The adverse impacts of lead and cadmium exposure on health outcomes have been reported in the past. Few studies have been conducted on the relationship between lead and cadmium exposures and disability. We evaluated whether lead and cadmium exposures were associated with functional dependence including the total number of disabilities, activities of daily living (ADL), instrumental activities of daily living (IADL), leisure and social activities (LSA), lower extremity mobility (LEM), and general physical activities (GPA) in an elderly population. A total of 5513 eligible subjects were enrolled in the study from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2001–2006. Serum lead and cadmium exposure assessments were performed using atomic absorption spectrometry. Functional dependence was assessed by 19 structured questions. The relationships between lead and cadmium exposures and functional dependence were investigated using by multivariable linear regression models. Q2, Q3, and Q4 of lead exposure were significantly associated with the total number of disabilities, with β coefficients of ??0.62 (95% CI ??0.99, ??0.24), ??0.64 (95% CI ??1.02, ??0.26), and ??0.81 (95% CI ??1.19, ??0.42), respectively. This relationship remained significant in males. Furthermore, we analyzed the relationships between lead and cadmium exposure quartiles and various functional dependence metrics, and we determined that lead content was significantly associated with decreased ADL, LEM, and GPA (p?<?0.05) and cadmium content was inversely associated with ADL (p?<?0.05). Our study demonstrated a strong relationship between exposure to lead and cadmium and functional dependence in an elderly population.
As a global pollutant, Hg (Hg) since the turn of the last century has received increased attention. Decreasing the emission of Hg into the food chain and the atmosphere is an effective way to reduce the Hg damage. The current study provided information about pilot-scale horizontal subsurface flow (HSSF) constructed wetlands (CWs) to remove different Hg species in polluted water. Synthetic wastewater was fed to two HSSF CWs, one was planted with Acorus calamus L and the other was unplanted as a control. The total Hg (THg), dissolved Hg (DHg), and particulate Hg (PHg) from five sites along the HSSF CWs were analyzed to describe the process of Hg removal. Results show that the CWs have high removal efficiency of Hg which is more than 90%. The removal efficiencies of THg and DHg from the unplanted CW were 92.1?±?3.6% and 72.4?±?13.1%, respectively. While, the removal efficiencies of THg and DHg in planted CW were 95.9?±?7.5% and 94.9?±?4.9%, which were higher than that in blank CW. The PHg was mainly removed in the first quarter of the CWs, which was also revealed by the partition coefficient Kd. To a certain extent, the effect of plants depends on the hydraulic retention time (HRT). The results in the current study show the potential of the HSSF-CWs for restoration from Hg-contaminated water.
This special issue introduces new directions for exploring the consequences of proactive behaviors. The authors summarize the new scopes of consequences, new social contexts, and new methods in this exploration. They also identify several limitations of the existing literature and call for more future research in this stream. 相似文献
Loss of two pesticides with different mobility characteristics, bentazone (Koc approximately 34) and propiconazole (Koc approximately 1800), were studied at three agricultural fields (Askim, Bj?rnebekk and Syverud) in SE Norway. A conservative tracer (Br) was used to follow the flow of water. The loss of pesticides varied among the fields, depending on hydrological characteristics and soil properties. The loss of pesticides was higher from two artificially levelled silty clay loam soils with poor aggregate stability (Askim and Bj?rnebekk) compared to a loam/silt loam soil with increased content of organic carbon and better aggregate stability (Syverud). The total accumulated loss was <0.5% from all fields. The highest pesticide concentrations were measured at the first runoff episode after application for both the mobile (bentazone) and less mobile pesticide (propiconazole) in the surface runoff. In the drainage water, the peak for the less mobile pesticide coincided with the Br tracer, while the peak for mobile pesticide appeared earlier than the Br tracer. Rapid movement of water, particles and pesticides through soils indicate flow through macropores. Larger proportions (in percent of total applied) of both the mobile and the strongly sorbed pesticides were lost through the drainage as compared to the loss through surface runoff at Askim. Here, it is suggested that macropore flow contribute to the increased loss of pesticides through the drainage. At Syverud, high infiltration capacity reduces the amount of water available for surface runoff, and somewhat higher loss of the mobile pesticide was registered in the drainage compared to the surface runoff. For the strongly sorbed pesticide, however, propiconazole was neither detected in surface nor in drainage water at Syverud. Generally, there was a higher percentage loss of the mobile compared to the strongly sorbed pesticide in both surface and drainage water, which is in agreement with the pesticides mobility characteristics in soil. An exception was, however, the erodible soil Bj?rnebekk, where a higher fraction of propiconazole was lost in the surface runoff compared to bentazone. Large amounts of sediment transport from the Bj?rnebekk field probably contributed to enhanced transport of the strongly sorbed pesticide. 相似文献