Occurrence of endocrine disruptor compounds in the estuary of the Iberian Douro River and nearby Porto Coast (NW Portugal)

Previous studies in the Douro River estuary, based on occasional sampling, showed the presence of several estrogenic disrupting chemicals (EDCs). In sequence, we hypothesized that such type of pollution was more likely an enduring issue than an occasional phenomenon, and that it may even affect recreational beaches in each side of the estuarine mouth. Thus to conclude about the continuous influx of EDCs, water samples were taken twice a day, once per a week, from March to May of 2009, at four sites within the estuary and at two sites in the coastline. After solid-phase extraction, the extracts were prepared for GC-MS analysis of 11 reference EDCs. These embraced natural and pharmaceutical estrogens (17β-estradiol, estrone and 17α-ethynylestradiol) and xenoestrogenic industrial pollutants (4-octylphenol, 4-nonylphenol, and their mono and diethoxylates and bisphenol A). Data showed the ubiquitous presence of potentially hazardous amounts of natural estrogens (particularly of estradiol, ca 5.5?ng?L^?1) and persistent organic pollutants such as nonylphenol mono (up to 550?ng?L^?1) and diethoxylate (up to 2000?ng?L^?1). It was concluded that the targeted area is continuously polluted by the assayed EDCs, and as a consequence, conditions exist for endocrine disturbance in the biota by chronic exposure to EDCs.     

Lead availability in soils from Portugal’s Centre Region with special reference to bioaccessibility

Previous environmental biomonitoring studies indicated higher environmental lead (Pb) pollution levels at the districts of Aveiro and Leiria (Portugal). In evaluating the risk for human health, which is associated with contaminated soils after oral uptake, total soil concentrations have generally been held against criteria established from toxicological studies based upon the assumption that the uptake of the contaminant is similar in the toxicological studies and from the soils assessed. This assumption is not always valid, as most toxicological studies are carried out with soluble forms of the contaminants, whereas many soil contaminants are or become embedded in the soil matrix and thus exhibit limited availability. This study intends to estimate the soluble fraction of Pb in the soils from central Portugal, and to assess the bioaccessibility of Pb and, hence, infer exposure and risk for human health. Yet, as the physical–chemical properties of the soil exert some control over the solubility of Pb in the surface environment, the relation between such soil properties and the estimated soluble and/or bioaccessible fractions of Pb is also investigated. Other objective, with a more practical nature, was to give some contribution to find a suitable in vitro mimetic of the gastrointestinal tract environment. The results indicate relatively low total metal concentrations in the soils, even if differences between regions were observed. The Aveiro district has the higher total Pb concentration and the metal is in more soluble forms, that is, geoavailable. Soils with higher concentrations of soluble Pb show higher estimates of bioaccessible Pb. Soil pH seems to influence human bioaccessibility of Pb.     

Human predisposition to cognitive impairment and its relation with environmental exposure to potentially toxic elements

New lines of evidence suggest that less than 10% of neurodegenerative diseases have a strict genetic aetiology and other factors may be prevalent. Environmental exposures to potentially toxic elements appear to be a risk factor for Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s and sclerosis diseases. This study proposes a multidisciplinary approach combining neurosciences, psychology and environmental sciences while integrating socio-economic, neuropsychological, environmental and health data. We present the preliminary results of a neuropsychological assessment carried out in elderly residents of the industrial city of Estarreja. A battery of cognitive tests and a personal questionnaire were administered to the participants. Multivariate analysis and multiple linear regression analysis were used to identify potential relationships between the cognitive status of the participants and environmental exposure to potentially toxic elements. The results suggest a relationship between urinary PTEs levels and the incidence of cognitive disorders. They also point towards water consumption habits and profession as relevant factors of exposure. Linear regression models show that aluminium (R ² = 38%), cadmium (R ² = 11%) and zinc (R ² = 6%) are good predictors of the scores of the Mini-Mental State Examination cognitive test. Median contents (µg/l) in groundwater are above admissible levels for drinking water for aluminium (371), iron (860), manganese (250), and zinc (305). While the World Health Organization does not provide health-based reference values for aluminium, results obtained from this study suggest that it may have an important role in the cognitive status of the elderly. Urine proved to be a suitable biomarker of exposure both to elements with low and high excretion rates.     

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) practices developed by Brazilian companies: an exploratory study

In a world where companies have major influence over the economy, politics, and environment, they must be held accountable for their actions. With this in mind, the publication of sustainability reports is in a company’s best interest, since the disclosure of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and sustainable practices can bring enormous advantages, largely related to a company’s image. The amount of information presented in sustainability reports turns them into valuable sources for research data, allowing analyses related to CSR and management practices, stakeholder relations, language used, among others. However, there is no a paper in the literature that analyzes theses information jointly for the Brazilian companies, and then we decided to explore this theme. This research aimed to identify advances and gaps of CSR practices performed by Brazil companies, through the analysis of 30 sustainability reports published between 2014 and 2015. The main findings indicate that, in general, the analyzed companies are experienced in sustainability reporting; however, there is still room for improvements, including a better mapping and reporting of practices involving the integration of CSR to organizational structure, stakeholder engagement, and continuous improvement practices.     

Internal cohesion and geometric shape of spatial clusters

The geographic delineation of irregularly shaped spatial clusters is an ill defined problem. Whenever the spatial scan statistic is used, some kind of penalty correction needs to be used to avoid clusters’ excessive irregularity and consequent reduction of power of detection. Geometric compactness and non-connectivity regularity functions have been recently proposed as corrections. We present a novel internal cohesion regularity function based on the graph topology to penalize the presence of weak links in candidate clusters. Weak links are defined as relatively unpopulated regions within a cluster, such that their removal disconnects it. By applying this weak link cohesion function, the most geographically meaningful clusters are sifted through the immense set of possible irregularly shaped candidate cluster solutions. A multi-objective genetic algorithm (MGA) has been proposed recently to compute the Pareto-sets of clusters solutions, employing Kulldorff’s spatial scan statistic and the geometric correction as objective functions. We propose novel MGAs to maximize the spatial scan, the cohesion function and the geometric function, or combinations of these functions. Numerical tests show that our proposed MGAs has high power to detect elongated clusters, and present good sensitivity and positive predictive value. The statistical significance of the clusters in the Pareto-set are estimated through Monte Carlo simulations. Our method distinguishes clearly those geographically inadequate clusters which are worse from both geometric and internal cohesion viewpoints. Besides, a certain degree of irregularity of shape is allowed provided that it does not impact internal cohesion. Our method has better power of detection for clusters satisfying those requirements. We propose a more robust definition of spatial cluster using these concepts.     

Pheromones and colonization: reassessment of the milkweed bug migration model (Heteroptera: Lygaeidae: Lygaeinae)

Summary. Research on insect migration has justifiably emphasized females – the so-called “oogenesis-flight syndrome”– since it is the females that place the eggs into new habitats. The large and small milkweed bugs, Oncopeltus fasciatus and Lygaeus kalmii, respectively, have featured prominently in studies of insect migration and sequestration of host plant toxins for chemical defense. Here we report that males of these species, and males of another well-studied lygaeine (Neacoryphus bicrucis), produce pheromones in glands usually considered to serve only a defensive role in Heteroptera (the metathoracic scent glands), and that these pheromones are exploited by a tachinid parasitoid as a host-finding kairomone. The pheromones are mixtures of C₆ and C₈ saturated and unsaturated esters reminiscent of lepidopteran pheromones, and the key compound of the O. fasciatus pheromone has now been correctly identified as (E)-2,7-octadienyl acetate. It is proposed that the concept of the oogenesis-flight syndrome for these kinds of insects should accommodate the role of males in the migration process. The hypothesis is presented that male-produced pheromones play a significant role in guiding colonization of new habitats in many heteropteran species. In addition, data are presented suggesting that there is a trade-off between the amount of pheromone produced by colonizing males and the host breadth of the species. Received 21 December 1998; accepted 15 February 1999.     

An analysis of the problems of developing environmental education in Brazilian Federal protected areas

This paper describes the problems encountered in developing environmental education in Federal protected areas in Brazil. Results of a survey on the current status of environmental education in four categories of Federal protected areas; namely national parks, biological reserves, ecological stations and environmental protection areas, are described and discussed. The study suggests that the development of environmental education in protected areas in the country has several limitations: financial resources, lack of training, material resources and a lack of policy on environmental education. It also identifies that some of these problems seem to be inter-related with those of the National System of Conservation Units of the country which may result in a retarding of the development of environmental education in such areas.     

Environmental risk assessment in five rivers of Parana River basin,Southern Brazil,through biomarkers in Astyanax spp.

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - In the current study, water quality of five river sites in Parana River basin (Brazil), utilized for public water supply, was assessed through a set...     

Forecasting human exposure to atmospheric pollutants in Portugal – A modelling approach

Air pollution has become one main environmental concern because of its known impact on human health. Aiming to inform the population about the air they are breathing, several air quality modelling systems have been developed and tested allowing the assessment and forecast of air pollution ambient levels in many countries. However, every day, an individual is exposed to different concentrations of atmospheric pollutants as he/she moves from and to different outdoor and indoor places (the so-called microenvironments). Therefore, a more efficient way to prevent the population from the health risks caused by air pollution should be based on exposure rather than air concentrations estimations. The objective of the present study is to develop a methodology to forecast the human exposure of the Portuguese population based on the air quality forecasting system available and validated for Portugal since 2005. Besides that, a long-term evaluation of human exposure estimates aims to be obtained using one-year of this forecasting system application. Additionally, a hypothetical 50% emission reduction scenario has been designed and studied as a contribution to study emission reduction strategies impact on human exposure.To estimate the population exposure the forecasting results of the air quality modelling system MM5-CHIMERE have been combined with the population spatial distribution over Portugal and their time-activity patterns, i.e. the fraction of the day time spent in specific indoor and outdoor places. The population characterization concerning age, work, type of occupation and related time spent was obtained from national census and available enquiries performed by the National Institute of Statistics. A daily exposure estimation module has been developed gathering all these data and considering empirical indoor/outdoor relations from literature to calculate the indoor concentrations in each one of the microenvironments considered, namely home, office/school, and other indoors (leisure activities like shopping areas, gym, theatre/cinema and restaurants). The results show how this developed modelling system can be useful to anticipate air pollution episodes and to estimate their effects on human health on a long-term basis. The two metropolitan areas of Porto and Lisbon are identified as the most critical ones in terms of air pollution effects on human health over Portugal in a long-term as well as in a short-term perspective. The coexistence of high concentration values and high population density is the key factor for these stressed areas. Regarding the 50% emission reduction scenario, the model results are significantly different for both pollutants: there is a small overall reduction in the individual exposure values of PM₁₀ (<10 μg m^?3 h), but for O₃, in contrast, there is an extended area where exposure values increase with emission reduction. This detailed knowledge is a prerequisite for the development of effective policies to reduce the foreseen adverse impact of air pollution on human health and to act on time.     

Biomonitoring of several toxic metal(loid)s in different biological matrices from environmentally and occupationally exposed populations from Panasqueira mine area,Portugal

In the Panasqueira mine area of central Portugal, some environmental media show higher metal(loid) concentrations when compared with the local geochemical background and the values proposed in the literature for these environmental media. In order to evaluate the effect of the external contamination on selected indexes of internal dose, As, Cd, Cu, Cr, Fe, Hg, Mg, Mn, Mo, Ni, Pb, S, Se, Si, and Zn were quantified by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry and inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry in blood, urine, hair and nail samples from individuals environmentally (N = 41) and occupationally exposed (N = 41). A matched control group (N = 40) was also studied, and data from the three groups were compared. Results obtained agreed with those reported by environmental studies performed in this area, pointing to populations living nearby and working in the mine being exposed to metal(loid)s originated from mining activities. Arsenic was the element with the highest increase in exposed populations. The concentration of other elements such as Cr, Mg, Mn, Mo, Ni, Pb, S, Se, and Zn was also increased, although at a lesser extent, specifically in the individuals environmentally exposed and in females. These findings confirm the need for competent authorities to act as soon as possible in this area and implement strategies aimed to protect exposed populations and the entire ecosystem.