Monitoring SARS-CoV-2 in the Wastewater and Rivers of Tapachula,a Migratory Hub in Southern Mexico

Food and Environmental Virology - The COVID-19 pandemic has been monitored by applying different strategies, including SARS-CoV-2 detection with clinical testing or through wastewater-based...     

An environmental measurement for a dynamic and endogenous global environmental Kuznets curve in the global context

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - Planetary boundaries (PB) is a novel conceptual framework that assesses the state of processes fundamental to the stability of the Earth system....     

Use of Lens culinaris Med test as environmental bioindicator to identify the cytogenotoxic effect of paraquat pesticide

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - Paraquat is the most widely used herbicide and the third most sold pesticide in the world, applied in more than 120 countries despite being banned in...     

Validation of a questionnaire about the perception of occupational biohazard in Spanish companies

Objectives. The aim of this work was to develop, validate and test a new questionnaire to assess the biological risk in workers with intentional or unintentional exposure to biological agents. Methods. A questionnaire including 34 questions was developed to study the perception of workers against occupational biohazard. Content Validity Index (CVI) and Content Validity Ratio (CVR) were calculated for the analysis of content validity. A pilot study was carried out with 60 workers from 17 companies performing analysis of Cronbach's α to assess the internal consistency or reliability. Results. A total of 518 workers from 51 Spanish companies in which there is exposure to biological agents participated in the study yielding a response rate of 90%. The final questionnaire obtained a Cronbach's α > 0.759 with a stable test–retest result. The questionnaire validation demonstrates that it could be used to evaluate the biological risks and help the prevention of occupational accidents and diseases. Discussion. This study has validated the need to evaluate worker's perception against occupational risks, as well as the application of prevention methods and protective equipment. It is a first step towards developing an occupational biohazards assessment method including all the requirements set by the European Health and Safety Strategy 2013–2020.     

Fluvial levees in compound channels: a review on formation processes and the impact of bedforms and vegetation

Environmental Fluid Mechanics - Natural levees are wedge-shaped morphological features developing along the boundaries of mass flows. When they form in fluvial landscapes, they can have multiple...     

Cancer and occupational exposure to pesticides: a bibliometric study of the past 10 years

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - Occupational exposure to pesticides has been identified as a major trigger of the development of cancer. Pesticides can cause intoxication in the...     

Factors associated with genetic damage — an analysis integrating human populations from Southern Brazil

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - Socioeconomic and demographic factors, lifestyle and cultural characteristics may play an important role in the development of genetic damage. This...     

Fast Preparation of Flexible Wet-Resistant and Biodegradable Films From a Stable Suspension of Xylan/Chitosan Polyelectrolyte Complexes

Journal of Polymers and the Environment - Novel hemicellulose-based films from polyelectrolyte complexes (PECs) of chitosan and xylan from sugar cane bagasse were prepared and characterized. PEC...     

A statistical study of the quality of surface water intended for human consumption near Valencia (Spain)

Water quality in the European Union is subject to legislation through directives that are applicable in all Member States. The directives specify a set of physical and chemical parameters that should be regularly controlled using a network of sampling points, with sampling based on the intended use of the water. This paper presents the results of a statistical comparison of the quality of water intended for human consumption at two different locations (the Canal de Benagéber and the Canal Júcar-Turia) near the town of Valencia (Spain). These are currently the only canals that could supply Valencia and other nearby towns with drinking water. The parameters considered in this paper are the ones specified in the European directives for determining the quality of water intended for human consumption. These directives specify that the 95th percentile of the distribution of each parameter should be used to assess water quality, so accurate estimation of these percentiles was essential in this paper. We found statistically significant differences among locations in chlorides, sulfates, temperature, coloration, and manganese, but the results varied depending on the statistical tests that we used; parametric methods gave better results than nonparametric methods.