Rivers can be sinks for potential toxic elements (PTEs) inputted in their systems by both natural and anthropic processes. Many indices have been proposed to assess the contamination degree of sediments and the environmental conditions of surficial water bodies. Above all, enrichment factor (EF) is the most used tool, but also it is the most debated for its limitations. The need for a reference element and for a background/baseline composition makes the EF method dependent on the researcher's expertise, implying that its repeatability may not be granted. Starting from the awareness that geochemical processes, bringing to compositional changes in the environmental matrices, involve multiple elements rather than individual variables, we developed a modified EF (mEF) based on the use of elemental associations. Different multivariate statistical methods (i.e. Robust Principal Component Analysis and Fuzzy Clustering), in a compositional data analysis (CoDA) perspective, were used to set all the terms of the mEF. The mEF was applied to 101 sediment samples collected from a 2 m-long core, covering a sedimentation period of about 150 years (1850–2007), located in the lower Changjiang River (China). The method resulted effective in recognizing most of the signals proceeding from the main natural and anthropogenic events which affected the lower river basin in the considered timespan. The largest geochemical variations recorded fit well the flooding events occurred; besides, the effects produced on the system by the recent socio-economic development (following the end of the civil war in 1949 and the beginning of economic reforms in 1978) and the start-up of the Three Gorges Dam (the world's largest power station since 2012) were also intercepted. The proposed method represents a step forward to enhance the effectiveness of the EF in discriminating geochemical anomalies that may be significant to assess the human historical impact on the environment.

Grape pomace (GP) is a low-value by-product that contains a significant amount of high value-added products. The huge amount of non-edible residues of GP wastes (seeds, skins, leaves and, stems) produced by wine industries causes’ environmental pollution, management issues as well as economic loss. Studies over the past 15–20 years revealed that GP could serve as a potential source for valuable bioactive compounds like antioxidants, bioactive, nutraceuticals, single-cell protein, and volatile organic compounds with an increasing scientific interest in their beneficial effects on human and animal health. However, the selection of appropriate techniques for the extraction of these compounds without compromising the stability of the extracted products is still a challenging task for the researcher. Based on the current scenario, the review mainly summarizes the novel applications of winery wastes in many sectors such as agriculture, pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, livestock fields, and also the bio-energy recovery system. We also summarize the existing information/knowledge on several green technologies for the recovery of value-added by-products. For the promotion of many emerging technologies, the entrepreneur should be aware of the opportunities/techniques for the development of high-quality value-added products. Thus, this review presents systematic information on value-added by-products that are used for societal benefits concerning the potential for human health and a sustainable environment.

Low-cost, light-scattering-based particulate matter (PM) sensors are becoming more widely available and are being increasingly deployed in ambient and indoor environments because of their low cost and ability to provide high spatial and temporal resolution PM information. Researchers have begun to evaluate some of these sensors under laboratory and environmental conditions. In this study, a low-cost, particulate matter sensor (Plantower PMS 1003/3003) used by a community air-quality network is evaluated in a controlled wind-tunnel environment and in the ambient environment during several winter-time, cold-pool events that are associated with high ambient levels of PM. In the wind-tunnel, the PMS sensor performance is compared to two research-grade, light-scattering instruments, and in the ambient tests, the sensor performance is compared to two federal equivalent (one tapered element oscillating microbalance and one beta attenuation monitor) and gravimetric federal reference methods (FEMs/FRMs) as well as one research-grade instrument (GRIMM). The PMS sensor response correlates well with research-grade instruments in the wind-tunnel tests, and its response is linear over the concentration range tested (200–850 μg/m³). In the ambient tests, this PM sensor correlates better with gravimetric methods than previous studies with correlation coefficients of 0.88. However additional measurements under a variety of ambient conditions are needed. Although the PMS sensor correlated as well as the research-grade instrument to the FRM/FEMs in ambient conditions, its response varies with particle properties to a much greater degree than the research-grade instrument. In addition, the PMS sensors overestimate ambient PM concentrations and begin to exhibit a non-linear response when PM2.5 concentrations exceed 40 μg/m³. These results have important implications for communicating results from low-cost sensor networks, and they highlight the importance of using an appropriate correction factor for the target environmental conditions if the user wants to compare the results to FEM/FRMs.

Although urbanisation is a major cause of land-use change worldwide, towns and cities remain relatively understudied ecosystems. Research into urban ecosystem service provision is still an emerging field, yet evidence is accumulating rapidly to suggest that the biological carbon stores in cities are more substantial than previously assumed. However, as more vegetation carbon densities are derived, substantial variability between these estimates is becoming apparent. Here, we review procedural differences evident in the literature, which may be drivers of variation in carbon storage assessments. Additionally, we quantify the impact that some of these different approaches may have when extrapolating carbon figures derived from surveys up to a city-wide scale. To understand how/why carbon stocks vary within and between cities, researchers need to use more uniform methods to estimate stores and relate this quantitatively to standardised ‘urbanisation’ metrics, in order to facilitate comparisons.

Living in an urban environment is associated with an increased prevalence of specific mental health disorders, particularly schizophrenia. While many factors have been discussed as possible mediators of this association, most researchers favour the hypothesis that urban living stands as a proxy for an increased exposure to social stress. This factor has been recognized as one of the most powerful causes for the development of mental disorders, and appears to correlate with the markedly increased incidence of schizophrenia in urban minority groups. However, the hypothesis that the general urban population is exposed to increased levels of social stress has to be validated. Pursuing the goal of understanding how social stress acts as a risk factor for mental disorder in urban populations must include factors like social conditions, environmental pollutants, infrastructure and economic issues.

Current assessments of human exposure to flame retardants (FRs) via dust ingestion rely on measurements of FR concentrations in dust samples collected at specific points in time and space. Such exposure assessments are rendered further uncertain by the possibility of within-room and within-building spatial and temporal variability, differences in dust particle size fraction analysed, as well as differences in dust sampling approach. A meta-analysis of peer-reviewed data was undertaken to evaluate the impact of these factors on reported concentrations of brominated flame retardants (BFRs) and organophosphate esters (OPEs) in dust and subsequent human exposure estimates. Except for a few cases, concentrations of FRs in elevated surface dust (ESD) exceeded significantly those in floor dust (FD). The implications of this for exposure assessment are not entirely clear. However, they imply that analysing FD only will underestimate exposure for adults who likely rarely ingest floor dust, while analysing ESD only would overestimate exposure for toddlers who likely rarely ingest elevated surface dust. Considerable within-building spatial variability was observed with no specific trend between concentrations of either BFRs or OPEs in living rooms and bedrooms in the same homes, implying that exposure assessments based solely on sampling one room are uncertain. Substantial differences in FR concentrations were observed in different particle size fractions of dust. This is likely partly attributable to the presence of abraded polymer particles/fibres with high FR concentrations in larger particle size fractions. This has implications for exposure assessment as adherence to skin and subsequent FR uptake via ingestion and dermal sorption varies with particle size. Analysing dust samples obtained from a householder vacuum cleaner (HHVC) compared with researcher collected dust (RCD) will underestimate human exposure to the most of studied contaminants. This is likely due to the losses of volatile FRs from HHVC dust over the extended period such dust spends in the dust bag. Temporal variability in FR concentrations is apparent during month-to-month or seasonal monitoring, with such variability likely due more to changes in room contents rather than seasonal temperature variation.

The identification of airborne bacteria has traditionally been performed by retrieval in culture media, but the bacterial diversity in the air is underestimated using this method because many bacteria are not readily cultured. Advances in DNA sequencing technology have produced a broad knowledge of genomics and metagenomics, which can greatly improve our ability to identify and study the diversity of airborne bacteria. However, researchers are facing several challenges, particularly the efficient retrieval of low-density microorganisms from the air and the lack of standardized protocols for sample collection and processing. In this study, we tested three methods for sampling bioaerosols — a Durham-type spore trap (Durham), a seven-day recording volumetric spore trap (HST), and a high-throughput 'Jet' spore and particle sampler (Jet) — and recovered metagenomic DNA for 16S rDNA sequencing. Samples were simultaneously collected with the three devices during one week, and the sequencing libraries were analyzed. A simple and efficient method for collecting bioaerosols and extracting good quality DNA for high-throughput sequencing was standardized. The Durham sampler collected preferentially Cyanobacteria, the HST Actinobacteria, Proteobacteria and Firmicutes, and the Jet mainly Proteobacteria and Firmicutes. The HST sampler collected the largest amount of airborne bacterial diversity. More experiments are necessary to select the right sampler, depending on study objectives, which may require monitoring and collecting specific airborne bacteria.

Hexachlorobenzene (HCB) and pentachlorobenzene (PeCBz) have been listed as unintentional POPs in the annex of the Stockholm Convention and thus, attracted attention by government and researchers. Since the intentional production and use has ceased in most countries, the unintentional releases to the environment have increased. This study gathered 206 and 78 emission factors (EFs) of unintentional HCB and PeCBz from scientific publications and governmental reports, respectively. Most of the EFs referred to the release vector “air” (EFAir) and to a less extent to “product” (EFProduct). EFs were proposed for different source categories/classes used in the Toolkit according to the technologies that released the HCB or PeCBz. Overall, lowest and highest EFAir for HCB were found in the metallurgical industry range from 1 μg/t in well controlled plants (coke, iron and steel) up to 40,000 μg/t (secondary zinc). EFs for PeCBz were in similar order of magnitude. Due to lack of data, EFs to water, land or residue cannot be proposed. Using linear regression and statistical analysis such as Pearson correlation, we found strongest correlation of EFAir between HCB and PeCBz (R2 = 0.79, P < 0.01) and weaker, but still significant, correlations for EFAir between PCDD/PCDFTEQ and HCB (R2 = 0.56; P < 0.01) or PeCBz (R2 = 0.31 P < 0.01) for various thermal processes.

Recently, several researchers have attempted to address Deepwater Horizon incident environmental fate and effects issues using laboratory testing and extrapolation procedures that are not fully reliable measures for environmental assessments. The 2013 Rico-Martínez et al. publication utilized laboratory testing approaches that severely limit our ability to reliably extrapolate such results to meaningful real-world assessments.The authors did not adopt key methodological elements of oil and dispersed oil toxicity standards. Further, they drew real-world conclusions from static exposure tests without reporting actual exposure concentrations. Without this information, it is not possible to compare their results to other research or real spill events that measured and reported exposure concentrations.The 1990s' Chemical Response to Oil Spills: Ecological Effects Research Forum program was established to standardize and conduct exposure characterization in oil and dispersed oil aquatic toxicity testing (Aurand and Coelho, 2005). This commentary raises awareness regarding the necessity of standardized test protocols.

Ecotoxicity data with high reliability and relevance are needed to guarantee the scientific quality of environmental risk assessments of pharmaceuticals. The main advantages of a more structured approach to data evaluation include increased transparency and predictability of the risk assessment process, and the possibility to use non-standard data. In this collaboration, between the research project MistraPharma and the German Federal Environment Agency, a new set of reporting and evaluation criteria is presented and discussed. The new criteria are based on the approaches in the literature and the OECD reporting requirements, and have been further developed to include both reliability and relevance of test data. Intended users are risk assessors and researchers performing ecotoxicological experiments, but the criteria can also be used for education purposes and in the peer-review process for scientific papers. This approach intends to bridge the gap between the regulator and the scientist’s needs and way of work.