Environmental and health effects of nanomaterials in nanotextiles and façade coatings

Engineered nanomaterials (ENM) are expected to hold considerable potential for products that offer improved or novel functionalities. For example, nanotechnologies could open the way for the use of textile products outside their traditional fields of applications, for example, in the construction, medical, automobile, environmental and safety technology sectors. Consequently, nanotextiles could become ubiquitous in industrial and consumer products in future. Another ubiquitous field of application for ENM is fa?ade coatings. The environment and human health could be affected by unintended release of ENM from these products. The product life cycle and the product design determine the various environmental and health exposure situations. For example, ENM unintentionally released from geotextiles will probably end up in soils, whereas ENM unintentionally released from T-shirts may come into direct contact with humans and end up in wastewater. In this paper we have assessed the state of the art of ENM effects on the environment and human health on the basis of selected environmental and nanotoxicological studies and on our own environmental exposure modeling studies. Here, we focused on ENM that are already applied or may be applied in future to textile products and fa?ade coatings. These ENM's are mainly nanosilver (nano-Ag), nano titanium dioxide (nano-TiO(2)), nano silica (nano-SiO(2)), nano zinc oxide (nano-ZnO), nano alumina (nano-Al(2)O(3)), layered silica (e.g. montmorillonite, Al(2)[(OH)(2)/Si(4)O(10)]nH(2)O), carbon black, and carbon nanotubes (CNT). Knowing full well that innovators have to take decisions today, we have presented some criteria that should be useful in systematically analyzing and interpreting the state of the art on the effects of ENM. For the environment we established the following criteria: (1) the indication for hazardous effects, (2) dissolution in water increases/decreases toxic effects, (3) tendency for agglomeration or sedimentation, (4) fate during waste water treatment, and (5) stability during incineration. For human health the following criteria were defined: (1) acute toxicity, (2) chronic toxicity, (3) impairment of DNA, (4) crossing and damaging of tissue barriers, (5) brain damage and translocation and effects of ENM in the (6) skin, (7) gastrointestinal or (8) respiratory tract. Interestingly, some ENM might affect the environment less severely than they might affect human health, whereas the case for others is vice versa. This is especially true for CNT. The assessment of the environmental risks is highly dependent on the respective product life cycles and on the amounts of ENM produced globally.     

Ecological benefits of the alley cropping agroforestry system in sensitive regions of Europe

Alley cropping is an agroforestry system that offers a promising land use alternative for the temperate zone. On the same field, the sustainable production of food and biomass is possible, while simultaneously, especially in marginal areas, the ecological function of the landscape can be improved. Thus, alley cropping corresponds with the increasing demand for renewable energy resources and for a specific adaptation to the predicted changes of climatic conditions within Central Europe.However, presently, little knowledge exists regarding the effects of alley cropping on the environment. In this study a literature survey was undertaken to provide an overview of the different ecological benefits arising from alley cropping systems within temperate Europe. Abiotic factors (nutrient cycle, microclimate), biotic factors (biodiversity) and the effects on the carbon cycle are discussed in detail.Summarising, the results showed that alley cropping may be an ecologically advantageous land use system for sustainable food and biomass production in comparison with conventional agricultural practices. As a very flexible, but low-input system, alley cropping can supply biomass resources in a sustainable way and at the same time provide ecological benefits.     

Biomolecules preserved in ca. 168 million year old fossil conifer wood

Biomarkers are widely known to occur in the fossil record, but the unaltered biomolecules are rarely reported from sediments older than Paleogene. Polar terpenoids, the natural products most resistant to degradation processes, were reported mainly from the Tertiary conifers, and the oldest known are Cretaceous in age. In this paper, we report the occurrence of relatively high concentrations of ferruginol derivatives and other polar diterpenoids, as well as their diagenetic products, in a conifer wood Protopodocarpoxylon from the Middle Jurassic of Poland. Thus, the natural product terpenoids reported in this paper are definitely the oldest polar biomolecules detected in geological samples. The extracted phenolic abietanes like ferruginol and its derivatives (6,7-dehydroferruginol, sugiol, 11,14-dioxopisiferic acid) are produced only by distinct conifer families (Cupressaceae s. l., Podocarpaceae and Araucariaceae), to which Protopodocarpoxylon could belong based on anatomical characteristics. Therefore, the natural product terpenoids are of great advantage in systematics of fossil plant remains older than Paleogene and lacking suitable anatomical preservation.     

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in coastal sediments of Southern Terengganu,South China Sea,Malaysia: source assessment using diagnostic ratios and multivariate statistic

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - Surface sediments along the Southern Terengganu coast (≤7 km from the coast) were analyzed for polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). The...     

Moosmonitoring als Spiegel der Landnutzung?

Goal, Scope and Background

The study was conducted to test the hypothesis that the regional variability of nitrogen (N) and metal accumulations in terrestrial ecosystems are due to historical and recent ways of land use. To this end, in two regions of Central Europe the metal and N accumulations in both regions should be examined by comparative moss analysis. The regions should be of quantitatively specified representativity for selected ecological characteristics of Europe. Within both regions these characteristics should be covered by the sites where the moss samples were collected. The number of samples should allow for geostatistical estimation of the measured nitrogen and metal loads.

Methods

The two regions of investigation were selected according to an ecological land classification of Europe which was computed by classification trees. Within each of both research areas the sampling points were localized according to the areas occupied by the ecologically defined land classes. The sampling and chemical analysis of mosses was conducted in accordance with an appropriate UNECE guideline by means of ICP-MS (metals) and combustion analysis (N). The quality of measurements was assured using certified reference materials. The differences of deposition loads were tested for statistical significance with regard to time and space. Variogram analysis was used to examine and model the spatial autocorrelation function of the measurements. Ordinary kriging was then applied for surface estimations.

Results

By use of the ecological regionalisation of Europe the Weser-Ems Region (WER) and the Euro Region Nissa (ERN) were selected for investigation. The sampling sites represent quite well the natural landscapes and the land use categories of both regions. The measurement values corroborate the decline of metal accumulation observed since the beginning of the European Mosses Monitoring Survey in 1990. The metal loads of the mosses in the ERN exceed those in the WER significantly. The opposite holds true for the N concentrations: those in the WER are significantly higher than those in the ERN.

Discussion

The decrease of heavy metal emissions is correlated with lowered deposition and accumulation rates in terrestrial ecosystems. The accumulation of nitrogen in the biosphere is not following this trend.

Conclusions

The technique of moss analysis is adequate for spatially valid biomonitoring of spatial and temporal trends of metals and nitrogen in terrestrial ecosystems. By this, it enables to prove the efficiency of environmental policies.

Recommendations and Perspectives

The accumulation of N in ecosystems is still a serious environmental problem. Related ecological impacts are the eutrophication of aquatic ecosystems like ground waters, lakes, rivers and oceans as well as the biocoenotic changes in terrestrial ecosystems. Thus, a statistically valid exposure analysis must encompass both, accumulation of metals and N bioaccumulation. Further, the bioaccumulation of persistent organic pollutants should be monitored. Finally, environmental biomonitoring should be conducted in much closer contact with human health aspects.     

塔里木河下游生态输水过程中荒漠河岸林活力恢复监测

根据近5年来对塔里木河下游荒漠河岸林植被的监测数据,分析了生态输水后植物活力的恢复状况.结果显示:应急生态输水增加了塔里木河下游的生物多样性,使原本面临死亡的荒漠河岸植被重新复活,而且不同程度上促进了胡杨群落的自然更新;在近河道50 m的范围内均出现了少量的胡杨、柽柳实生苗,并且在离河道150 m的范围内已经有相当数量的胡杨次生苗,在离河道400 m范围内大约有25%的胡杨均有不同程度的基部新枝萌蘖.通过生态输水后地下水位的逐步抬升,河道两岸的低阶地发育着一定面积的草甸植被,形成了由胡杨、柽柳和草本植物所组成的干旱区非地带性河岸稀疏植被群落,说明应急生态输水对于胡杨为建群种的荒漠河岸林植被的恢复和自然更新产生了积极的影响.     

Verteilung chemischer Elemente in der Nahrung und Milch stillender Mütter

Goal and Scope

The transfer of various chemical elements from maternal food into human milk was investigated. Transfer factors (hereafter TF) food/mother’s milk were taken to represent those nuclides pertinent to radiation protection in order to estimate possible radioactive burdens of breast-fed babies.

Methods

A total of 23 mothers, mainly from the Euroregion Neisse (PL, CZ, D; all being in their mature phases of lactation), took part in this study (1998–2001), for time periods between two to eight weeks (8805 samples were analyzed). The diurnal uptake of elements was determined by the duplicate method.

Results and Conclusions

TF values determined for Ag, Au, Ba, Cd, Ce, Co, Cr, Cs, Cu, Fe, Ga, I, La, Mn, Mo, Nb, Ni, P, Pb, Ra, Rb, Re, Ru, Sb, Sr, Te, Th, Ti, U_o, Y, Zn, Zr were theoretically analyzed with the following result: metal ions transfer into mother’s milk mainly in coordinated states (i.e. bound to anionic ligands), with TF values which increase according to complex stabilities. Therefore it can be assessed that neither Cd nor Ba, both forming only weak complexes, pose hazards to breastfed children.

Outlook

There are relationships between transfer factors pertaining to certain elements and the amounts of others consumed by the mother; i.e. (changes in) consumption of one element influence the transfer towards women’s milk of another element. Accordingly, strategies can be developed to keep off hazardous substances — including fissiogenic radionuclides — from milk which is far more efficient than traditional isotopic dilution; however, iodide tablets are useful here, too.