Dietary habits associated with the presence of organochlorine pesticides in human milk

Abstract

This study aims to establish the relationship between the consumption of certain foods and the presence of organochlorine pesticides in human milk. A total of 167 samples of breastmilk were collected. Sample analysis was carried out by gas chromatography with electron capture detector. Pesticide concentrations (op’DDT, pp’DDT, pp’DDE, Σ-DDT, HCB, β-HCH) were grouped by consumption level of fish, dairy products, meat, eggs, and seafood and then were compared to each other. The odds ratio (OR) was calculated between the concentration of pesticides (higher and/or lower than median) and the exposure variable (high consumption). The results indicated low median concentrations of HCB, β???HCH, op’DDT and pp’DDT, whose fluctuations and trends between different frequencies of food consumption were not significant. pp’DDE and Σ???DDT values according to the increase in consumption of fish were significantly increased. Women with high fish consumption have a higher risk of high concentrations of pp’DDE and Σ-DDT (OR: high consumption: 5.6 (1.3–23.6). A protective effect was observed in the consumption of dairy products (β-HCH and op’DDT), meat (HCB), and seafood (pp’DDT). These results suggest that it is possible that the consumption of fish, dairy products, meat, and seafood influences the presence of organochlorine pesticides in the studied population.     

Food sources of arsenic in pregnant Mediterranean women with high urine concentrations of this metalloid

Seafood consumption provides a significant amount of arsenic, although in its organic, nontoxic forms. Mediterranean populations may incorporate high levels of this metalloid as a consequence of seafood consumption. In the present study, the significance of this input among pregnant women from a Mediterranean city (Sabadell, Catalonia, Spain) is assessed. Total urinary arsenic was analyzed in 489 pairs of urine samples, corresponding to the 12th and 32th weeks of pregnancy. Association of arsenic content with seafood and other dietary items were studied. Geometric mean concentrations were 34 and 37 μg/g creatinine during the first and third trimesters, respectively. The observed concentrations were similar to those reported in studies from other Mediterranean countries. The differences between both periods were not statistically significant. The only dietary factor significantly and positively associated with total urinary arsenic in both series of samples was seafood, particularly lean fish. Moreover, lean fish consumption during both periods was found to be the main determinant for differences in levels of arsenic between the first and third trimesters, which confirms the association between high levels of total urinary arsenic and seafood consumption.     

Analysis of Sampling Strategies for Estimating Annual Average Indoor NO2 Concentrations in Residences with Gas Ranges

Abstract

Range gas consumption in households tends to follow an annual cycle resembling a sinusoid, with peak consumption during the winter. When outdoor NO2 concentrations have a constant or small impact, the resulting indoor NO2 concentrations also tend to resemble an annual sinusoid. Optimal monitoring strategies can be designed to take advantage of this knowledge to obtain a better estimate of the true annual average gas consumption or indoor NO2 concentration. Gas consumption data, together with measured outdoor concentrations, house volumes, sampled emission rates, air exchange rates, and NO2 decay rates, are used to model weekly indoor NO2 concentrations throughout the year. Based on the modeling results, various monitoring strategies are evaluated for their accuracy in estimating the annual mean. Analysis of the results indicates that greater accuracy is attained using samples equally spaced throughout the year. In addition, the expected error for various monitoring strategies and various numbers of equally spaced samples is quantified, and their ability to classify homes into correct concentration categories is assessed.     

Longitudinal emissions evaluation of mixed (cooperative) adaptive cruise control traffic flow and its relationship with stability

ABSTRACT

Cooperative adaptive cruise control (CACC) vehicles need vehicle-to-vehicle (V2 V) communication to achieve CACC function. When a CACC vehicle follows a manual-driven vehicle (MDV) without V2 V communication, it needs degenerate to adaptive cruise control (ACC). By using real experiments, California PATH program indicated that ACC vehicles are apt to be unstable, which may have negative influence on fuel consumption and traffic emissions. Hence, this paper studies the impacts of the mixed CACC-MDV traffic on fuel consumption and emissions, by taking into consideration partial degenerations from stable CACC vehicles to unstable ACC vehicles. To deal with this, microscopic simulations were adopted by using car-following models. Then, an appropriate emission model was used for evaluating the emission impacts under different CACC market penetration rates (MPRs). In order to obtain reliable evaluation results, the models validated by PATH program using real experimental data were employed as the CACC and ACC car-following models. In addition, we also analytically investigated stability of the mixed traffic flow under different CACC MPRs, in order to explore its relationship with the emission impacts. The results show that the fuel consumption and emissions firstly increase and then decrease with the increase of the CACC MPR. This means the mixed traffic under some ranges of CACC MPRs will produce more fuel consumption and emissions, compared with the full MDVs traffic. It indicates that stability situations of the mixed traffic qualitatively influence the impact trend of CACC MPRs on fuel consumption and emissions. Then, V2 V communication equipments on MDVs are not only encouraging but also essential to avoid the deterioration of fuel consumption and emissions of the mixed traffic flow.     

The use of oxygen consumption and ammonium excretion to evaluate the toxicity of cadmium on Farfantepenaeus paulensis with respect to salinity

The main purpose of the present study was to detect the acute toxicity of cadmium (Cd) in F. paulensis and to investigate its effect on oxygen consumption and ammonium excretion different salinities. First, we examined the acute toxicity of Cd in F. paulensis at 24, 48, 72, and 96-h lethal concentration (LC50). Cd was significantly more toxic at 5 salinity than at 20 and 36. The oxygen consumption and ammonium excretion were estimated through experiments performed on each of the twelve possible combinations of three salinities (36, 20 and 5), at temperature 20 °C. Cd showed a reduction in oxygen consumption at 5 salinity, the results show that the oxygen consumption decreases with respect to the Cd concentration. At the highest Cd concentration employed (2 mg L⁻¹), the salinity 5 and the temperature at 20 °C, oxygen consumption decreases 53.7% in relation to the control. In addition, after separate exposure to Cd, elevation in ammonium excretion was obtained, wish were 72%, 65% and 95% higher than the control, respectively. The results show that Cd is more toxic to F. paulensis at lower salinities.     

Concentration of LAS and boron in the Itter. Comparison of measured data with results obtained by simulation with the GREAT-ER software

The GREAT-ER software was used to calculate linear alkylbenzene sulphonate [LAS] and boron concentrations in the Itter stream in North Rhine-Westfalia, Germany. The aim was to investigate the predictive strength of this newly developed tool and to compare its results to measured data. Substance-specific input data which were used in this scenario were partly generic (e.g. LAS and sodium perborate tetrahydrate consumption figures for Germany) and partly (site-)specific data (e.g. half-life time for LAS elimination). The comparison with the measured data reveals that the model predictions for LAS and boron are correct at least within a factor of two, only if generic German consumption data is applied. By using refined input data, the accuracy can be increased further.     

Human intake fractions of pesticides via greenhouse tomato consumption: comparing model estimates with measurements for Captan

Human intake due to pesticide residues in food commodities can be much higher than those related to water consumption and air inhalation, stressing the importance to correctly estimate pesticide uptake into plants and predict subsequent intake by humans. We calculated the human intake fraction of captan via tomato consumption taking into account the time between pesticide application and harvest, the time between harvest and consumption, the absorption of spray deposit on plant surfaces, transfer properties through the cuticle, degradation inside the plant and loss due to food processing. Human population intake fractions due to ingestion were calculated for complete, washed and peeled tomatoes. The calculated intake fractions were compared with measurements derived from an experimental setup in a Mediterranean greenhouse. The fraction of captan applied in the greenhouse as plant treatment that eventually is ingested by the human population is on average 10(-2)-10(-5), depending on the time between pesticide application and ingestion of tomatoes and the processing step considered. Model and experimentally derived intake fractions deviated less than a factor of 2 for complete and washed tomatoes and a factor of 3 for peeled tomatoes. Intake fractions due to air inhalation and consumption of drinking water are expected to be significantly lower (5-9 orders of magnitude) than those induced by the intake of tomatoes in this case study.     

木聚糖酶在硫酸盐木浆辅助漂白中的应用研究

结合某木浆厂的实际运行数据,对采用木聚糖酶辅助漂白前后的木浆质量、主要物料消耗量及产生废水的污染物指标进行了详细分析.结果表明,在工艺运行参数不变条件下,使用木聚糖酶辅助漂白能够显著提高生产纸浆质量等级,降低原木、二氧化氯和能源消耗量,减轻漂后废水的污染负荷,对于降低纸浆生产成本,保护水环境具有重要意义.     

River water contaminated with perfluorinated compounds potentially posing the greatest risk to young children

Although, humans are exposed to perflourinated compounds (PFCs) from various media, water consumption could be an important source for the residents living near to contaminated areas. Since comprehensive multimedia exposure model has not been developed for PFCs, assessment of the potential risk due to exposure to PFCs through direct water consumption could be a conservative estimate. The human health risks derived from the exposure to PFCs through water consumption were assessed for different age groups of general population in Taiwan using probabilistic approach. Based on available data on concentrations of PFCs in river water, exposure to PFOS, PFOA and PFDA via water consumption for different age groups were calculated using deterministic and probabilistic risk assessment methods. The oral non-cancer risks from PFOS, PFOA and their combination, expressed as a Hazard Index (HI), was determined by comparing oral exposure dose (through water intake) with the oral Reference Dose (RfD). The average exposure to PFOS, PFOA and PFDA via water consumption for adults ranged from 0.16 to 220.15, 0.43 to 12.5 and 0.43 to 2.36 ng kg-bw^?1 d^?1 and for children 0.13–354.3, 0.35–20.17 and 0.35–3.79 ng kg-bw^?1 d^?1, respectively. Probabilistic values of total HIs for all age groups reside near to Keya River exceed the RfD 2.4–4.8 times, corresponding mainly to PFOS with a percentage of 97%. In conclusions, children aged 1–3 years old and the residents reside near to Keya River are at the highest risk of exposure to PFCs via water consumption.     

Impact of injection system design on ISCO performance with permanganate--mathematical modeling results

In situ chemical oxidation (ISCO) using permanganate (MnO(4)(-)) can be a very effective technique for remediation of soil and groundwater contaminated with chlorinated solvents. However, many ISCO projects are less effective than desired because of poor delivery of the chemical reagents to the treatment zone. In this work, the numerical model RT3D was modified and applied to evaluate the effect of aquifer characteristics and injection system design on contact and treatment efficiency. MnO(4)(-) consumption was simulated assuming the natural oxidant demand (NOD) is composed of a fraction that reacts instantaneously and a fraction that slowly reacts following a 2nd order relationship where NOD consumption rate increases with increasing MnO(4)(-) concentration. MnO(4)(-) consumption by the contaminant was simulated as an instantaneous reaction. Simulation results indicate that the mass of permanganate and volume of water injected has the greatest impact on aquifer contact efficiency and contaminant treatment efficiency. Several small injection events are not expected to increase contact efficiency compared to a single large injection event, and can increase the amount of un-reacted MnO(4)(-) released down-gradient. High groundwater flow velocities can increase the fraction of aquifer contacted. Initial contaminant concentration and contaminant retardation factor have only a minor impact on volume contact efficiency. Aquifer heterogeneity can have both positive and negative impacts on remediation system performance, depending on the injection system design.     

Dietary intake of PCDD/F by small children with different food consumption measured by the duplicate method

The dietary intake of PCDD/F by 42 small children, 21 boys and 21 girls in the age range 14-47 months, with different food consumption behaviour living in urban and rural areas of Germany was measured by the duplicate method with a 7 day sampling period from May to September 1998. The PCDD/F-levels in the food duplicates were in the range 39.2-325 fg I-TEq/g(dry weight) (median: 90.7; arithmetic mean: 96.6) and the doses were in the range 0.681-5.43 with a median of 1.56 and an arithmetic mean (AM) of 1.60 pg I-TEq/(kg(body weight) x d). Children living in an urban industrialized area with food consumption including products from the family owned vegetable gardens or the surrounding area and/or products from domestic animals showed no statistically significant different concentrations in the food duplicates or in the dietary intake of PCDD/F, calculated as I-TEq, than children living in a rural area with similar food consumption behavior or than children consuming exclusively food from the supermarket.     

小型CAF气浮设备处理滇池含藻水的试验研究

采用自制的小型涡凹型气浮(CAF)设备处理滇池含藻水,结果表明,在气浮时间为1min,分离时间为6min的条件下,聚硅硫酸铁铝(PFASSI)用量为40mg/L时,对藻类和浊度的净化效率最大分别为801%和786%;在聚丙烯酰胺(PAM)的用量为2mg/L时,对藻类和浊度的净化效率分别为959%和932%。使用PFASSI(20mg/L)和PAM(1mg/L)的组合絮凝剂时,滇池含藻水的含藻量由557mg/L降到557mg/L,浊度由375度降到27度,二者的去除率分别为99%和928%。     

Human health risk assessment of organochlorines associated with fish consumption in a coastal city in China

Food consumption is an important route of human exposure to organochlorines (OCs). In order to assess the potential health risks associated with these contaminants due to fish consumption, five species of fish were collected from a local market in Zhoushan City, an island in the East China Sea. Dioxin-like compounds, such as polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins/ dibenzofurans, in the fish samples were screened by H4IIE-luc cell bioassay, and the concentrations of specific organochlorines were measured by gas chromatograph-electron capture detector (GC-ECD). The bioassay results indicated that concentrations of dioxin-like compounds in the fish samples were below detection limit (0.64 pg/mL). The concentrations of OC pesticides and PCBs ranged from 0.67 to 13 and 0.24 to 1.4 ng/g wet wt., respectively. Significantly, concentrations of p,p'-DDE in fish meat were comparatively high (average 3.9 ng/g wet wt.) compared with the other OC pesticides. The daily fish consumption, based on a dietary survey conducted among 160 local healthy residents, was determined to be 105 g/person. The relevant cancer benchmark concentrations of HCB, dieldrin, chlordane, DDTs and PCBs were 0.36, 0.04, 1.6, 1.7, and 0.29 ng/kg per day, respectively, based on the local diet. The hazard ratios (HRs), based on non-cancer endpoints were all less than 1.0, while the HRs based on cancer were greater than 1.0 for certain contaminants based on the 95th centile concentration in fish tissue.     

Heterogeneous effects of remittances and institutional quality in reducing environmental deficit in the presence of EKC hypothesis: A global study with the application of panel quantile regression

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - This study investigates the heterogeneous effects of remittance inflows, institutional quality, foreign direct investment, energy consumption,...     

Different sources of rural household energy consumption and influencing factors in Dazu,China

Rural household energy consumption is an important component of national energy consumption. This paper explores the rural household energy consumption status and influencing factors on different sources of rural household energy consumption in western China. Using data from a survey of 240 households conducted in 2017, this study finds that rural households’ energy consumption structure in the study area is a combination of traditional biomass energy and commercial energy sources. Fuelwood is the most commonly used fuel in the study area, while modern energy sources only occupy a low proportion. Rural household energy consumption is influenced by various factors. Individual perceptions of climate change, social trust and networks, and households’ socio-economic and demographic factors (gender, age, education, income per capita, household size, household location, and number of household appliances) are identified as having significant effects on rural households’ consumption of biomass and commercial energies. The research results provide implications for policy makers to formulate related rural energy policies to improve the rural energy consumption structure and future energy policy design in China and other developing countries.

     

An assessment of operations of oil-exporting countries in terms of energy consumption and carbon dioxide emissions

Energy consumption and carbon dioxide emissions from 16 oil-exporting countries are studied using Data Envelopment Analysis using indicators representing economic growth, energy consumption and emissions. The analysis for 1996 shows that Norway, Gabon and Nigeria are efficient and that Russia is inefficient. Malmquist Productivity Index analysis shows that there is progress in achieving higher values of GDP and non-fossil fuel consumption and in achieving lower values of fossil fuel consumption and carbon emissions in the year 1996 when compared with 1992 for Norway, Russia, Mexico, Algeria, Libya, Gabon and Oman.     

Sublethal effect of silver and chromium in the green mussel Perna viridis with reference to alterations in oxygen uptake, filtration rate and membrane bound ATPase system as biomarkers

Perna viridis is an ideal animal for studying the impairment caused by the effects of heavy metals that are often detected in coastal areas. Preliminary bioassay tests revealed that the lethal (LC(100)), median lethal (LC(50)) and sublethal (LC(0)) concentration of silver and chromium to P. viridis were 6.5, 4.0, 2.0 mg l(-1) and 4.5, 2.5, 1.0 mg l(-1), respectively. Toxic effect of silver and chromium was evaluated in the green mussel P. viridis, with reference to oxygen consumption, filtration rate and ATPase system in laboratory experiments. These parameters were selected as the end point of sublethal stress. Oxygen consumption and filtration rates were calculated as a measure of decline in the dissolved oxygen level and algal concentration (feed) in the aquaria water, respectively. Silver and chromium affects both oxygen consumption and filtration rate significantly (P<0.01) at 96 h when compared to control. The activity of ATPases system in the gills, hepatopancreas, ovary and muscle of mussels were inhibited by silver and chromium indicating that metals exerted significant toxic effect. The inhibition of Na(+)K(+) ATPase, Ca(2+) ATPase and Mg(2+) ATPase in the mussels were significant (P<0.05) for silver and highly significant (P<0.01) for chromium, which indicates that chromium was more toxic to mussels when compared to silver. The assessment of oxygen consumption, filtration and ATPases system can thus be used as a valid biomarker in aquatic ecotoxicology studies.     

Testing dependence patterns of energy consumption with economic expansion and trade openness through wavelet transformed coherence in top energy-consuming countries

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - Economic growth and trade openness are closely linked with energy consumption and hence have environmental consequences. Many studies have...     

Destruction of halogenated hydrocarbons with solvated electrons in the presence of water

Model halogenated aromatic and aliphatic hydrocarbons and halogenated phenols were dehalogenated in seconds by solvated electrons generated from sodium in both anhydrous liquid ammonia and ammonia/water solutions. The minimum sodium required to completely dehalogenate these model compounds was determined by increasing the Na/substrate ratio until halogen loss was complete. Minimum sodium consumptions were determined in both anhydrous liquid ammonia and with a (5, 20, 50-fold molar excess of water per mole of halide). While more Na was consumed in the presence of water, these dehalogenations were still efficient when a 50-fold water excess was present. Dehalogenation is faster than competiting reactions with water. CCl4 and CH3CCl3 in the presence of a stoichiometric deficiency of sodium produced only CH4 and CH3CH3 and recovered CCl4 or CH3CCl3, respectively. No partially dechlorinated products were detected, indicating dechlorination was diffusion controlled. Na consumption per chlorine removed (as NaCl) was lower than that of Li, K or Ca and this advantage increased in the presence of water. Na consumption was lower using Na chunks instead of a thin Na mirror. Chloroaromatic compounds gave the parent aromatic hydrocarbon and aminated products in anhydrous ammonia but aminated products did not form when water was present.     

铁量、硅量与聚硅酸铁絮凝性能的关系

成功制备了具有良好稳定性的、不同铁硅比的聚硅酸铁(PFS),对高岭土悬浮液有很好的絮凝效果。实验结果表明:铁量是决定聚硅酸铁絮凝性能的主要因素,铁量在9~32 kg/t时,聚硅酸铁具有较好的絮凝性能,其最佳值在24~27 kg/t之间,此时上清液透光度达到95%以上。在最佳铁量范围内,硅量决定最终絮团体积的大小,硅量大则最终絮团体积大,上清液透光度略高,絮凝性能也略优。电动电位测定结果表明,在聚硅酸铁作用下高岭土颗粒表面电位由负变正。