Integrating information for better environmental decisions

As more is learned about the complex nature and extent of environmental impacts from progressive human disturbance, scientists, policy analysts, decision makers, educators, and communicators are increasingly joining forces to develop strategies for preserving and protecting the environment. The Eco-Informa Foundation is an educational scientific organization dedicated to promoting the collaborative development and sharing of scientific information. The Foundation participated in a recent international conference on environmental informatics through a special symposium on integrating information for better environmental decisions. Presentations focused on four general themes: (1) remote sensing and data interpretation, including through new knowledge management tools; (2) risk assessment and communication, including for radioactively contaminated facilities, introduced biological hazards, and food safety; (3) community involvement in cleanup projects; and (4) environmental education. The general context for related issues, methods and applications, and results and recommendations from those discussions are highlighted here.     

Ricin as a weapon of mass terror — Separating fact from fiction

In recent years there has been an increased concern regarding the potential use of chemical and biological weapons for mass urban terror. In particular, there are concerns that ricin could be employed as such an agent. This has been reinforced by recent high profile cases involving ricin, and its use during the cold war to assassinate a high profile communist dissident. Nevertheless, despite these events, does it deserve such a reputation? Ricin is clearly toxic, though its level of risk depends on the route of entry. By ingestion, the pathology of ricin is largely restricted to the gastrointestinal tract where it may cause mucosal injuries; with appropriate treatment, most patients will make a full recovery. As an agent of terror, it could be used to contaminate an urban water supply, with the intent of causing lethality in a large urban population. However, a substantial mass of pure ricin powder would be required. Such an exercise would be impossible to achieve covertly and would not guarantee success due to variables such as reticulation management, chlorination, mixing, bacterial degradation and ultra-violet light. By injection, ricin is lethal; however, while parenteral delivery is an ideal route for assassination, it is not realistic for an urban population. Dermal absorption of ricin has not been demonstrated. Ricin is also lethal by inhalation. Low doses can lead to progressive and diffuse pulmonary oedema with associated inflammation and necrosis of the alveolar pneumocytes. However, the risk of toxicity is dependent on the aerodynamic equivalent diameter (AED) of the ricin particles. The AED, which is an indicator of the aerodynamic behaviour of a particle, must be of sufficiently low micron size as to target the human alveoli and thereby cause major toxic effects. To target a large population would also necessitate a quantity of powder in excess of several metric tons. The technical and logistical skills required to formulate such a mass of powder to the required size is beyond the ability of terrorists who typically operate out of a kitchen in a small urban dwelling or in a small ill-equipped laboratory. Ricin as a toxin is deadly but as an agent of bioterror it is unsuitable and therefore does not deserve the press attention and subsequent public alarm that has been created.     

Fluorinated alkyl compounds including long chain carboxylic acids in wild bird livers from Japan

A wide range of fluorinated alkyl compounds (FACs) has been reported in wildlife in various locations in the world. However, such information regarding Japanese wildlife is rarely found. In the present study, we investigated the occurrence of 21 FACs, including perfluorinated alkyl sulfonates (PFASs), perfluorinated carboxylates (PFCAs), and fluorotelomer acids, in the livers of 10 wild bird species from two regions in northern Japan. To avoid interferences, FACs were quantified by a recently developed method using acetonitrile and solid-phase extraction followed by an ion exchange HPLC column separation. Apart from perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS), which was found at the highest levels of all the compounds detected, several long chain perfluorinated carboxylates (PFCAs) from C8 to C16, particularly perfluorotetradecanoic acid (PFTeDA) and perfluorohexadecanoic acid (PFHxDA), were detected for the first time. Additionally, 7:3 FTCA, a fluorotelomer acid, was also detected in most swan livers from Miyagi prefecture and all the birds from Tochigi prefecture. However, none of the sulfonamides and unsaturated telomer acids were detected in any species. Swans seem to be the least exposed wild birds to FACs among the investigated birds, signifying that feeding habits may reflect FAC accumulation in wild birds. The highest total concentration of detected FACs was 405 ng g⁻¹ wet wt., which was found in a Japanese sparrowhawk, indicating that the top predatory wild birds can accumulate several long chain carboxylic acids. However, the current FAC concentrations found in livers may suggest that these compounds alone would not cause a severe toxic effect in these species.     

Extraction of soil solution by drainage centrifugation—effects of centrifugal force and time of centrifugation on soil moisture recovery and solute concentration in soil moisture of loess subsoils

The solute concentration in the subsoil beneath the root zone is an important parameter for leaching assessment. Drainage centrifugation is considered a simple and straightforward method of determining soil solution chemistry. Although several studies have been carried out to determine whether this method is robust, hardly any results are available for loess subsoils. To study the effect of centrifugation conditions on soil moisture recovery and solute concentration, we sampled the subsoil (1.5–3.0 m depth) at commercial farms in the loess region of the Netherlands. The effect of time (20, 35, 60, 120 and 240 min) on recovery was studied at two levels of the relative centrifugal force (733 and 6597g). The effect of force on recovery was studied by centrifugation for 35 min at 117, 264, 733, 2932, 6597 and 14,191g. All soil moisture samples were chemically analysed. This study shows that drainage centrifugation offers a robust, reproducible and standardised way for determining solute concentrations in mobile soil moisture in silt loam subsoils. The centrifugal force, rather than centrifugation time, has a major effect on recovery. The maximum recovery for silt loams at field capacity is about 40%. Concentrations of most solutes are fairly constant with an increasing recovery, as most solutes, including nitrate, did not show a change in concentration with an increasing recovery.     

Gas chromatographic fingerprinting of crude oil from Idu-Ekpeye oil spillage site in Niger-delta, Nigeria

Samples were collected from an oil polluted site in Niger-delta, Nigeria. Gas chromatographic analyses carried out on the samples revealed an abundance of n-alkanes within the n-C₈–n-C₂₃ region. The pristane/phytane ratio of 5.70 obtained for the samples depicted a plant/terrestrial source input and a possible oxic depositional environment. The n-C₁₇/pristane and n-C₁₈/phytane ratios of 2.80 and 2.77, respectively, suggested that the spilled oil was only slightly weathered, as corroborated by the presence of peaks in the aromatic hydrocarbon fingerprints. The polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) fractions showed that the hydrocarbon fractions might have undergone combustion and/or that there was bush burning at the site prior to the oil spill incidence. This is supported by the abundance of high-molecular-weight PAHs which are pyrogenic in nature. High molecular weight PAHs are products of the combustion of petroleum or its products. The phenanthrene/anthracene ratio of 0.95, fluorathene/pyrene ratio of 2.23 and the ∑ (other three to six ringed PAHs)/∑ (five alkylated PAHs) ratio far greater than unity (4.10) also affirm this. On the other hand, the benzo (a) anthracene to chrysene ratio of 0.24 confirms the petrogenic origin of the spilled oil because chrysene which is highly abundant is a fossil PAH.     

Analysis of multi-temporal landsat satellite images for monitoring land surface temperature of municipal solid waste disposal sites

This studypresents a remote sensing application of using time series Landsat satellite images for monitoring the Trail Road and Nepean municipal solid waste (MSW) disposal sites in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Currently, the Trail Road landfill is in operation; however, during the 1960s and 1980s, the city relied heavily on the Nepean landfill. More than 400 Landsat satellite images were acquired from the US Geological Survey (USGS) data archive between 1984 and 2011. Atmospheric correction was conducted on the Landsat images in order to derive the landfill sites’ land surface temperature (LST). The findings unveil that the average LST of the landfill was always higher than the immediate surrounding vegetation and air temperature by 4 to 10 °C and 5 to 11.5 °C, respectively. During the summer, higher differences of LST between the landfill and its immediate surrounding vegetation were apparent, while minima were mostly found in fall. Furthermore, there was no significant temperature difference between the Nepean landfill (closed) and the Trail Road landfill (active) from 1984 to 2007. Nevertheless, the LST of the Trail Road landfill was much higher than the Nepean by 15 to 20 °C after 2007. This is mainly due to the construction and dumping activities (which were found to be active within the past few years) associated with the expansion of the Trail Road landfill. The study demonstrates that the use of the Landsat data archive can provide additional and viable information for the aid of MSW disposal site monitoring.     

Understanding the total life cycle cost implications of reusing structural steel

Reuse of structural steel could be an environmentally superior alternative to the current practice, which is to recycle the majority (88%) of scrap steel. In spite of the potential benefits, and in a time when “sustainability” and “climate change” are critical societal issues, the question arises: why are greater rates of structural steel reuse not being observed? One of the major factors in the rate of structural steel reuse is how decision-makers understand the life cycle implications of their choice to recycle steel rather than reuse it. This paper contributes towards our understanding of these implications, particularly the cost implications, of reuse as an alternative to recycling by presenting a streamlined life cycle analysis and identifying the major contributors to each process. The results of a case study indicate that a significant reduction in some life cycle impact metrics (greenhouse gas emissions, water use) can result from reusing structural steel rather than recycling it. The largest contributors to the life cycle impact of recycling were the shredding, melting, and forming sub-processes. The largest contributor to reuse was the deconstruction sub-process. A total life cycle cost analysis is performed to understand the cost of damages to the environment and human health in combination with the cost of construction activities. Sensitivity and uncertainty analyses are also conducted to quantify variability in the results and determine economic conditions where the two processes have an equal cost.     

Perfluoroalkyl acids in blood serum samples from children in Taiwan

Severe perfluoroalkyl acid (PFAA) contamination resulting from the fast-growing semiconductor, electrochemical, and optoelectronic industries has been determined in the river water in the vicinity of the Taipei area, Taiwan, during recent years. However, little is known about body burdens of the PFAA contaminations in local residents, especially children living in the Taipei area recently. In this study, ten target PFAA analytes consisted of three perfluorosulfonates (PFSAs) and seven perfluorocarboxylates (PFCAs) in the blood serum samples, collected from 225 healthy children with an average age of 13.6 years in the Taipei area from 2009 to 2010, were analyzed via high-performance liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry (HPLC–MS/MS). As the dominant PFAA contaminant in the blood serum samples from Taiwanese children, perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) contributed 86 % of all the target PFAA analytes, while the other nine analytes contributed less than 5 % individually. PFOS showed the highest median up to 29 ng/mL, ranging from 0.03 to 148 ng/mL, which was higher than that observed in the serum samples collected from Taiwanese children between 2006 and 2008. Statistically, serum concentrations of perfluorobutane sulfonate (PFBS), perfluorohexane sulfonate (PFHxS), and perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) had significantly positive correlations with ages of children (p?<?0.05). Furthermore, serum PFBS, PFHxS, and PFOA concentrations in the male children were considerably higher than those in the female children (p?=?0.049, p?=?0.000, p?=?0.000).