To deliver accurate particulate matter information to citizens, a detailed particulate matter dispersion model including factors such as land use and meteorological information was developed and used to create particulate matter concentration distribution maps for Daejeon Metropolitan City (South Korea). The results showed differences from existing particulate matter concentration distribution maps created using established methods. For PM2.5, approximately 3600 concentration maps were constructed. Taking a map as an example, according to existing methods, the PM2.5 concentration was “good” in 56% and “moderate” in 44% of areas. However, according to our modeling, the PM2.5 concentration was good in 31%, moderate in 26%, “unhealthy” in 28%, and “very unhealthy” in 15% of areas. Furthermore, the existing methods indicated that no portion of the population was exposed to poor particulate matter concentrations, while the proposed model found that over 170,000 people were exposed to such concentrations. These results will contribute to sustainable urban and environmental planning.

The removal of greenhouse gas (GHG) emission from bitumen used in the construction of flexible pavement by iron-polyphenol complex nanoparticles (Fe-PNPₛ) has been examined in the study. Laboratory studies indicated the removal of carbon dioxide (CO₂) with Fe-PNPₛ is a function of the amount of additive (Fe-PNPₛ). From the experimental data, it was found that the reduction of CO₂ increases with increasing amount of additive up to a dosage of 4% (by weight of bitumen) without severely changing the basic engineering properties of the bitumen. The reduction of GHG is due to the conversion of the CO₂ to a mixture of hydrocarbon in the presence of Fe-PNPₛ. The characterization of the additive by SEM, FTIR, UV, and XRD indicated the formation of the Fe-PNPₛ. The analysis of the basic engineering properties of bitumen such as penetration value, softening point of the bitumen, flash point, fire point, and ductility in the presence of additive as well as without the additive were studied and reflected a noticeable effect in the reduction of the CO₂. The reduction of GHG by Fe-PNPₛ minimizes the environmental impact and saving energy by increasing the yield of hydrocarbons.

The environmental behavior of paclobutrazol in soil and its toxicity were studied by field investigation and an outdoor pot experiment, and the residue of paclobutrazol was detected by gas chromatography–mass spectrometry. Field investigation has found that the residual paclobutrazol in the former succession crop could severely inhibit the growth of succeeding crops of potato; with migration and transformation of residual paclobutrazol in the soil, the stems of potato were thickened with residual amount of 1.23 mg kg⁻¹, the growth was slow, and the height of potato in soil with residual amount of 1.34 mg kg⁻¹ and the control was significantly different. The degradation dynamics of paclobutrazol fits with the first-order degradation kinetics, although T₁/₂ of paclobutrazol of the taro planting soil was 30.14–46.21 days and the residual paclobutrazol remained detectable even on day 120 after application. Taro leaves were sensitive to the stress of paclobutrazol pollution; the taro leaf thickness increased, the leaf area decreased, the chlorophyll content per area unit of taro leaf showed an obvious increased trend, and SOD and CAT activities and MDA and proline content increased significantly. Paclobutrazol promoted the tillering of taro, and the taro seedlings were dwarfed by 58.01, 63.27, and 75.88% at different concentrations. It indicated that taro had strong stress response ability under paclobutrazol pollution.

Combustion of fossil fuels including coal is one of the sources of mercury pollution. Combustion waste from fly ash disposal sites poses a problem for the environment and constitutes a potential source of Hg, thus phytostabilisation is a crucial goal in the mitigation of fossil fuel impact. The paper presents mercury (Hg) concentration in technosols from combustion waste and in individual biomass components (fine roots, bark, stem wood and leaves) of alder species (black, gray and green alder) introduced as part of a long-term experiment to develop a method of phytostabilisation and afforestation of a lignite combustion disposal site. Mercury content in the combustion waste was elevated compared to the data for natural soils from uncontaminated forest areas, however, it did not exceed the amounts considered to be toxic. Hg content in technosols was related to clay and silt fraction content and phosphorus content. Mercury in the alder biomass accumulated mainly in the underground part, especially in the fine roots and displayed a positive correlation with acid and alkaline phosphatase and sulfur content, with no differences in the accumulation of Hg between the alder species. The obtained results indicate that the fine roots are the frontier of Hg biosorption in developed alder systems on combustion waste disposal sites.

A plethora of empirical work explored finance-income-environment nexus, aims to investigate high CO₂ emissions determinants, over the last few couples of decades. The prior empirical work assist the idea that finance and income have diverse impacts on the environment. The lack of consensus on finance-income-environment nexus in the Central and Eastern European Countries in the perspective of Belt and Road Initiative need to be examined. Therefore, the present study explores the nexus between financial development, income level, and environmental quality for a panel of eighteen Central and Eastern European Countries, over the period of 1980–2016. The Dynamic Seemingly Unrelated Regression, the Fully Modified Ordinary Least Squares, and the Dumitrescu-Hurlin panel casualty approaches are employed. The environmental Kuznets curve hypothesis also investigated for both time series panel and country-wise. The Dynamic Seemingly Unrelated Regression long-run panel results reveal that (i) financial development index and income negatively impact on environmental quality; (ii) energy consumption is the key determinant of CO₂ emissions and reduces environmental quality; (iii) urbanization and trade both enhance environmental quality via reduction of carbon emissions; and (iv) the environmental Kuznets curve hypothesis supported for the selected panel countries. The country-wise results depict that increase in environmental quality occurs due to increase in financial development (in four countries), income level (in five countries), trade (in five countries), and urbanization (in eight countries). However, the environmental quality decreases due to the increase in financial development (in six countries), income level (in eight countries), energy consumption (in twelve countries), trade (in six countries), and urbanization (in five countries). The environmental Kuznets curve hypothesis supported for five Central and Eastern European Countries. Additionally, the causality results confirmed the presence of feedback relationships among income and environmental quality, and financial development and energy consumption. Thus, we conclude that income level and financial development are the main drivers behind high carbon dioxide emissions in CEECs. The finding of the study opens up new insight for appropriate policymaking.

Due to the dramatically increasing production of excess sludge during biological wastewater treatment, the development of an economical, efficient, and environmentally friendly sludge dewatering method is highly required. Herein, Bdellovibrio-and-like organisms (BALOs), a group of predatory bacteria were applied for waste sludge dewaterability enhancement and biomass reduction and the potential biolysis mechanisms were elaborated. Generally, the satisfying biolysis performance was obtained for the sludge with the moderate total solid (TS) content (1.5–2.5%). Within 24-h sludge biolysis with our isolated and enriched BALOs, the sludge specific resistance to filtration value as the dewaterbility index reached the maximal reduction rate of 65.3 ± 6.4%. Meanwhile, the concentrations of released soluble nitrogen and phosphorous significantly increased by 57.4 ± 3.3 and 56.7 ± 6.1%, respectively. Moreover, the contents of tightly bound extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) dramatically decreased after sludge biolysis while the loosely bound EPS contents increased, which implied the disruptions of sludge flocs structure for sludge dewaterability improvement. High-throughput sequencing results revealed the remarkable shift of sludge’s microbial community structure after biolysis treatment. The relative abundances of the dominant genera Ferruginibacter, Pseudomonas, and Thermomonas related to denitrification or flocs structure stabilization dramatically decreased. The noticeable increasing populations of Comamonas and Hyphomicrobium in abundances suggested the potential re-growth of the surviving microbial cells in response to BALO invasions. Overall, BALO predation could disintegrate the waste sludge structure, promote the cell lysis and the intracellular substances release, and cause the variations of microbial community compositions to efficiently improve the sludge dewaterability.

This study has compared the harvesting efficiency of four flocculation methods, namely, induced by pH, FeCl₃, AlCl₃ and chitosan. No changes were observed on M. aeruginosa cells. Flocculation assays performed at pH 3 and 4 have shown the best harvesting efficiency among the pH-induced tests, reaching values above 90% after 8 h. The adjustment of zeta potential (ZP) to values comprised between − 6.7 and − 20.7 mV enhanced significantly the settling rates using flocculant agents, being FeCl₃ the best example where increments up to 88% of harvesting efficiency were obtained. Although all the four methods tested have presented harvesting efficiencies above 91% within the first 8 h after the optimization process, the highest performance was obtained using 3.75 mg L⁻¹ of FeCl₃, which allowed reaching 92% in 4 h.

High specific surface area activated carbon prepared from endocarp of Jerivá (Syagrus romanzoffiana) (ACJ) was used for ciprofloxacin (CIP) antibiotic removal from aqueous effluents. The activated carbon (AC) was characterized via scanning electron microscope, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, N₂ adsorption/desorption, and pH value at the zero-charge point. Avrami kinetic model was the one that best fit the experimental results in comparison to the pseudo-first-order and pseudo-second-order kinetic models. The equilibrium data obeyed the Liu isotherm equation, showing a maximum adsorption capacity of 335.8 mg g⁻¹ at 40 °C. The calculated thermodynamic parameters indicate that the adsorption of CIP was spontaneous and endothermic at all studied temperatures. Also, the free enthalpy changes (∆H° = 3.34 kJ mol⁻¹) suggested physical adsorption between CIP and ACJ. Simulated effluents were utilized to check the potential of the ACJ for wastewater purification. The highly efficient features enable the activated carbon prepared from endocarp of Jerivá, an attractive carbon adsorbent, to remove ciprofloxacin from wastewaters.

Severity of clinical expression and high mortality could not facilitate establishing exposure index/association following MIC disaster in Bhopal. Mortality-based exposure stratification was critiqued by the International Medical Commission on Bhopal (IMCB). IMCB stratified exposure considering distance as surrogate at 2 km intervals after 10 years. The first follow-up cytogenetic screening of the pre-screened survivors after 30 years has demonstrated chromosome abnormalities (CA). Exposure stratification was attempted considering cytogenetic screening conducted during 1986–1988. Elevation of CA appeared proportional to exposure status and authenticated the initial mortality-based stratification. The one-on-one comparison of the previous and present cytogenetics has described the individual response to MIC exposure over 30 years. Chi-square test has been carried out for checking the cytogenetic changes at the individual level statistically, which revealed that differences of chromosomal aberrations collected immediately post-disaster and 30 years later are nonsignificant. The prominence of interindividual variation was noticed in general. The impact of overall exposure was higher in males. Constitutional abnormalities in 8.5% of the study population, including translocation, inversion, deletion, fragile sites, etc., necessitate screening of blood-linked members. The incidence of acrocentric association was prominent in the study population. Normal karyotype in children born to severely exposed parents with congenital anomalies indicates necessity of molecular karyotyping and/or screening of mutations. The study highlights follow-up of the health of the index cases at shorter (3–6 months) intervals. This comprehensive spectrum of cytogenetic report highlights immediate post-disaster chromosomal aberrations, the changes that occurred over 30 years in conjunction with other environmental factors at the individual level, constitutive genomic aberrations, polymorphic variations, and chromosomal patterns in congenitally malformed children of the survivors, which collectively indicate the possibility of acquisition/persistence of stable aberrations in MIC-exposed lymphocytes through interaction with environmental/biological confounders.

Since the ban of tributyltin in antifouling paints, many alternative biocides have been introduced to prevent settlement and growth of marine organisms on ship hulls. Zinc pyrithione (ZnPT) is one of the most frequently used alternative biocides in antifouling paints. This paper reviewed the overall chemical properties, toxicological characteristics, and environmental fates of ZnPT, as well as the analytical challenges of studying pertinent processes. ZnPT is generally toxic to a wide range of marine organisms, including algae, bivalves, sea urchins, polychaetes, crustaceans, and fish, typically at μg/L levels. ZnPT can be transchelated into other compounds in the presence of metal ions, and photodegrades when exposed to UV light. ZnPT is also reported to be biodegraded or hydrolyzed forming several metabolites of their own toxicity and stability. However, ZnPT accumulates in the water column or sediment, if it does not degrade at certain environmental conditions. To determine potential risks caused by ZnPT in the marine environment, studies have evaluated the environmental distribution of ZnPT with various chromatographic or voltammetry methods. Unfortunately, rapid transchelation and degradation of ZnPT in both the marine environment and laboratory interfered with most of the methods employed, making it difficult to evaluate its environmental distribution. More robust and sensitive analytical methods need to be developed to reliably describe the environmental release and distribution of ZnPT. To comprehensively understand the risk posed by the input of ZnPT into the marine environment, total degradation processes and its potential products also need to be adequately addressed.