Chlorinated paraffins: a review of analysis and environmental occurrence

Chlorinated paraffins (CPs), as technical mixtures of polychlorinated alkanes (PCAs), are ubiquitous in the environment. CPs tend to behave in a similar way to persistent organic pollutants (POPs), leading several countries to impose regulations on the use of CPs. In this article, we review the literature on the properties of CPs, the current analytical tools available to determine CPs in various types of environmental matrices, and concentrations found in the environment. In particular, concentrations of CPs in environmental compartments including air, water, sediments, biota, human food products and human tissues are summarized. Priorities for future research are: improvements in analytical methodologies (reducing the complexity of the analysis, producing reference materials and performing interlaboratory studies); determining background levels of chlorinated paraffins in the environment and human populations (this question should be answered using quality assured analytical tools allowing the intercomparison of data); and investigating the sources of CPs to the environment and to humans.     

The epidemiology of lawn trimmer injuries in the United States: 2000-2009

IntroductionYard maintenance equipment is potentially dangerous, and some of the more frequency used equipment (e.g., lawn mowers) has been extensively studied. However, the extent of lawn trimmers as a source of injury has not previously been explored.MethodsData from the Consumer Product Safety Commission's National Electronic Injury Surveillance System were used to estimate the number of patients treated in U.S. emergency departments for lawn trimmer-related injuries. Injury rates were calculated according to age, sex, and race, and characteristics of the injury event were determined.ResultsAn estimated 81,907 injuries involving a lawn trimmer occurred from 2000–2009. The incidence generally increased over time. Men, people aged 40–49, and Caucasians were the groups most likely to be injured. The most commonly injured body part was the head, specifically the eye, accounting for 42.5% of the injuries. Contusions and abrasions were the most common type of injury to the head, but lacerations were the most common injury to the extremities, and strains/sprains were the most common injury to the trunk.DiscussionAlthough previous research on lawn trimmers has focused exclusively on injuries to the eyes, the results of the current study show that such injuries are one component of the problem. Because most of the injuries were due to foreign objects, it is important that the use of adequate safety gear be emphasized when operating lawn trimmers.Impact on IndustryResults suggest that lawn trimmer design changes and better safety education for trimmer use can reduce the rate of injury and reverse the current trend.     

Combined use of eDNA metabarcoding and video surveillance for the assessment of fish biodiversity

Monitoring communities of fish is important for the management and sustainability of fisheries and marine ecosystems. Baited remote underwater video systems (BRUVs) are among the most effective nondestructive techniques for sampling bony fishes and elasmobranchs (sharks, rays, and skates). However, BRUVs sample visually conspicuous biota; hence, some taxa are undersampled or not recorded at all. We compared the diversity of fishes characterized using BRUVs with diversity detected via environmental DNA (eDNA) metabarcoding. We sampled seawater and captured BRUVs imagery at 48 locales that included reef and seagrass beds inside and outside a marine reserve (Jurien Bay in Western Australia). Eighty-two fish genera from 13 orders were detected, and the community of fishes described using eDNA and BRUVs combined yielded >30% more generic richness than when either method was used alone. Rather than detecting a homogenous genetic signature, the eDNA assemblages mirrored the BRUVs’ spatial explicitness; differentiation of taxa between seagrass and reef was clear despite the relatively small geographical scale of the study site (∼35 km²). Taxa that were not sampled by one approach, due to limitations and biases intrinsic to the method, were often detected with the other. Therefore, using BRUVs and eDNA in concert provides a more holistic view of vertebrate marine communities across habitats. Both methods are noninvasive, which enhances their potential for widespread implementation in the surveillance of marine ecosystems.     

Proposed formulation of surface water quality and modelling using gene expression,machine learning,and regression techniques

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - The rising water pollution from anthropogenic factors motivates further research in developing water quality predicting models. The available models...     

Profiles of photosynthetic pigments in the ocean using thin-layer chromatography

Phytoplankton pigments at a coastal station off Sydney, Australia, were studied by cellulose thinlayer chromatography. The chromatographic procedure distinguished chlorophylls a, b and c, chlorophyllide a, pheophytin a and pheophorbide a, and the major carotenoids carotene, astaxanthin, fucoxanthin, peridinin, diadinoxanthin and neoxanthin. Chlorophyllide a and pheophorbide a were the most significant chlorophyll-a degradation products in the water column, chlorophyllide a coming from chlorophyllase activity of senescent diatoms, and pheophorbide a from faecal pellets of copepods. Chlorophyll c occurred in every sample, even where there was no trace of chlorophyll a. Because of the greater chemical and biological stability of chlorophyll c compared to chlorophyll a, high chlorophyll c:a ratios result from a large proportion of senescent or detrital material in the samples. Determining the position of patches of copepods, diatoms, green algae and dinoflagellates in the water column was easily done by noting the presence of definitive pigments on the chromatograms.     

A regression tree-based method for integrating land-cover and land-use data collected at multiple scales

As data sets of multiple types and scales proliferate, it will be increasingly important to be able to flexibly combine them in ways that retain relevant information. A case in point is Amazonia, a large, data-poor region where most whole-basin data sets are limited to understanding land cover interpreted through a variety of remote sensing techniques and sensors. A growing body of work, however, indicates that the future state of much of Amazonia depends on the land use to which converted areas are put, but land use in the tropics is difficult to assess from remotely sensed data alone. An earlier paper developed new snapshots of agricultural land use in this region using a statistical fusion of satellite data and agricultural census data, an underutilized ancillary data source available across Amazonia. The creation of these land-use maps, which have the spatial detail of a satellite image and the attribute information of an agricultural census, required the development of a new statistical technique for merging data sets at different scales and of fundamentally different data types. Here we describe and assess this nonlinear technique, which reinterprets existing land cover classifications by determining what categories are most highly related to the polygon land-use data across the study area. Although developed for this region, the technique appears to hold broad promise for the systematic fusion of multiple data sets that are closely related but of different origins. The figures in the printed version of this article appear in black and white. Color figures are available from the author upon request.