Identifying the individuals and geographical regions witnessing early infections or outbreaks of SARS-CoV-2 and its variants is helpful for studying the early epidemiology or even the origin of the novel coronavirus. Here, we put forward a strategy that can potentially contribute to this goal. Human body fluids and biological materials collected before the COVID-19 pandemic may serve as archives for retrospective testing of early human infections before the recent outbreaks. These have been routinely donated, collected, and archived, creating biorepositories or “biobanks” for clinical or research purposes. SARS-CoV-2 genetic materials and its antibodies have been confirmed in various types of biological samples from COVID-19 patients, including blood, sperm, umbilical cord blood, lung, heart, kidney and so on, making these biological archives as candidates for detecting early COVID-19 infections. Unlike sewage-based epidemiology which only provides information on the geographical aspect, viruses identified in archived human biological samples provide direct links to individuals, from whom a wealth of personal information including their profession, hobbies and activities, travel history, and previous exposure to wildlife can all be retrieved. By analyzing the patterns and links in the behavior of those early infected individuals, it is possible to trace the origin of the virus, for instance, in certain wild animals or local environments.

The prevalence of asthma and allergic diseases has increased rapidly in urban China since 2000. There has been limited study of associations between home environmental and lifestyle factors with asthma and symptoms of allergic disease in China.In a cross-sectional analysis of 2214 children in Beijing, we applied a two-step hybrid Least Absolute Shrinkage and Selection Operator (LASSO) algorithm to identify environmental and lifestyle-related factors associated with asthma, rhinitis and wheeze from a wide range of candidates. We used group LASSO to select variables, using cross-validation as the criterion. Effect estimates were then calculated using adaptive LASSO. Model performance was assessed using Area Under the Curve (AUC) values.We found a number of environmental and lifestyle-related factors significantly associated with asthma, rhinitis or wheeze, which changed the probability of asthma, rhinitis or wheeze from −5.76% (95%CI: −7.74%, −3.79%) to 27.4% (95%CI: 16.6%, 38.3%). The three factors associated with the largest change in probability of asthma were short birth length, carpeted floor and paternal allergy; for rhinitis they were maternal smoking during pregnancy, paternal allergy and living close to industrial area; and for wheeze they were carpeted floor, short birth length and maternal allergy. Other home environmental risk factors identified were living close to a highway, industrial area or river, sharing bedroom, cooking with gas, furry pets, cockroaches, incense, printer/photocopier, TV, damp, and window condensation in winter. Lifestyle-related risk factors were child caretakers other than parents, and age<3 for the day-care. Other risk factors included use of antibiotics, and mother’s occupation. Major protective factors for wheeze were living in a rural/suburban region, air conditioner use, and mother’s occupation in healthcare.Our findings suggest that changes in lifestyle and indoor environments associated with the urbanization and industrialization of China are associated with asthma, rhinitis, and wheeze in children.

Although dust storms have been associated with adverse health outcomes, studies on the burden of dust storms on deaths are limited. As global warming has induced significant climate changes in recent decades, which have accelerated desertification worldwide, it is necessary to evaluate the burden of dust storm-induced premature mortality using a critical measure of disease burden, such as the years of life lost (YLL). The YLL attributable to dust storms have not been examined to date. This study investigated the association between Asian dust storms (ADS) and the YLL in Seoul, South Korea, during 2002–2013. We conducted a time-series study using a generalized additive model assuming a Gaussian distribution and applied a distributed lag model with a maximum lag of 5 days to investigate the delayed and cumulative effects of ADS on the YLL. We also conducted stratified analyses using the cause of death (respiratory and cardiovascular diseases) and sociodemographic status (sex, age, education level, occupation, and marital status). During the study period, 108 ADS events occurred, and the average daily YLL was 1511 years due to non-accidental causes. The cumulative ADS exposure over the 6-day lag period was associated with a significant increase of 104.7 (95% CI, 31.0–178.5 years) and 34.4 years (4.0–64.7 years) in the YLL due to non-accidental causes and cardiovascular mortality, respectively. Sociodemographic analyses revealed associations between ADS exposure and the YLL in males, both <65 and ≥ 65 years old, those with middle-level education, and the unemployed, unmarried, and widowed (26.5–83.8 years). This study provides new evidence suggesting that exposure to dust storms significantly increases the YLL. Our findings suggest that dust storms are a critical environmental risk affecting premature mortality. These results could contribute to the establishment of public health policies aimed at managing dust storm exposure and reducing premature deaths.

Eutrophication is one of the most widespread causes of biotic homogenization in freshwater ecosystems. Biotic homogenization can be characterized as reductions in local diversity (alpha) and occupation of available niches by more generalist species. Beta diversity is expected to decrease in more homogeneous communities, however, there is no consensus on how it responds to eutrophication. We used a space-for-time approach to analyze the process of biotic homogenization on diatom assemblages in response to eutrophication in tropical reservoirs ranging from oligotrophic to hypereutrophic conditions. Diatom assemblages were analyzed in phytoplankton and surface sediment from 12 reservoirs with different trophic levels. We calculated total beta diversity and turnover and nestedness components and used regressions to analyze their relationships with productivity differences (without distance effects). Total beta diversity had a positive influence of the trophic gradient, whereas turnover was not related to eutrophication. However, we found that eutrophication and lower species richness (alpha diversity) led to increasing rates of the nestedness component. We also observed that the homogenization process was not characterized by invasion of new species, but, on the contrary, by filtering nutrient-rich tolerant species also present in oligo-mesotrophic reservoirs and able to occupy available niches in the eutrophic reservoirs. These findings (increase in nestedness, decrease in alpha diversity, and development of tolerant species) suggest that biotic homogenization is leading to a simplification of diatom assemblages in tropical reservoirs, making assemblages from eutrophic and hypereutrophic reservoirs a subset of assemblages from oligotrophic and mesotrophic ones.

The 2013 “Qingdao oil pipeline explosion” contaminated about 2.5 km of shoreline in the Jiaozhou Bay area and aroused widespread concern because of the serious casualties even though it was not the most severe oil-spill contamination in China. To evaluate the long-term impact, we collected thirty-three surface sediment samples after 3 years of the accident, with sixteen polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) detected. Spatial-temporal variation in PAHs revealed that a minimal impact might still be present after 3 years. Source analysis combined with a one-way ANOVA showed that pyrolytic sources were consistently predominant. The environmental impact was already minimal 3 years later and negligible thereafter. Although the cancer risk has decreased over the years, there has always been a potential hazard to human for specific occupation, with all of the risk values exceeded 10⁻⁶. This study offers a reference for assessing the long-term impact of oil spills in similar bay areas.

This study provides an insight into the polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) inventories in the sediments of the northwestern Arabian/Persian Gulf. PCBs can be used as chemical markers that correlate with historical events in the region, to estimate the sedimentation rates in the northern Gulf, and to determine the sources of pollutants in the study area. The concentrations of PCBs were generally patchy in sediments. At Station 1 the ΣPCB concentrations generally fluctuated between 0.100 and 0.400 ng g⁻¹ dw throughout the depositional history measured in a sediment core. There were four peaks in the ΣPCB profile corresponding to 1969, 1979, 1983 and 1991. Station 2 showed a prominent peak at depth of 25 cm. The concentrations of the ΣPCBs and ΣICE congeners at this depth were 28 and 12 ng g⁻¹ dw respectively. Concentrations then dropped dramatically thereafter by a factor of 4. The ΣPCB concentrations at Station 3 were very low compared to the concentrations measured at Stations 1 and 2. The PCB concentration in Core 4 which was taken from open waters was 2–3 orders of magnitude lower than those in the other coastal cores. However, a 1990–91 peak was omnipresent in these cores. There is no record of PCB production within the Gulf region, and PCB releases into the Kuwait marine environment are likely to originate from their use in products. These maxima in early-1990s can be correlated to inputs from war-related activities, including the reported destruction of PCB-containing transformers and military equipment during the occupation of Kuwait. None of the recent sediment core sections at the four stations had a ΣPCB concentration near the effects range-median (ERM) concentration of 180 ng g⁻¹, or permissible exposure limits (PEL) of 189 ng g⁻¹, or were above the effect range-low (ERL) values of 22.7 ng g⁻¹.

Populations of the clam Anomalocardia flexuosa, subjected to different pollution conditions, were experimentally exposed to marine heatwaves of actual and future intensities and varying durations. We measured physiological and biochemical biomarkers and survival rates of the species under simulated heatwave events of 7 and 11 days. We observed that both the response of A. flexuosa to heatwaves and its baseline values of biomarkers were distinct between populations, demonstrating that the previous exposure to contaminants negatively interferes with the thermal tolerance of this bivalve. The duration and intensities of heatwaves here tested represent a considerable challenge for the survival of coastal bivalves. Our results suggest that the predicted increase in the ocean's average temperature and the frequency and intensity of marine heatwaves, as well as urbanization and increasing occupation of coastal regions, are factors that synergistically make A. flexuosa increasingly vulnerable over the decades.

In the province of Newfoundland and Labrador, fishing is a core occupation and also a source of marine plastic pollution. To look at this relationship, we examined 216 gastrointestinal tracts of Atlantic cod (Gadus morhua) caught by commercial fishers at Fogo Island, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. We found three tracts contained plastic for a frequency of occurrence of 1.4%. While this result is consistent with other cod sampled in the province, this study found two gastrointestinal tracts contained intact bait bags, used in commercial pots, and the third tract contained a polypropylene thread, likely originating from fishing rope. Our findings demonstrate the frequency of plastic ingestion in this region is low, but fishing-gear related plastics represent a key source of marine plastics in the region that should be addressed.

This study represents the first assessment of microplastic (MP) contamination in the coastal area of the Esmeraldas Province, Ecuador. MPs were quantified in 14 coastal waters in beaches with different urbanization level and in 10 rivers. The most abundant MP types were transparent fibres, brown fragments, grey fragments, transparent fragments, and black fragments, which together represented 84% of the total count. Coastal waters presented significantly higher quantities of MP than rivers. No difference in microplastic abundance was detected between beaches with higher and lower urban occupation, nor between beaches facing North or West. Our results indicate that MP contamination is widespread, and most likely transported from multiple sources. Our results can serve as a baseline for future MP monitoring in the area.

On July 16, 2010, a pipeline explosion spilled 1500 tons of crude oil into the Port of Dalian, China. To identify taxa responses to the spill, we exploited seven years of monitoring data to examine the co-occurrence of taxon pairs and the variation of the macrobenthic community. Non-parametric correlation analysis was used to construct interaction networks of relationships between oil spill contaminants and macrobenthic taxa.We observed that the impacted macrobenthic community not restored before 2016. The tolerance/sensitivity of taxa was inconsistent with the studies of oil impacts in other locations. We suggest revision of the ecological group classification of Sabellidae, Lumbrineridae, Terebellidae, Sternaspidae, and Spionidae. The variation in the frequency of coexistence indicates the potential impact of oil spill pollution on resource occupation. The interaction network involving macrobenthic families and stressors associated with the oil spill highlights how different macrobenthic families respond to different combinations of stressors.