New toxicological research is still urgently needed to improve the current knowledge about the induction of some underlying mechanisms of toxicity by the different chemical fractions of ambient particulate matter (PM). This in vitro study sought also to better evaluate and compare the respective toxicities of fine particles (PM₂.₅₋₀.₃) and their inorganic and organic chemical fractions, and the respective toxicities of the organic chemical fractions of PM₂.₅₋₀.₃ and quasi-ultrafine particles (PM₀.₃). Human bronchial epithelial BEAS-2B cells were also exposed for 6–48 h to relatively low doses of PM₂.₅₋₀.₃ and their organic extractable (OEM₂.₅₋₀.₃) and non-extractable (NEM₂.₅₋₀.₃) fractions, and the organic extractable fraction (OEM₀.₃) of PM₀.₃. We reported that not only PM₂.₅₋₀.₃, but also, to a lesser extent, its inorganic chemical fraction, NEM₂.₅₋₀.₃, and organic chemical fraction, OEM₂.₅₋₀.₃, were able to significantly induce ROS overproduction and oxidative damage notwithstanding the early activation of NRF2 signaling pathway. Moreover, for any exposure, inflammatory and apoptotic events were noticed. Similar results were observed in BEAS-2B cells exposed to OEM₀.₃, rich of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and their nitrated and oxygenated derivatives. In BEAS-2B cells exposed for 24 and 48 h to OEM₂.₅₋₀.₃ and OEM₀.₃, to a higher extent, there was an alteration of the levels of some critical proteins even though crucial for the autophagy rather than a real reduction of autophagy. It is noteworthy that the toxicological effects were equal or mostly higher in BEAS-2B cells exposed for 6 and/or 24 h to PM₂.₅₋₀.₃ from those exposed to NEM₂.₅₋₀.₃ or OEM₂.₅₋₀.₃, and in BEAS-2B cells exposed for 6 and/or mostly 24 h to OEM₀.₃ from those exposed to OEM₂.₅₋₀.₃. Taken together, these results revealed the higher potentials for toxicity, closely linked to their respective physical and chemical characteristics, of PM₂.₅₋₀.₃ vs NEM₂.₅₋₀.₃ and/or OEM₂.₅₋₀.₃, and OEM₀.₃ vs OEM₂.₅₋₀.₃.

Climate change will impact soil properties such as soil moisture, organic carbon and temperature and changes in these properties will influence the sorption, biodegradation and leaching of trace organic contaminants to groundwater. In this study, we conducted a modeling case study to evaluate atrazine and estrone transport in the subsurface under current and future climate conditions at a field site in central Nebraska. According to the modeling results, in the future, enhanced evapotranspiration and increased average air temperature may cause drier soil conditions, which consequently reduces the biodegradation of atrazine and estrone in the water phase. On the other hand, greater transpiration rates lead to greater root solute uptake which may decrease the concentration of atrazine and estrone in the soil profile. Another consequence of future climate is that the infiltration and leaching rates for both atrazine and estrone may be lower under future climate scenarios. Reduced infiltration of trace organic compounds may indicate that lower trace organic concentrations in groundwater may occur under future climate scenarios.

With the burst of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) applications, their potential entry into the environment has attracted increasing concern. To date, researches about the impacts of AgNPs on microbial communities have been scarcely conducted in the brackish waters. Here, the effects of interactions of AgNPs and Ag⁺ (as a positive control) with dissolved oxygen on natural brackish water microbial communities were investigated for 30 d. The introduction of AgNPs and Ag⁺ in natural brackish waters resulted in distinct bacterial community composition and structure as well as reduction of the richness and diversity, effects that were not eliminated completely during the tested periods. Anoxic conditions could attenuate the effects of AgNPs and Ag⁺ on the community, and dissolved oxygen made more contributions to community compositions for short-term exposure. High doses of AgNPs had more pronounced long-term impacts than Ag⁺ amendment. Compared with the controls, two general AgNP and Ag⁺ responses, namely, sensitivity and resistance, were observed. Sensitive species mainly included those of the genera Synechococcus and unclassified_f_Rhodobacteraceae, while resistant species mostly belonged to the phylum Bacteroidetes and participated in carbon metabolic processes. Our results indicated that the microbial communities that were involved in nutrient cycles (such as carbon, nitrogen, and sulfide) and photoautotrophic bacteria that contained bacteriochlorophyll were adversely affected by AgNPs and Ag⁺. In addition, dissolved oxygen could further change the microbial communities. These results implied that under different oxygen conditions AgNPs possibly resulted in varying microbial survival strategies and affected the biogeochemical cycling of nutrients in natural brackish waters.

The aquatic environment takes on a key role in the dissemination of antimicrobial-resistant Enterobacteriaceae. This study assesses the occurrence of carbapenemase-producing Enterobacteriaceae (CPE) in freshwater samples from rivers, inland canals, and streams throughout Switzerland, and characterizes the isolated strains using phenotypic and NGS-based genotypic methods. CPE producing KPC-2 (n = 2), KPC-3 (n = 1), NDM-5 (n = 3), OXA-48 (n = 3), OXA-181 (n = 6), and VIM-1 (n = 2) were detected in 17/164 of the water samples. Seven Escherichia coli had sequence types (STs) that belonged to extra-intestinal pathogenic clonal lineages ST38, ST73, ST167, ST410, and ST648. The majority (16/17) of the carbapenemase genes were located on plasmids, including the widespread IncC (n = 1), IncFIIA (n = 1), and IncFIIB plasmids (n = 4), the epidemic IncL (n = 1) and IncX3 (n = 5) plasmids, a rare Col156 plasmid (n = 1), and the mosaic IncFIB, IncR, and IncQ plasmids (n = 3). Plasmids were composed of elements that were identical to those of resistance plasmids retrieved from clinical and veterinary isolates locally and worldwide. Our data show environmental dissemination of high-risk CPE clones in Switzerland. Epidemic and mosaic-like plasmids carrying clinically relevant carbapenemase genes are replicating and evolving pollutants of river ecosystems, representing a threat to public health and environmental integrity.

The widespread use of rare earth elements (REEs) in numerous sectors have resulted in their release into the environment. Existing knowledge about the effects of REEs were acquired mainly based on toxicity tests with aquatic organisms and a fixed exposure time, Here, the dynamic accumulation and toxicity of REEs (La, Ce, and Gd) in soil organism Enchytraeus crypticus were determined and modeled by a first-order one-compartment model and a time-toxicity logistic model, respectively. Generally, the accumulation and toxicity of REEs were both exposure level- and time-dependent. The overall uptake rate constants were 2.97, 2.48, and 2.38 L kg⁻¹d⁻¹ for La, Ce, and Gd, respectively. The corresponding elimination rate constants were 0.99, 0.78, and 0.56 d⁻¹, respectively. The worms exhibited faster uptake and elimination ability for light REEs (La and Ce) than for heavy REEs (Gd). For all three REEs, the LC50 values based on exposure concentrations decreased with time and reached ultimate values after approximately 10 d exposure. The estimated ultimate LC50 values (LC50∞) were 279, 334, and 358 mg L⁻¹ for Ce, Gd, and La, respectively. When expressed as body concentration, the LC50ᵢₙₜₑᵣ value was almost constant with time, demonstrating that internal body concentration could be a better indicator of dynamic toxicity of REEs than external dose. This study highlights that specific REE and exposure time should be taken into account in accurately assessing risk of REEs.

The sorption behaviour of three perfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs), namely perfluorooctane sulfonic acid (PFOS), perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and perfluorohexane sulfonic acid (PFHxS), was determined on 28 tropical soils. Tropical soils are often highly weathered, richer in sesquioxides than temperate soils and may contain variable charge minerals. There are little data on sorption of PFASs in tropical soils. The highest Kd values were found for PFOS with mean values ranging from 0 to 31.6 L/kg. The Kd values for PFOA and PFHxS ranged from 0 to 4.9 L/kg and from 0 to 5.6 L/kg, respectively. While these values are in the range of literature sorption data, the average Kd values for PFOS and PFOA from the literature were 3.7 times and 3.6 times higher, respectively, than those measured in this study. Stepwise regression analysis did explain some of the variance, but with different explanatory variables for the different PFASs. The main soil properties explaining sorption for PFOS and PFOA were oxalate-extractable Al and pH, and for PFHxS was pH.

Many studies show that bisphenol A (BPA) is widespread in human breast milk. However, the occurrence of other bisphenol analogues (BPs), including bisphenol S (BPS), bisphenol F (BPF), and bisphenol AF (BPAF), in breast milk is still not well known. In this study, breast milk samples were collected from 190 women in Hangzhou, China, with the aims to characterize the occurrence of BPA, BPS, BPF, and BPAF in these samples and to investigate their effects on postnatal growth of infants through breast milk consumption. BPA (mean 2.5 ng/mL, range < LOD–15 ng/mL) was the most abundant BP in breast milk, followed by BPS (0.19 ng/mL, <LOD–1.3 ng/mL) and BPAF (0.092 ng/mL, <LOD–0.58 ng/mL). BPF was not detected in all breast milk samples. We firstly found that breast milk concentrations of BPA were negatively correlated with infant’s weight or length gain rate. Daily intakes (DIs) of BPs via the consumption of breast milk were calculated for infants, and the mean DI values were 531 ng/kg/day, 53 ng/kg/day, and 24 ng/kg/day for BPA, BPS, and BPAF, respectively. Overall, this study firstly demonstrats that the lactation exposure to BPA through breast milk consumption may affect the postnatal growth of infants.

The proportion of asthma patients with mild to moderate exacerbations is far greater than the number who experience episodes that are severe enough to require emergency room visits or hospital admission. However the routinely collected data from hospitals is absent in the past.To evaluate associations between short-term exposures to air pollutants and hospital outpatient visits for asthma in China.We obtained data for 143,057 asthma outpatient visits from the largest hospitals in 17 Chinese cities, between Jan 01 2013 and Dec 31 2015. We used daily concentrations of air pollutants measured by the China National Environmental Monitoring Centre. We used a time-stratified case-crossover design, and fitted conditional logistic regression models to determine the associations.Particulate matter ≤10μm in diameter (PM10) and nitrogen dioxide (NO2) were associated with increased risks of hospital outpatient visits for asthma on the same day, while the effects were delayed for particulate matter ≤2.5μm in diameter (PM2.5) and sulphur dioxide (SO2). For the cumulative effect model at lag05 days, 10 μg/m3 increase in air pollutants concentrations were correlated with hospital outpatient visits for asthma with odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals 1.004 (1.000-1.008) for PM2.5, 1.005 (1.002-1.008) for PM10, 1.030 (1.021-1.040) for NO2, and 1.015 (1.008-1.021) for SO2. Almost one in nine (10.9%; 7.7, 13.9%) hospital outpatient visits for asthma were attributable to NO2.Short-term exposures to PM2.5, PM10, NO2 and SO2 were associated with hospital outpatient visits for asthma in China.

Compound-specific stable isotope analysis of micropollutants has become an established method for the qualitative and quantitative assessment of biodegradation in the field. However, many of environmental factors may have an influence on the observed isotope fractionation. Herein, we investigate the impact of substrate concentration on the observed enrichment factor derived from Rayleigh plot of batch laboratory experiments conducted to measure the atrazine carbon isotope fractionation of Rhizobium sp. CX-Z subjected to the different initial concentration level of atrazine. The Rayleigh plot (changes in bulk concentration vs. isotopic composition) derived from batch experiments shown divergence from the linear relation towards the end of degradation, confirming bioavailability of atrazine changed along with the decay of substrate concentration, consequently, influenced the isotope fractionation and lowered the observed enrichment factor. When microbial degradation is coupled to a mass transfer step limiting the bioavailability of substrate, the observed enrichment factor displays a dependence on initial atrazine concentration. Observed enrichment factors (ε) (absolute value) derived from the low concentration (i.e. 9.5 μM) are below 3.5‰ to the value of −5.4‰ determined at high bioavailability (membrane-free cells). The observed enrichment factor depended significantly on the atrazine concentration, indicating the concentration level and the bioavailability of a substrate in realistic environments should be considered during the assessment of microbial degradation or in situ bioremediation based on compound-specific stable isotope analysis (CSIA) method.