2020年2月南宁市一次大气PM2.5污染成因分析

2020年1月31—2月2日新冠肺炎疫情期间,广西发生的一次区域性大气PM_2.5污染引发社会关注.以南宁市为例,利用在线气体组分及气溶胶监测系统（MARGA）、颗粒物激光雷达,结合地面气态污染物和气象数据卫星火点和后向轨迹等分析本次PM_2.5污染成因.依据空气质量分指数,将观测过程划分为优、良和污染3个时段.结果表明,污染时段与生物质焚烧相关的K⁺、Cl^-明显升高,K⁺、Cl^-平均浓度分别为优时段的3.6和17.0倍.3个时段8种水溶性离子总浓度占PM_2.5均在30%左右,3种二次水溶性离子浓度之和占8种离子总浓度的比例为83.33%~89.18%,二次无机组分占比高,与秸秆焚烧促进二次转化有关.二次水溶性离子浓度变化趋势与占比不一致,除了与秸秆燃烧排放特征有关,还与不同二次无机离子形成的机制及主要影响因素不同有关.秸秆焚烧火点集中分布在良时段的南宁市及周边城市,良时段秸秆露天焚烧直接排放大量颗粒物、气态污染物等,在污染时段边界层高度明显下降,湿度增加、静风等不利气象条件下积累,是造成疫情期间南宁市大气PM_2.5污染的主因.污染时段南宁市无明显的颗粒物垂直传输过程,近地面主要受到广东、广西北部湾偏南气流影响,区域污染传输小.     

Assessment of health benefit of PM2.5 reduction during COVID-19 lockdown in China and separating contributions from anthropogenic emissions and meteorology

The national lockdown policies have drastically disrupted socioeconomic activities during the COVID-19 pandemic in China, which provides a unique opportunity to investigate the air quality response to such anthropogenic disruptions. And it is meaningful to evaluate the potential health impacts of air quality changes during the lockdown, especially for PM_2.5 with adverse health effects. In this study, by using PM_2.5 observations from 1388 monitoring stations nationwide in China, we examine the PM_2.5 variations between the COVID-19 lockdown (February and March in 2020) and the same period in 2015–2019, and find that the national average of PM_2.5 decreases by 18 μg/m³, and mean PM_2.5 for most sites (about 75%) decrease by 30%–60%. The anthropogenic and meteorological contributions to these PM_2.5 variations are also determined by using a stepwise multiple linear regression (MLR) model combined with the Kolmogorov–Zurbenko filter. Our results show that the change of anthropogenic emissions is a leading contributor to those widespread PM_2.5 reductions, and meteorological conditions have the negative influence on PM_2.5 reductions for some regions, such as Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei (BTH). Additionally, the avoided premature death due to PM_2.5 reduction is estimated as a predicted number based on a log-linear concentration-response function. The total avoided premature death is 9952 in China, with dominant contribution (94%) from anthropogenic emission changes. For BTH, Yangtze River Delta, Pearl River Delta and Hubei regions, the reductions of PM_2.5 are 24.1, 24.3, 13.5 and 29.5 μg/m³, with the avoided premature deaths of 1066, 1963, 454 and 583, respectively.     

Response of PM2.5-bound elemental species to emission variations and associated health risk assessment during the COVID-19 pandemic in a coastal megacity

The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic is disrupting the world from many aspects. In this study, the impact of emission variations on PM_2.5-bound elemental species and health risks associated to inhalation exposure has been analyzed based on real-time measurements at a remote coastal site in Shanghai during the pandemic. Most trace elemental species decreased significantly and displayed almost no diel peaks during the lockdown. After the lockdown, they rebounded rapidly, of which V and Ni even exceeded the levels before the lockdown, suggesting the recovery of both inland and shipping activities. Five sources were identified based on receptor modeling. Coal combustion accounted for more than 70% of the measured elemental concentrations before and during the lockdown. Shipping emissions, fugitive/mineral dust, and waste incineration all showed elevated contributions after the lockdown. The total non-carcinogenic risk (HQ) for the target elements exceeded the risk threshold for both children and adults with chloride as the predominant species contributing to HQ. Whereas, the total carcinogenic risk (TR) for adults was above the acceptable level and much higher than that for children. Waste incineration was the largest contributor to HQ, while manufacture processing and coal combustion were the main sources of TR. Lockdown control measures were beneficial for lowering the carcinogenic risk while unexpectedly increased the non-carcinogenic risk. From the perspective of health effects, priorities of control measures should be given to waste incineration, manufacture processing, and coal combustion. A balanced way should be reached between both lowering the levels of air pollutants and their health risks.     

Sustainable development principles for the disposal of mining and mineral processing wastes

This paper examines the minerals industry's response to sustainable development in the area of waste disposal and argues that leadership and guidance are still needed to forge collective agreement on norms and standards of practise. To encourage further debate, the paper develops a set of sustainable development principles for the disposal of mining and mineral processing wastes, and discusses the implications for current and future practise. In practise, the principles can guide waste disposal decisions through the consideration of what risk and magnitude, in any given local context, a particular management solution poses to their application. The sustainability challenge in the management of tailings and waste rock is to dispose of material, such that it is inert or, if not, stable and contained, to minimise water and energy inputs and the surface footprint of wastes and to move toward finding alternate uses. Future trends in mining and processing may compound the challenges of waste management, as lower ore grades increase the ratio of waste produced for a given unit of resource, and emphasise the urgency and need for the industry to adopt new approaches. New technologies and innovations, such as thickened tailings, dry stacking and paste backfill, have greatly increased the waste disposal methods available to meet the future challenges to sustainable development.     

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the safety management in Italian Seveso industries

The paper discusses the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the Italian chemical and process industries, where Directive 2012/18/EU Seveso III, for the control of Major Accident Hazard (MAH), is enforced. The Safety Management System (SMS) for the control of MAH, which has been mandatory for 20 years in Italian Seveso Establishments, has been highly stressed by the external pressure, related in some way to the COVID-19 pandemic. Fairly, most companies, in particular in oil and gas sectors, have demonstrated an adequate capability to reconcile operation continuity and health requirements. This experience is providing the establishment operators and the regulators with valuable suggestions for the improvements of the SMS-MAH. Within this framework, an innovative organisational resilience model is proposed, aiming at the development of a higher capability to face future new crisis. The current SMS-MAH already includes some basic pillars to enhance resilience, which were valuable during the pandemic crisis, but a full and rationale development is still needed. Starting from the first pandemic phase experience, this paper presents a novel tool to assess the degree of “resilience” of a SMS-MAH. It is based on a questionnaire, featuring 25 questions grouped into eight items, according to the typical SMS-MAH structure. A two level AHP model has been developed in order to define the weights to be assigned to each point. The AHP panel included industrial practitioners, regulators, authorities and researchers. The results are based on the COVID-19 experience and consequently the developed model is tailored to face health emergencies, but the approach may be easily transferred to other external crises.     

新型冠状病毒肺炎疫情对城市建筑内电梯检验检测及设计的影响

新冠疫情是一个需要多学科、多行业、多部门协同配合,才能有效应对的重大公共健康挑战。本文简要介绍了新型冠状病毒(COVID-19)的疫情发展过程,解析了它的传播途径及防护级别分级,并依据国家市场监督管理总局的疫情防控期间电梯安全监管指导思想,重点分析了疫情对电梯检验检测的影响及对策,探索了电梯设计中防疫技术的开发,为当前及未来可能发生的疫情防控中电梯的检验检测及安全健康运行提供技术支撑。     

疫情背景下长江中游地区典型饮用水源中PPCPs分布特征与风险评估

对新冠疫情（COVID-19）背景下长江中游武汉段的18个集中式饮用水源地共26个采样点进行水体样品采集.采用超高效液相色谱三重四极杆串联质谱（UPLC-MS/MS）对样品中的药品与个人护理品（PPCPs）的31种物质进行检测,分析了PPCPs的污染特征和生态与健康风险.结果表明,在26个采样点中,共检出23种PPCPs,其中有5种物质在所有点位均有检出,ΣPPCPs浓度范围介于102.44~745.78 ng·L^-1,平均值为206.87 ng·L^-1.检出污染物浓度最高的物质为水杨酸和强力霉素,浓度范围介于28.24~534.24 ng·L^-1和28.72~416.60 ng·L^-1.从空间分布来看,汉江抗生素类PPCPs浓度整体高于长江,而其他种类PPCPs,则表现为长江较高于汉江.生态风险评价结果表明,汉江的生态风险高于长江,藻类风险水平高于无脊椎动物和鱼类,其中水杨酸、强力霉素、林可霉素和金霉素对藻类风险水平较高.健康风险评价结果表明,饮水途径对成人及儿童产生的风险范围分别介于1.14×10^-4~1.36×10^-1和1.04×10^-4~8.21×10^-1,风险水平总体较低,但儿童健康风险高于成人,需要引起重视.通过与近年来长江和汉江流域PPCPs的检出情况对比,疫情背景下长江武汉段PPCPs的污染水平属于中等水平,汉江武汉段的PPCPs污染水平较高.     

Biological treatment of the dye Reactive Blue 19 by cattails and anaerobic bacterial consortia

This study demonstrates the bioremediation potential of anaerobic sludge and cattail (Typha angustifolia) for the treatment of the dye Reactive Blue 19 (RB19). The anaerobic sludge and cattails used in this study were not previously exposed to dyes or other xenobiotics. Different anaerobic sludge concentrations (30%, 50%, and 70%) were used along fixed dye concentrations at pH 8.0 and 25 °C. Subsequently, 50% sludge was selected to treat RB19 at various concentrations. The discoloration of non-hydrolyzed dye was between 70% and 85% using 50% biomass. For the hydrolyzed form of RB19, the range of decoloration was 70%–90%. Dye treatment efficiencies between 50% and 75% were observed for the two forms of the dye when treated with T. angustifolia. Overall, the anaerobic biomass at pH 8.0 showed better potential than cattails to treat RB19. The observation that non-enriched anaerobic sludge can decolorize RB19 is important because it opens up the prospects of developing anaerobic treatment systems, which can easily decolorize dyes in industrial wastewaters and also possesses potential advantages over systems using defined bacterial cultures.     

Repercussions of COVID-19 pandemic on solid waste generation and management strategies

• Implication of COVID-19 on medical waste and MSW generation is studied. • Challenges and effective strategy of solid waste generation is reviewed. • 2.9 million tons of COVID-19 related medical waste has been generated until Sep. 22. • The pandemic has postponed policies related to the reduction of plastic use. • Blockade resulted in a significant drop in waste generation in some regions. It has been over ten months since the beginning of the 2019 coronavirus disease (COVID-2019), and its impact on solid waste management, especially medical waste, is becoming clearer. This study systematically reviews the potential influences of the COVID-19 pandemic on medical waste, personal protection equipment waste and municipal solid waste (MSW), and discusses the corresponding measures and policies of solid waste management in typical countries. The results show that the generation of medical waste from the pandemic increased significantly, with 18%‒425% growth. It is estimated that the daily output of COVID-19 medical waste increased from 200 t/d on Feb. 22 to over 29000 t/d at the end of September 2020 throughout the world. The use of personal protective equipment will continue to grow in the long-term, while the blockade and isolation measures greatly reduced the volume of commercial waste, especially for tourist cities, and part of this waste was transferred to household waste. Residents’ attitudes and behavior toward food waste have changed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In response to the pandemic, international organizations and several countries have issued new policies and guidelines and adjusted their management strategies for medical waste and MSW treatment. The pandemic has brought specific challenges to the disposal capacity of medical waste worldwide. It has also brought about the stagnation of policies related to the reduction of plastic products and waste recycling. This study will provide some useful information for managers and governmental officials on effective solid waste management during and after the COVID-19 pandemic.     

Conducting conservation social science surveys online

The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic is affecting the environment and conservation research in fundamental ways. Many conservation social scientists are now administering survey questionnaires online, but they must do so while ensuring rigor in data collection. Further, they must address a suite of unique challenges, such as the increasing use of mobile devices by participants and avoiding bots or other survey fraud. We reviewed recent literature on online survey methods to examine the state of the field related to online data collection and dissemination. We illustrate the review with examples of key methodological decisions made during a recent national study of people who feed wild birds, in which survey respondents were recruited through an online panel and a sample generated via a project participant list. Conducting surveys online affords new opportunities for participant recruitment, design, and pilot testing. For instance, online survey panels can provide quick access to large and diverse samples of people. Based on the literature review and our own experiences, we suggest that to ensure high-quality online surveys one should account for potential sampling and nonresponse error, design survey instruments for use on multiple devices, test the instrument, and use multiple protocols to identify data quality problems. We also suggest that research funders, journal editors, and policy makers can all play a role in ensuring high-quality survey data are used to inform effective conservation programs and policies.