Environmental exposure to phthalates may contribute to an increased risk of asthma in children and adults. We aimed to assess the direction and strength of the association between urinary phthalates metabolites and current asthma in children and adults that participated in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) 2007–2012. Data on ten urinary phthalate metabolites, self-reported questionnaires, spirometry measures, and covariates were obtained from 7765 participants (28.1% were children aged 6–17 years) taking part in the NHANES 2007–2012. Asthma was assessed using self-reported questionnaires for children and adults, and via spirometry measures for adults alone. We used crude and adjusted logistic regression models to estimate the odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence interval (CI) per one log₁₀ unit change in the concentration of phthalate metabolites. We further modeled the effect modification by sex. Out of 10 metabolites, only mono-benzyl phthalate (MBzP) was positively associated with the prevalence of self-reported asthma in children, after adjusting for a range of potential confounders (odds ratio 1.54; 95% confidence interval 1.05–2.27). No significant relationship was observed for adults. The association of mono-ethyl phthalate (MEP) was modified by sex, with significantly increased odds of asthma among males [boys (2.00; 1.14–3.51); adult males (1.32; 1.04–1.69)]. While no other phthalates showed a positive relationship with current asthma in males, mono-(carboxynonyl) phthalate (MCNP) and mono-(3-carboxylpropyl) phthalate (MCPP) were inversely associated with spirometrically defined asthma in adult females. A sex-specific relationship in adults was evident when spirometry, but not self-reported measures were used to define asthma. We found no clear association between exposure to phthalates and current asthma, except for a significant relationship between MBzP metabolites and self-reported asthma in children. As a result, exposure to phthalates and asthma development and/or exacerbations remains controversial, suggesting a need for a well-designed longitudinal study.

The activity concentrations of naturally occurring and anthropogenic radionuclides in agriculture soils as well as in several food products at four locations within the phosphate area of South Tunisia were investigated. Soil-to-plant transfer factors as well as feed-to-animal products transfer coefficients were determined for the first time for the region. Activity concentrations of ⁴⁰K, ²¹⁰Pb, ²²⁶Ra, ²²⁸Ra and ¹³⁷Cs in soils of agriculture fields were lower than worldwide average values. The soil-to-plant transfer factors (TFs) for ⁴⁰K in leafy vegetables were higher than those in fruit vegetables. Soil-to-grass transfer factor (Fᵥ) values were in the following order: ⁴⁰K > ²¹⁰Pb > ²²⁶Ra. The grass-to-milk transfer coefficient (Fₘ) values for ⁴⁰K and ²¹⁰Pb ranged between 2 × 10⁻³ and 4 × 10⁻³(day L⁻¹). The concentration ratios for the animal products (CRₘᵢₗₖ₋fₑₑd, CRₘₑₐₜ₋fₑₑd and CRₑgg₋fₑₑd) varied in the ranges of 2 × 10⁻²–4 × 10⁻² L kg⁻¹, 1 × 10⁻²–2 × 10⁻¹ (L kg⁻¹) and 5 × 10⁻²–1 (L kg⁻¹)for ⁴⁰K, ²¹⁰Pb and ²²⁶Ra, respectively. Transfer parameters determined in the present study were compared with those reported in International Atomic Energy Agency reports and other published values. The absorbed gamma dose rate in air and the external hazard index associated with these natural radionuclides were computed to assess the radiation hazard of radioactivity in this region, and the results indicated that these areas are within set safety limits.

The continuous deterioration of the aquatic environment in rivers and streams is increasingly causing social and political tensions. To alleviate aquatic environmental problems, especially for the nonpoint source pollution, establishment of riparian forest buffers has been demonstrated as an effective control measure. However, few comprehensive studies of the reduction effects of riparian reforestation on the aquatic environment have been performed, particularly in identifying the suitable widths of reforestation projects. In this paper, the Annualized Agricultural Non-Point Source (AnnAGNPS) model was used to simulate the reduction effects of riparian reforestation on runoff and nutrient loads in Wucun watershed, China. The results showed that 20-m, 40-m, and 60-m widths of riparian buffer reforestation had significant effects on the yearly loads of total nitrogen (TN) and total phosphorus (TP), with reduced rates of 23.21 to 56.2% and 18.16 to 52.14%, respectively. The reduction effect on annual runoff varied from 2.8 to 5.4%. Furthermore, the reduction effect of nutrients performed best during the transition period, while the best runoff reduction was found during the dry period. These distinct reductions indicated that the implementation of riparian forest buffers was capable of reducing the risk and frequency of flooding and eutrophication, especially during the wet and transition periods. Additionally, the 20-m width of riparian buffer reforestation achieved the highest reduction efficiency for runoff, and the 40-m width was the most suitable reforested riparian buffer width for TN and TP. Therefore, 40 m may be the optimum buffer width for the implementation of riparian reforestation in the Wucun watershed. These research results provided scientific information on selecting the optimum buffer width for aquatic environmental regulators and managers as the reduction effects of different widths of riparian buffers on runoff and nutrients were different when considering buffer reforestation.

The Volkswagen scandal has promoted experimental campaigns worldwide aimed to assess the real exhaust emissions of in-use vehicles. Attention has been paid to diesel vehicle NOx emissions that are much higher than legislative type-approval limits. This paper analysed exhaust emissions of a fleet of ten Euro 5 diesel vehicles. NOx emissions were measured during laboratory and track testing. In both cases, the type-approval test was carried out with cold and warm starts. Moreover, in the laboratory, a modified type-approval test and a real urban driving cycle were executed in order to characterise emissions in multiple operating conditions, outside of the homologation boundaries. The testing environment did not influence the emissions behaviour of the tested vehicles. Track and laboratory results, in fact, were comparable when ambient conditions were comparable. The parameter which played the main role in terms of NOx emissions is the ambient temperature, fixed at 23 °C in laboratory and not controlled on the track. Above 28 °C, NOx emissions were much higher than the approval limit (almost 600 mg/km). Moreover, warm driving cycles always introduced higher NOx emissions than cold ones, because of the partial use and/or deactivation of the EGR circuit (one of effective measures to reduce NOx formation). The ratio between warm and cold emissions ranged from 2 to 5. The engine parameter which helped explain the relationship between NOx emissions and thermal engine status was the intake air temperature. For intake air temperatures below 40 °C, NOx emissions were lower than 0.2 g/km. Above 40 °C, they suddenly increased up to almost 0.6 g/km. Another issue highlighted by the experimental results was that dynamic real driving caused the highest NOx emissions (almost 1 g/km).

The discharge of organic dye into environment is the threat to hydrosphere and biosphere. On the other hands, the agriculture solid wastes such walnut and almond shells pose serious pollutions in lithosphere and atmosphere when burned. The aim of present investigation is to fabricate microporous activated carbon from agriculture waste shells by microwave irradiation as efficient adsorbent to overcome these problems. Firstly, zinc chloride was impregnated into milled shell particles, 300 μm, by conventional and microwave-assisted techniques and then the dry precursors were heated in the closed and open ceramic vessels in air and nitrogen atmospheres. The experimental investigation was carried out to understand the roles of different fabrication factors such as shell particle size, catalyst impregnation ratio, microwave power, carbonization temperature, and atmosphere on cationic dye removal from wastewater. The mentioned factors efficiently affect the dye removal onto obtained activated carbon. The increase in the microwave power up to 600 W could effectively increase the dye removal. However, the higher powers inversely affect the removal efficiency. The equilibrium data were well fitted by Langmuir equation with high linear regression coefficients in which the maximum adsorption capacities of activated carbon produced by walnut and almond shells were determined to be 98 and 114 mg/g, respectively. The most prominent advantage of activated carbon produced from almond shell is lower content of catalyst employed in impregnation stage. Although the larger particles of solid waste were applied, the spongy nature with average pore diameter of 2.4 nm is the unique characteristic of activated carbon fabricated from almond shell which improves the performance of adsorbent in wastewater treatment.

The original corresponding authorship was transferred from Changwon Kim to Yejin Kim by Changwon Kim’s request. All the authors agreed to that.

Microplastics, particles less than 5 mm in size, are an emerging contaminant in waterways worldwide. Most microplastic studies focus on spatial trends in concentration, but in systems as dynamic as rivers, to draw conclusions from existing spatial studies, we must first examine how microplastic concentrations may change with time and flow conditions. In this study, we investigate how microplastic concentrations change over a 24-h period and between seasonally high and low flows. We do this in two streams, controlling for wastewater treatment strategy: one stream in a watershed where waste is treated with septic systems and the other receiving wastewater treatment plant effluent. We hypothesized that a stream with wastewater treatment plant effluent would exhibit higher and more variable microplastic concentrations than a stream in a watershed with septic systems. Results indicate, however, that there is no significant difference between the two streams despite their differing treatment strategies. Additionally, no significant variation in concentrations was measured over two 24-h sampling campaigns. There was, however, significantly higher concentrations measured in summer low flow conditions relative to spring high flow conditions across both sampled streams (p value <0.001), indicating that increases in stream discharge unrelated to storm events dilute and decrease measured microplastic concentrations. From this, we learn that pairing measured concentrations with a description of flow conditions at sampling time is a requisite for a robust microplastic literature that allows for comparisons between existing spatial studies and extrapolations to global loads.

Energy state and environmental impacts of production systems are of main criteria to reach sustainability. In the present research, ostrich was compared with a broiler production system based on the criteria. The required data was gathered in Boukan Township, West Azerbaijan, Iran, by a questioner method. The total input energy in ostrich and broiler systems was calculated as 150,419.81 MJ (1 ton of bird year)⁻¹ and 344,579.58 MJ (1 ton of bird year)⁻¹, respectively. Diesel fuel and feed (41.39% and 36.95%, respectively) in broiler and electricity (45.87%) in the ostrich production system had the highest energy shares. Eleven impact categories were estimated by SimaPro software in the studied systems. Except for human toxicity, fresh water aquatic ecotoxicity, and terrestrial ecotoxicity, the amounts of other environmental impacts in the ostrich production system were lower than those of the poultry production system. The amount of global warming indicator for the production of 1 ton of broiler chicken was 17,400 kg CO₂ eq year⁻¹ that was equal to 4350 kg CO₂ eq period⁻¹. This value was obtained as 1.68 × 10⁴ kg CO₂ eq year⁻¹ for the production of ostrich meat. In both production systems, feed was the main factor responsible for almost all studied environmental impacts.

In the study, the nexus among energy consumption, foreign direct investment (FDI), economic growth, and trade openness is examined by newly developed Fourier ADL (2017) and ARDL tests cover the period 1980–2015 in Turkey. Findings indicated that energy consumption, FDI, economic growth, and trade openness are cointegrated. In addition, it is determined that an increase in economic growth and trade openness positively affects energy consumption both in the long-term and short-term but FDI has only a positive effect in the long-term. VECM causality results indicated that FDI, economic growth, and trade openness are the causes of energy consumption in the long-term. In this context, Turkish policymakers should change the composition of FDI through various incentive policies to provide energy efficiency. FDI inflows should be shifted from sectors using dirty technology to clean technologies such as the information technology and services sector. In addition, increasing FDI that included green technology and renewable energy sources may promote energy efficiency in Turkey.

This paper complements existing literature by assessing the conditional relationship between renewable energy and environmental quality in a sample of 40 African countries for the period 2002 to 2017. The empirical evidence is based on fixed effects regressions and quantile fixed effects regressions. The findings from both estimation techniques show that renewable energy consistently decreases carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions. Moreover, the negative effect is a decreasing function of CO₂ emissions or the negative effect of renewable energy on CO₂ emissions decreases with increasing levels of CO₂ emissions. In other words, countries with higher levels of CO₂ emissions consistently experience a less negative effect compared with their counterparts with lower levels of CO₂ emissions. Policy implications are discussed.