.05). Neutral and cationic PPCP/EDCs showed similar accumulation, while anionic PPCP/EDCs had significantly higher accumulation in roots and significantly lower accumulation in leaves (p < 0.05). Results show that plant transpiration may play a significant role in the uptake and translocation of PPCP/EDCs, which may have a pronounced effect in arid and hot climates where irrigation with treated wastewater is common.

As a highly toxic heavy metal, the pollution and exposure risks of lead are of widespread concern for human health. However, the collection of blood samples for use as an indicator of lead pollution is not always feasible in most cohort or longitudinal studies, especially those involving children health. To evaluate the potential use of urinary lead as an indicator of exposure levels and source apportionment, accompanying with environmental media samples, lead concentrations and isotopic measurements (expressed as 207Pb/206Pb, 208Pb/206Pb and 204Pb/206Pb) were investigated and compared between blood and urine from children living in the vicinities of a typical coking plant and lead-acid battery factory. The results showed urinary lead might not be a preferable proxy for estimating blood lead levels. Fortunately, urinary lead isotopic measurements could be used as an alternative for identifying the sources of children's lead exposure, which coincided well with the blood lead isotope ratio analysis.

Biomonitoring programs for persistent, bioaccumulative, and/or toxic chemicals of concern in fish tissues have been operated by the governments of Canada and the United States in the Great Lakes since the 1970's. The objectives of these programs are to assess concentrations of harmful chemicals in whole body top predator fish as an indicator of ecosystem health and to infer potential harm to fish and fish consuming wildlife in the Great Lakes Basin. Chemicals of interest are selected based upon national and binational commitments, risk assessment, and regulation, and include a wide range of compounds. This review summarizes all available data generated by Environment Canada and the United States Environmental Protection Agency for chemicals measured in whole body homogenates of Lake Trout (Salvelinus namaycush) and Walleye (Sander vitreus) for the time period spanning 2008 to 2012 from each of the five Great Lakes. The summary shows that concentrations of legacy compounds, such as, POPs listed in the Stockholm Convention and mercury continue to dominate the chemical burden of Great Lakes fish. This assessment, and others like it, can guide the creation of environmental quality targets where they are lacking, optimize chemical lists for monitoring, and prioritize chemicals of concern under agreements such as the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement and the Stockholm Convention.