The herbicide butachlor and three insecticides phoxim, chlorpyrifos, and lambda-cyhalotrhin are widely used pesticides with different modes of action. As most previous laboratory bioassays for these pesticides have been conducted solely based on acute tests with a single compound, only limited information is available on the possible combined toxicity of these common chemicals to soil organisms. In this study, we evaluated their mixture toxicity on the terrestrial earthworm, Eisenia fetida, with binary, ternary, and quaternary mixtures. Two different types of bioassays were employed in our work, including a contact filter paper toxicity test and a soil toxicity test. Mixture toxicity effects were assessed using the additive index method. For all of the tested binary mixtures (butachlor-phoxim, butachlor-chlorpyrifos, and butachlor-lambda-cyhalothrin), significant synergistic interactions were observed after 14 days in the soil toxicity assay. However, greater additive toxicity was found after 48 h in the contact toxicity bioassay. Most of the ternary and quaternary mixtures exhibited significant synergistic effects on the worms in both bioassay systems. Our findings would be helpful in assessing the ecological risk of these pesticide mixtures to soil invertebrates. The observed synergistic interactions underline the necessity to review soil quality guidelines, which are likely underestimating the adverse combined effects of these compounds.

This study complements existing literature by examining the nexus between energy consumption (EC), CO₂ emissions (CE), and economic growth (GDP; gross domestic product) in 24 African countries using a panel autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) approach. The following findings are established. First, there is a long-run relationship between EC, CE, and GDP. Second, a long-term effect from CE to GDP and EC is apparent, with reciprocal paths. Third, the error correction mechanisms are consistently stable. However, in cases of disequilibrium, only EC can be significantly adjusted to its long-run relationship. Fourth, there is a long-run causality running from GDP and CE to EC. Fifth, we find causality running from either CE or both CE and EC to GDP, and inverse causal paths are observable. Causality from EC to GDP is not strong, which supports the conservative hypothesis. Sixth, the causal direction from EC to GDP remains unobservable in the short term. By contrast, the opposite path is observable. There are also no short-run causalities from GDP, or EC, or EC, and GDP to EC. Policy implications are discussed.

Exposure to coal and coal ashes can cause harmful effects in in vitro and in vivo systems, mainly by the induction of oxidative damage. The aim of this work was to assess cytotoxic and genotoxic effects using the V79 cell line treated with coal and coal fly ash particles derived from a coal power plant located in Santa Catarina, Brazil. Two coal samples (COAL11 and COAL16) and two coal fly ash samples (CFA11 and CFA16) were included in this study. COAL16 was co-firing with a mixture of fuel oil and diesel oil. The comet assay data showed that exposure of V79 cells to coal and coal fly ash particles induced primary DNA lesions. Application of lesion-specific endonucleases (FPG and ENDO III) demonstrated increased DNA effects indicating the presence of high amounts of oxidative DNA lesions. The cytokinesis-block micronucleus cytome assay analysis showed that exposure of V79 cells to high concentrations of coal and coal fly ash particles induced cytotoxic effects (apoptosis and necrosis) and chromosomal instability (nucleoplasmic bridges, nuclear buds, and micronucleus (MN) formation). These results may be associated with compounds contained in the surface of the particles as hazardous elements, ultrafine/nanoparticles, and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) which were detected in the samples. Graphical abstract ᅟ

Rarely do we know the perception toward neighbourhoods in people specifically with health conditions. Therefore, the aim of the present study was to understand the perception toward neighbourhoods among adults with a series of the existing health conditions in a country-wide and population-based setting. Data were retrieved from and analysed in Scottish Household Survey, 2007–2008. Information on demographics, self-reported health conditions and perception toward neighbourhoods and the surrounding facilities was obtained by household interview. Analysis including chi-square test, t test and logistic regression modelling were performed. Of 19,150 Scottish adults (aged 16–80) included in the study cohort, 1079 (7.7 %) people were dissatisfied with their living areas; particularly for those who experienced harassment (15.4 %), did not recycle or with dyslexia, chest, digestive, mental and musculoskeletal problems. Twenty to forty per cent reported common neighbourhood problems including noise, rubbish, disputes, graffiti, harassment and drug misuse. People with heart or digestive problems were more dissatisfied with the existing parks and open space. People with arthritis, chest or hearing problems were more dissatisfied with the waste management condition. People with dyslexia were more dissatisfied with the existing public transportation. People with heart problems were more dissatisfied with the current street cleaning condition. People with hearing, vision, speech, learning problems or dyslexia were also more dissatisfied with sports and recreational facilities. People with heart, chest, skin, digestive, musculoskeletal, vision, learning, speech and mental disorders and dyslexia were more dissatisfied with their current neighbourhood environments. Upgrading neighbourhood planning to tackle social environment injustice and put pleasant life experience as priorty would be suggested. Graphical abstract interrelations of individual health and neighbourhood health

The soil microbial fuel cell (MFC) is a promising biotechnology for the bioelectricity recovery as well as the remediation soil. Moreover, there were no studies on the heavy metal pollution in a soil MFC yet. A soil MFC was constructed to remediate the contaminated soil, and the electric field was generated from the oxidation of the acetate at the anode. We demonstrated the copper migration, the power generation, and the pH variation in the soil and the electrodes. The maximal voltage and the power density of 539 mV and 65.77 m W/m² were obtained in the soil MFC. The chemical fractionation of copper (Cu) was analyzed with a modified BCR sequential extraction method. The soluble Cu form and the total Cu contents from the anode to the cathode increased, and the difference between them kept growing over time. The Cu fractions in the soil and the electrodes were converted with the change of the dramatic pH from the anode to the cathode. There was a focusing effect leading to the change of the Cu forms, and the extractable acid form content increased in the three fifths where the acid and the alkali fronts met.

The impacts of CuO nanoparticle (NP) exposure on total nitrogen (TN) removal in a sequencing batch biofilm reactor (SBBR) as well as the effects of natural organic matter (NOM) in wastewater were studied. Short-term exposure (8 h) to 1 and 50 mg/L CuO NPs induced negligible influence on the nitrogen removal efficiency, and biofilms could recover from the slight damage caused by the prolonged exposure (45 days) to 1 mg/L CuO NPs. On the other hand, long-term exposure to 50 mg/L CuO NPs notably decreased the nitrogen removal efficiencies to 47.74 and 59.04 % in the absence and presence of bovine serum albumin (BSA), much lower than those in the control (75.43 %), mainly as the suppressed denitrification process. Analysis of key enzyme activities showed that the activities of nitrite reductase and nitrate reductase were obviously reduced with 50 mg/L CuO NP exposure. Further studies revealed that the inhibited nitrite/nitrate reductase was related to the variations of microenvironment pH and decrease of nirS and nirK by microelectrode and fluorescent quantitative polymerase chain reaction (PCR) analysis. In addition, the presence of BSA mitigated the toxicity of CuO NPs due to the enhanced particle size and Cu²⁺ release, electrostatic repulsion, and surface coating of CuO NPs, which indicated that lower inhibition effects of CuO NPs in NOM-rich wastewater is of importance when evaluating the environmental risk of NPs to wastewater treatment plants.

Suspended particulate matter trigger the production of reactive oxygen species. However, most of the studies dealing with oxidative damage of airborne particles focus on the effects of individual compounds and not real mixtures. In order to study the enzymatic superoxide production resulting from the exposition to a complex mixture, we derived organic extracts from airborne particles collected daily in an urban area and exposed kidney, liver, and heart mammal tissues. After that, we measured DNA damage employing the comet assay. We observed that in every tissue, NADPH oxidase and xanthine oxidase were involved in O₂ ⁻ production when they were exposed to the organic extracts, as the lucigenin’s chemiluminescence decays when enzymes were inhibited. The same trend was observed with the percentage of cells with comets, since DNA damage was higher when they were exposed to same experimental conditions. Our data allow us to hypothesize that these enzymes play an important role in the oxidative stress produced by PAHs and that there is a mechanism involving them in the O₂ ⁻generation.

The stereoselective cytotoxicity of new chiral acaricide etoxazole and its dissipation in citrus and soil were investigated for the first time. Enantioselective toxicity and oxidative stress of etoxazole toward MCF-7 cells was conducted. The phenomenon of dose- and form-dependent cytotoxicity was demonstrated by MTT and LDH assays, ROS generation, and SOD and CAT activity alternation. Cytotoxicity ranks were found to be consistent with oxidative damage as (R)- > Rac- > (S)-etoxazole. Moreover, the results of enantioselective degradation showed that (S)-etoxazole degraded faster than its antipode (R)-etoxazole. The gradual raise of EF values indicated the achievement of enantioselective degradation in citrus and soil, leaving the enrichment of (R)-etoxazole isomer. Significant differences of environmental behavior and cytotoxicity of etoxazole enantiomers were found in this study which provided valuable insight into the mechanism of potential toxicity and warranted more careful assessment of this pesticide before its agricultural application.

Dry deposition of atmospheric 18 polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) components was investigated in the scope of the study by using surrogate snow samplers at 49 different sampling points in and around the city center of Erzurum, Turkey. Snow was sampled twice, the first of which was taken immediately after the first fresh snow cover and placed into aluminum trays to obtain dry deposition surface while the second sample was taken from the snow cover (accumulated snow) exposed to an 8-day dry deposition period and then analyzed and extracted. All the samples taken from the samplers were extracted using solid and liquid phase extraction and analyzed through GC-MS. It was observed that at the end of an 8-day dry period, snow samples enriched 5.5 times more in PAH components than the baseline. PAH deposition was determined to be influenced mainly by coal, mixed source, traffic, diesel fuel, and petrol fuel at 43, 27, 20, 8, and 2 % of sampling points, respectively. Local polluting sources were found to be effective on the spatial distribution of dry deposition of PAH components in urban area.

Several cities across the world are located in mountainous and landslide prone areas. Any landfill siting without considering landslide susceptibility in such regions may impose additional environmental adversity. This study was aimed to propose a practical method for selecting waste disposal site that accounts for landslide exposure. The proposed method was applied to a city which is highly proneness to landslide due to its geology, morphology, and climatic conditions. First, information on the previously occurred landslides of the region was collected. Based on this information, proper landslide causative factors were selected and their thematic maps were prepared. Factors’ classes were then standardized in 0–1 domain, and thematic layers were weighted by using analytical hierarchy process (AHP). The landslide susceptibility map was prepared afterwards. Unsuitable areas for landfill location were masked in GIS environment by Boolean method, retaining sufficient areas for further evaluation. Nine remaining alternatives were selected through comprehensive field visits and were ranked by using AHP. Consequently, 17 factors in three environmental, economical, and social perspectives were employed. Sensitivity analyses were performed to assess the stability of the alternatives ranking with respect to variations in criterion weights. Based on the obtained landslide susceptible map, nearly 36 % of the entire region is proneness to landslide. The prepared Boolean map indicates that potential areas for landfill construction cover 11 % of the whole region. The results further indicated that if landslide susceptible areas are not considered in landfill site selection, the potential landfill sites would become more than twice. It can be concluded that if any of these landslide prone sites are selected for landfilling, further environmental disaster would be terminated in the future. It can be further concluded that the proposed method could reasonably well be adjusted to consider landslide exposure when siting a solid waste landfill.