Industrial transfer has swept through in China. However, there is still a knowledge gap about its environmental effects. In this study, industrial transfer status was assessed and evaluated by industrial ratios (%; the gross product contributions of the secondary industry to the whole industry) and the impact of such transfer on atmospheric environment (SO₂, NO₂, PM₁₀ (particles with aerodynamic diameter less than 10 μm), precipitations of SO₄²⁻, NO₃⁻, and NH₄⁺) in the 38 districts and counties in Chongqing was analyzed and discussed for the period of 2006–2015. Results showed that industries were transferred obviously from the main urban region (MUR) into the 1-h economic region (OHER). Atmospheric sulfur and PM₁₀ were efficiently put in control, but atmospheric nitrogen (NO₂; precipitations of NO₃⁻ and NH₄⁺) was increasing and posted a potential threat to air quality especially during 2011–2015. Correlations showed that industrial ratios had significantly positive relationships with concentrations of ambient SO₂ and PM₁₀ in the MUR and ambient NO₂ in the OHER (p < 0.05) while a remarkably negative one with concentrations of ambient SO₂ in the OHER (p < 0.05) during 2006–2015, implying that industrial transfer could be effective in transferring sulfur pollution but not as efficient in transferring atmospheric nitrogen and PM₁₀ pollutions as SO₂ between in the MUR and OHER. More measures should be taken to reduce nitrogen and PM₁₀ emission and a regional monitoring network of ambient NH₃ is in urgent need.

The efficiency evaluation model of integrated energy system, involving many influencing factors, and the attribute values are heterogeneous and non-deterministic, usually cannot give specific numerical or accurate probability distribution characteristics, making the final evaluation result deviation. According to the characteristics of the integrated energy system, a hybrid multi-attribute decision-making model is constructed. The evaluation model considers the decision maker’s risk preference. In the evaluation of the efficiency of the integrated energy system, the evaluation value of some evaluation indexes is linguistic value, or the evaluation value of the evaluation experts is not consistent. These reasons lead to ambiguity in the decision information, usually in the form of uncertain linguistic values and numerical interval values. In this paper, the risk preference of decision maker is considered when constructing the evaluation model. Interval-valued multiple-attribute decision-making method and fuzzy linguistic multiple-attribute decision-making model are proposed. Finally, the mathematical model of efficiency evaluation of integrated energy system is constructed.

Few detailed, individual-focused studies have researched the added effect of temperature on cardiovascular disease (CVD), particularly in China. Moreover, no prior studies have explored the exposure-response relationship among all populations and different sub-sociodemographic groups. A distributed lag nonlinear model (DLNM) was applied to evaluate the adverse health effects of temperature on CVD mortality for all populations and different sub-sociodemographic groups (by age, sex, educational level, living arrangement, and occupation) in Beijing. Based on the exposure-response relationships, firstly, we proposed a new model (COCKTAIL, Code Of Climate Key To An Ill) for revealing the split-and-merge relationships of the temperature-CVD mortality curve. This method could be used to apply the CVD deaths in a studied area to forecast the exposure-response relationships in the same area in the future. Secondly, this is the most detailed study to analyze the relationship between temperature and CVD mortality for different subgroups among the existing researches for developed and developing countries. We found that the cold temperature (at − 14 °C) was the risk factor for people with low socioeconomic status, especially for single people (including unmarried, divorced, and widowed), for indoor workers, and for people with low education, compared with the minimum mortality temperature, with a cumulative increase of 3.9 (80%CI, 2.9–5.4), 3.8 (80%CI, 2.8–5.1), and 4.5 (80%CI, 3.1–6.3) times respectively. Meanwhile, the hot temperature (at 35 °C) was the risk factor for CVD death, with a cumulative increase of 2.6 (80%CI, 2.0–3.4) for females, and 3.1 (80%CI, 2.4–4.2) for single people. The varying CVD vulnerability in terms of CVD mortality among various groups may assist governments in preparing health resources and taking measures to prevent or reduce temperature-related deaths.

Urbanization is an inevitable process in human civilization. When populations expand, socio-economic and political dynamics typically shift from agricultural predominance to one of industry and services. Accordingly, agrarian societies transform from diffuse rural communities to dense urban centers. By 2050, the world’s population is projected to reach 9.1 billion, with the urban population growing from 50 to 70%. Inevitably, this ever-expanding urban frontier encroaches along the human-ecological interface, creating a challenge for conservation and biodiversity. For the past 30 years, agricultural cropland area in the USA has remained fairly constant, despite significant population growth over the same time period. Thus, agricultural production in America has more than kept pace with rapid population growth and global export demand without increasing the farmland footprint at the expense of wildlife habitat. This is primarily due to considerable advances made in pesticide development, safety, and regulation, coupled with soil conservation and genetically modified crops. Still, the potential contribution of agriculture to ecosystem impairment remains contentious, particularly with regard to current use of pesticides. Recently, significant focus has been placed on the state of bird populations in the USA. Many species are considered imperiled, and this is often attributed in the popular media to pesticide use. However, focusing solely on the agricultural/chemical story as a significant driver of species viability and ecological risk within the broader biodiversity and conservation narrative lacks context and perspective. Moreover, the hypothesis that pesticides are indirectly affecting bird population status via reductions in food resources should be considered with caution and within the context of other likely causes. This work explores the dynamics between historical land use, human-controlled activity, and bird population trends from a holistic perspective within the USA. The aim is to provide context, developed from a relative comparison of potential contributing factors, in order to help inform discussion and foster dialogue between industry, academia, government, non-governmental organizations, and the public.

Heavily chromium-polluted areas, where people are prohibited from entering, are paradises for stray dogs. In this study, stray dogs were used to study the effects of chromium exposure on the heart of dogs in severely Cr(VI)-contaminated rural areas of China. The dogs were given water (control), low dose (L, 0.92 mg/kg), medium dose (M, 1.15 mg/kg), and high dose (H, 1.38 mg/kg) of Cr(VI). The changes of electrocardiogram (ECG), myocardial enzyme parameters, inflammatory factors, oxidative kinase, and ATPase were measured to determine the toxicity of chromium on the heart of dogs. Results showed that the ST segment of ECG increased significantly, and the amplitude of T wave increased in the experimental group. The myocardial enzyme (CK-MB, AST, CK, and LDH) content in groups M and H increased significantly over time. The values of CAT, T-SOD, IL-10, and ATPase (K⁺-Na⁺-ATPase and Ca²⁺-Mg²⁺-ATPase) decreased with the increase of Cr(VI) dose, and the content of MDA, IL-1β, IL-8, and TNF-α increased with the increase of Cr(VI) dose. Our study suggested that the heart of Chinese rural dog was damaged by Cr(VI), and Cr(VI) could cause oxidative damage and alteration of ATPase content in dogs.

Energy is a crucial part of any economy and holds a central position in enhancing social development in the world. Energy consumption and the economy in Brazil have both increased in the past decade. In this paper, time series statistics from 1980 to 2017 will be used to analyze the relationship between real GDP per capita and energy consumption to will examine how energy use in the country affects economic growth using causality models. This is established through testing for stationarity using Kwiatkowski–Phillips–Schmidt–Shin (KPSS) test for trend stationarity. A cointegration relationship is found between the two variables.

To identify the changes in the lipid profile of the tear film in two human populations exposed to different levels of particulate material, and its relationship with dry eye, by gas chromatography with mass spectrometry (GC-MS) detection. A panel study involving 78 volunteers, who live and work in two locations in Argentina with different pollution levels: urban zone (n = 44) and industrial zone (n = 34). We measured the mean levels of particulate matter (PM) exposure. The tear samples were analyze by gas GC-MS detection and the dry eye was diagnose using Schirmer test, fluorescein breakup time, vital staining with fluorescein and lissamine green, and lid parallel conjunctival folds (LIPCOF). Statistical analysis was performed using Chi-Square, Bartlett’s, Mann-Whitney tests, and Multiple Correspondence Analysis. PM₁₀ level was significantly higher in industrial zone than in urban area (p < 0.05). Subjects exposed to higher levels of PM₁₀ in outdoor air presented more presence of fatty acids (FA) of long chain, a higher proportion of saturated fatty acids (SFA), and lower unsaturated fatty acids (UFA), showing a differentiated profile, which may be associated with a PM level. The incidence of dry eye was greater in the industrial zone (p < 0.001), showing in both populations for this pathology higher FA ω-6 levels, which are responsible for the inflammation process. The lipid profile in populations exposed to higher levels of PM₁₀, like the industrial zone, shows a differentiated profile of FA and more incidence of dry eye with higher FA ω-6 levels, which are responsible for the inflammation process.

The Water Framework Directive (WFD) currently supports chemical and ecological monitoring programmes in order to achieve the good water surface status. Although chemical and ecological assessments are necessary, they have some limitations. Chemical approaches focus on certain substances identified as priorities, but they do not take into account other potentially harmful substances and also ignore the hazards related to contaminant cocktails. On the other hand, while ecological approaches provide holistic information on the impairment of biological communities in ecosystems, they do not distinguish the role of contaminants in these alterations, and consequently do not allow the establishment of contaminant impact reduction plans. Consequently, ecotoxicologists suggest the use of effect-based tools such as biomarkers. Biomarkers highlight the effect of potentially harmful substances (or a cocktail), and their specificity towards the chemicals makes it possible to properly discriminate the role of toxicants within biological community impairments. Thus, the integration of such tools (besides existing chemical and ecological tools) in the WFD could considerably improve its biomonitoring strategy. The B n’ B project (Biomarkers and Biodiversity) exposes key objectives that will allow to (i) establish an inventory of the biomarkers developed by French laboratories; (ii) determine their methodological advancement and limits and, on this basis, formulate recommendations for biomonitoring use and future research needs; (iii) discuss the biomarkers’ ecological significance, specificity to contaminants and interpretation capacity; (iv) establish, in fine, a selection of valuable biomarkers to enter the WFD; and (iv) propose integrative tools to facilitate the decision-taking by stakeholders.

In combination, pollution and pathogens represent a serious threat to the health of European eels that has been increasingly recognized. Thus, the impact of contaminants, cadmium, lead, mercury, and selenium, on anguillid herpesvirus 1 infection in wild European eels has been evaluated. Despite the small sample size, results indicate that selenium and mercury concentrations may compromise the European eel immune system as herpesvirus infection was more prevalent in specimens with higher Hg and Se hepatic concentrations.

Household consumption has been identified to have an essential role in influencing ultimately the environmental pressures generated by human activities. This study assesses the indirect environmental footprint of the Spanish households applying a combination of consumer expenditure surveys with environmentally extended multi-regional input–output analysis. A total of fourteen environmental impact categories are studied from 2006 to 2015. All the impact categories present a similar trend, particularly affected by the economic crisis. The impacts decreased from 2008 to 2013 and finally slightly started rising again from 2014 to 2015. Results show that the dominant categories influencing the indirect environmental footprint in 2015 are (1) food and beverages, (2) housing, and (3) furnishings. From the intensity perspective, housing, transport, and food and beverages appear to be the most intensive consumption clusters in the Spanish household indirect environmental footprint. In relation to the indirect water impacts embodied in the Spanish households’ imports, the largest amount is from European countries and the highest virtual water (59%) corresponds to food and agriculture, in particular from wheat, fruit, vegetables, and dairy products. The findings obtained in relation to the sources generating indirect impacts from household consumption could aid the implementation of future mitigation policies.