Polychlorinated biphenyls in vacuum dust and blood of residents in 20 Wisconsin households

Human exposure to PCBs is nearly universal in North America. While most exposure can be linked to consumption of contaminated fish, detection of PCBs in non-fish eating populations suggests that other routes of exposure including inhalation of PCB-laden particles or volatile congeners, ingestion of contaminated soil or dust, or dermal absorption following direct contact are also important. In an effort to assess the role of the residential environment as a source of exposure, vacuum dust was collected from the homes of 26 Wisconsin residents whose serum PCB levels had been measured approximately 2 years earlier. More than 60 congeners were detected in dust with all of the samples containing congeners 101, 110, 138 and 153. Total PCB levels ranged from 8.8 to 1186 ng g⁻¹ with levels being highest in vacuum dust from homes built between 1959 and 1970. Total PCB levels ranged from 0.05 to 8.34 μg L⁻¹ in serum collected from the adults living in these households, with congeners 138, 153 and 180 predominating. Hexa- and hepta-chlorinated biphenyls comprised 73% of the total residues detected in serum. However, most of the residues found in dust were lower chlorinated congeners with tetra- and penta-chlorinated biphenyls being dominant. Following log transformation, a positive association was found between serum and house dust PCB levels. This association was stronger among infrequent consumers of Great Lake fish, but of borderline statistical significance. This exploratory study suggests that house dust may be a significant source of exposure to PCBs and supports the need for further investigations.     

Risk assessment of trihalomethanes from tap water in Fortaleza, Brazil

The cancer risks (CR) by oral ingestion, dermal absorption, and inhalation exposure of trihalomethanes (THM) from tap water of ten districts in Fortaleza, Brazil were estimated. The mean levels of THM compounds were obtained in Fortaleza tap water as follow: 63.9 microg L(-1) for chloroform (CHCl(3)), 40.0 microg L(-1) for bromodichloromethane (CHBrCl(2)), and 15.6 microg L(-1) for dibromochloromethane (CHBr(2)Cl). Bromoform (CHBr(3)) was not detected. The mean CR for THMs in tap water is 3.96 x 10(-4). The results indicate that Fortaleza residents have a higher CR by inhalation than dermal absorption and oral ingestion. The CR for CHCl(3) contributes with 68% as compared with the total CR, followed by CHBrCl(2) (21%), and CHBr(2)Cl (11%). The hazard index (HI) is about ten times lower than unity, not indicating non-cancer effects.     

A review of public acceptance of nature-based solutions: The ‘why’, ‘when’, and ‘how’ of success for disaster risk reduction measures

Nature-based solutions (NbS) are increasingly recognized as sustainable approaches to address societal challenges. Disaster risk reduction (DRR) has benefited by moving away from purely ‘grey’ infrastructure measures towards NbS. However, this shift also furthers an increasing trend of reliance on public acceptance to plan, implement and manage DRR measures. In this review, we examine how unique NbS characteristics relate to public acceptance through a comparison with grey measures, and we identify influential acceptance factors related to individuals, society, and DRR measures. Based on the review, we introduce the PA-NbS model that highlights the role of risk perception, trust, competing societal interests, and ecosystem services. Efforts to increase acceptance should focus on providing and promoting awareness of benefits combined with effective communication and collaboration. Further research is required to understand interconnections among identified factors and how they can be leveraged for the success and further uptake of NbS.Supplementary InformationThe online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s13280-021-01502-4.     

Assessing four methods for establishing native plants on urban vacant land

Urban greening increases vegetation and can restore ecological functions to urban systems. It has ties to restoration ecology, which aims to return degraded land to diverse, functional ecosystems. Both practices can be applied to maximizing ecosystem services and habitat in vacant lots, which are abundant in post-industrial cities, including Chicago, Illinois (USA), where our study took place. We tested four methods for increasing native plant diversity in vacant lots, ranging from low input to resource-intensive: seed bombing, broadcast seeding, planting plugs, and gardening. After three growing seasons, we assessed the growth of eight target native species and all non-target species. We expected that intensive treatments would have more target species stems and flowers and fewer non-target species, but we found that less-intensive options often produce equal or better results. From this, we recommend broadcast seeding as a viable, low-cost method for improving habitat and biodiversity in vacant lots.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (10.1007/s13280-020-01383-z) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.     

Incorporating stakeholder decision support needs into an integrated regional Earth system model

A new modeling effort exploring the opportunities, constraints, and interactions between mitigation and adaptation at regional scale is utilizing stakeholder engagement in an innovative approach to guide model development and demonstration, including uncertainty characterization, to effectively inform regional decision making. This project, the integrated Regional Earth System Model (iRESM), employs structured stakeholder interactions and literature reviews to identify the most relevant adaptation and mitigation alternatives and decision criteria for each regional application of the framework. The information is used to identify important model capabilities and to provide a focus for numerical experiments. This paper presents the stakeholder research results from the first iRESM pilot region. The pilot region includes the Great Lakes Basin in the Midwest portion of the United States as well as other contiguous states. This geographic area (14 states in total) permits cohesive modeling of hydrologic systems while also providing strong gradients in climate, demography, land cover/land use, and energy supply and demand. The results from the stakeholder research indicate that, for this region, iRESM should prioritize addressing adaptation alternatives in the water resources, urban infrastructure, and agriculture sectors, including water conservation, expanded water quality monitoring, altered reservoir releases, lowered water intakes, urban infrastructure upgrades, increased electric power reserves in urban areas, and land use management/crop selection changes. For mitigation in this region, the stakeholder research implies that iRESM should focus on policies affecting the penetration of renewable energy technologies, and the costs and effectiveness of energy efficiency, bioenergy production, wind energy, and carbon capture and sequestration.     

Pastoral farmland habitat diversity in south-east Ireland

In this study, habitat surveys were undertaken on 50 grass-based farms in SE Ireland and data digitised onto aerial photography. Additional data i.e. stocking rates, and participation (or otherwise) in the Irish Rural Environment Protection Scheme (REPS) were collected and analysed as possible explanatory variables for farm habitat composition.Results indicated that approximately 14.3% of the land area of sampled farms comprised of semi-natural habitat types, a proportion substantially greater than has been reported for many other European countries. The most frequently recorded semi-natural habitats included, field boundaries, scrub, and deciduous and riparian woodlands.Multivariate analysis of farm habitat configuration showed a strong dichotomy between dairy and non-dairy farming systems. Habitats such as intensively managed grassland and built ground were closely associated with dairy-based enterprises. In contrast, the incidence of other habitat types was associated with non-dairy and/or REPS participating enterprises. The ecological quality of field boundaries as assessed by the Field Boundary Evaluation and Grading System (FBEGS) Index was significantly greater on dairy, compared with dry-stock farms.This dichotomy in farm habitat composition is not reflected within current Agri-Environment (AE) policy. Integration of locally important drivers of habitat diversity into the design and implementation of AE policy, is integral to the successful performance of AE schemes.     

Formaldehyde Concentrations in Wisconsin Mobile Homes

Mobile homes utilize a class of prefabricate construction techniques which rely greatly upon the use of particle board and hardwood plywood paneling for structural components. This has resulted In household sources which may emit formaldehyde into the home, since urea-formaldehyde resins are used as the bonding agent in most pressed wood stocks. A series of 137 mobile home households was investigated to determine indoor formaldehyde exposure concentrations. Homes were selected based on the estimated age of the construction components. Homes were studied serially for a nine-month period, with formaldehyde samples obtained on a monthly basis using a modified NIOSH chromotropic acid procedure. Formaldehyde concentrations were found to range from less than 0.10 ppm to 2.84 ppm. The median exposure concentration was 0.39 ppm. Analysis of variance was performed on each home to discern visit and room measurement effects. Eighty-nine percent of the homes exhibited no measurement placement effects, while only 10 percent failed to demonstrate between-visit variance effects. Regression models were constructed to predict household formaldehyde concentrations. Concentrations exhibited an inverse relationship with the age of the construction materials. A weighted least squares regression model of log of home age predicting temperature-corrected log formaldehyde explained 82 percent of the formaldehyde variation.