Diuron mobility through vineyard soils contaminated with copper

The herbicide diuron is frequently applied to vineyard soils in Burgundy, along with repeated treatments with Bordeaux mixture (a blend of copper sulfate and calcium hydroxide) that result in elevated copper concentrations. Cu could in principle affect the fate and transport of diuron or its metabolites in the soil either directly by complexation or indirectly by altering the populations or activity of microbes involved in their degradation. To assess the effect of high Cu concentrations on diuron transport, an experiment was designed with ten undisturbed columns of calcareous and acidic soils contaminated with 17--509 mg kg(-1) total Cu (field-applied). Grass was planted on three columns. Diuron was applied to the soils in early May and in-ground lysimeters were exposed to outdoor conditions until November. Less than 1.2% of the diuron applied was found in the leachates as diuron or its metabolites. Higher concentrations were found in the effluents from the grass-covered columns (0.1--0.45%) than from the bare-soil columns (0.02--0.14%), and they were correlated with increases in dissolved organic carbon. The highest amounts of herbicide were measured in acidic-soil column leachates (0.98--1.14%) due to the low clay and organic matter contents of these soils. Cu also leached more readily through the acidic soils (32.8--1042 microg) than in the calcareous soils (9.5--63.4 microg). Unlike in the leachates, the amount of diuron remaining in the soils at the end of the experiment was weakly related to the Cu concentrations in the soils.     

Occurrence of PCDD/Fs and dioxin-like PCBs in superficial sediment of Portuguese estuaries

Superficial sediments collected from seven estuarine systems located along the Portuguese coast were analyzed for 7 polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins (PCDDs), 10 polychlorinated dibenzofurans (PCDFs), and 12 dioxin-like polychlorinated biphenyls (dl-PCBs). Total PCDD/F concentration ranged from 4.6 to 464 pg g^?1 dry weight (dw), while that of dl-PCBs varied from 26.6 to 8,693 pg g^?1 dw. In general, the highest PCDD/F and dl-PCB concentrations were associated with densely populated and industrially impacted areas. Additionally, PCDD/F revealed a predominance of octachlorodibenzodioxin (OCDD) to total PCDD/Fs, while PCB 118 was the major contributor to total dl-PCBs. This study provided a global perspective of the contamination status of Portuguese estuaries by dioxin-like compounds and allowed a comparison between the investigated systems and other systems worldwide. PCDD/F and dl-PCB levels found in the collected sediments were lower than those of highly impacted areas from different parts of the globe. Nevertheless, comparison with guidelines and quality standards from other countries indicated that some Portuguese estuarine areas with a high industrialization level present PCDD/F and dl-PCB concentrations in superficial sediment that may constitute a risk to aquatic organisms.     

Road accidents,an occupational risk

Road accidents sustained at work represent between 20% and 40% of work fatalities in most industrialised countries, yet few data on occupational road accident risk factors have been published. A case control study was performed to assess the role of work-related risk factors in the occurrence of occupational road accidents. A preliminary qualitative study was carried out to identify possible occupational factors in occupational road accidents, and to draw up the case control study. Cases were recruited from the Rhône road trauma registry (France), controls from voting lists. A telephone interview was performed. Exposure to road risk was measured as a percentage of work time. One hundred and forty-six cases and 440 matched controls were interviewed. Accident risk was found to increase with exposure. Driving was associated with more difficult working conditions than found in jobs not involving driving. These difficulties, however, were not systematically associated with increased occupational road accident risk. Among factors which still emerge after adjustment for road risk exposure, there are scheduling issues (inflexible schedule organisation, lack of consecutive rest-days, lack of flexibility in performing the work), difficulties of communication with superiors, low seniority in the activity, low educational level and physical constraints at work. This study highlights some possible occupational road accident risk factors. Given the chosen case/control methodology, the findings may be considered as advancing our knowledge of the subject, but need confirmation by further studies.     

Biological Air Quality Monitoring: a Review

Air quality monitoring is currently ensured by captors measuring few physicochemical parameters, then they cannot evaluate unforeseen compounds and the interaction effects of pollutants. On the contrary, the use of bioindicators can answer these problems. Among them, plants are used in two ways:1) Passive bioindicators: trees, lichens and mosses are used to determine the distribution and even the contaminants long-term effects on vast zones and, possibly, the concentrations of pollutants to which they were exposed.2) Active bioindicators: tobacco and mosses make available the defective zones in plants and enable determination of deposition fluxes.Moreover, techniques based on biomarkers identification should increase the answer's sensitivity. However, the plants present the disadvantage of being unable to provide a response in a time lapse comparable with that of the on-line analysers. Lastly, the development of tools using animal cells should allow, in the near future, to measure the total polluting load under conditions close to those of the routine techniques. Then, the real impact of the contaminant on public health could be approached.     

Retaining natural vegetation to safeguard biodiversity and humanity

Global efforts to deliver internationally agreed goals to reduce carbon emissions, halt biodiversity loss, and retain essential ecosystem services have been poorly integrated. These goals rely in part on preserving natural (e.g., native, largely unmodified) and seminatural (e.g., low intensity or sustainable human use) forests, woodlands, and grasslands. To show how to unify these goals, we empirically derived spatially explicit, quantitative, area-based targets for the retention of natural and seminatural (e.g., native) terrestrial vegetation worldwide. We used a 250-m-resolution map of natural and seminatural vegetation cover and, from this, selected areas identified under different international agreements as being important for achieving global biodiversity, carbon, soil, and water targets. At least 67 million km² of Earth's terrestrial vegetation (∼79% of the area of vegetation remaining) required retention to contribute to biodiversity, climate, soil, and freshwater conservation objectives under 4 United Nations’ resolutions. This equates to retaining natural and seminatural vegetation across at least 50% of the total terrestrial (excluding Antarctica) surface of Earth. Retention efforts could contribute to multiple goals simultaneously, especially where natural and seminatural vegetation can be managed to achieve cobenefits for biodiversity, carbon storage, and ecosystem service provision. Such management can and should co-occur and be driven by people who live in and rely on places where natural and sustainably managed vegetation remains in situ and must be complemented by restoration and appropriate management of more human-modified environments if global goals are to be realized.     

Detection of Hepatitis E Virus in Sewage After an Outbreak on a French Island

A hepatitis E outbreak, which occurred on a small isolated island, provided an opportunity to evaluate the association between the number of hepatitis E cases in the community and the concentration of virus detected in sewage. Samples were collected from the different sewage treatment plants from the island and analyzed for the presence of hepatitis E (HEV) virus using real-time RT-PCR. We demonstrated that if 1–4 % of inhabitants connected to a WWTP were infected with HEV, raw sewage contained HEV at detectable levels. The finding that such a small number of infected people can contaminate municipal sewage works raises the potential of the further distribution of the virus. Indeed, investigating the routes of transmission of HEV, including the potential for sewage effluent to contain infectious HEV, may help us to better understand the epidemiology of this pathogen, which is considered to be an emerging concern in Europe.     

Prenatal detection of mosaic isochromosome 20q: a fourth report with abnormal phenotype

We described a new case of mosaic isochromosome 20q revealed by amniocentesis. The propositus presented with craniofacial dysmorphism, clubfeet, and vertebral abnormalities. A 46,XX,i(20)(q10)[14]/46,XX[1] karyotype was confirmed by FISH on cultured cells. The pregnancy was terminated. From review of literature, fetus with mosaic isochromosome 20q identified on amniocentesis are most likely to be phenotypically and cytogenetically normal after birth. So we performed CGH and array-CGH to exclude another possible imbalance. We discuss here the possible relation between this chromosomal abnormality and the abnormal phenotype. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A one year investigation of the occurrence of illicit drugs in wastewater from Brussels, Belgium

Daily 24 hour composite influent wastewater samples were collected from the wastewater treatment plant of Brussels-North (Belgium) for eight months to study variations in the concentrations and mass loads of nine illicit drugs and metabolites: cocaine (COC) and its metabolites benzoylecgonine (BE) and ecgonine methyl ester (EME), amphetamine (AMP), methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA), methamphetamine (METH), methadone (MTD) and its metabolite 2-ethylidene-1,5-dimethyl-3,3-diphenylpyrrolidine (EDDP) and the specific metabolite of heroin, 6-monoacetylmorphine (6-MAM). Samples were analyzed using a validated analytical method based on solid-phase extraction and hydrophilic interaction liquid chromatography coupled to tandem mass spectrometry. The selected compounds could be detected and quantified in all samples. The measured concentrations were in agreement with earlier published concentrations, when available. All illicit drugs showed significant differences in mass loads between months. Daily variations were observed for MDMA, AMP and COC and metabolites, with higher mass loads observed during the weekend. This is probably related to their recreational consumption pattern and was further confirmed when holiday periods (New Year's Eve, Belgian national holiday) were in detail investigated. For METH, 6-MAM, MTD and EDDP, stable and consistent amounts were observed during the week. In all samples, the ratio of the concentration of the parent compound to its metabolite(s) was calculated to evaluate whether measured concentrations reflect human excretion of the illicit drugs. For MTD, the ratio of parent compound/metabolite was in agreement with the excretion pattern, while for COC some deviations were observed, resulting from excretion pattern uncertainties, and stability and discharge issues.