Pollution prevention at ports: clearing the air

Seaports are major hubs of economic activity and of environmental pollution in coastal urban areas. Due to increasing global trade, transport of goods through ports has been steadily increasing and will likely continue to increase in the future. Evaluating air pollution impacts of ports requires consideration of numerous sources, including marine vessels, trucks, locomotives, and off-road equipment used for moving cargo. The air quality impacts of ports are significant, with particularly large emissions of diesel exhaust, particulate matter, and nitrogen oxides. The health effects of these air pollutants to residents of local communities include asthma, other respiratory diseases, cardiovascular disease, lung cancer, and premature mortality. In children, there are links with asthma, bronchitis, missed school days, and emergency room visits. The significance of these environmental health impacts requires aggressive efforts to mitigate the problem. Approaches to mitigation encompass a range of possibilities from currently available, low-cost approaches, to more significant investments for cleaner air. Examples of the former include restrictions on truck idling and the use of low-sulfur diesel fuel; the latter includes shore-side power for docked ships, and alternative fuels. A precautionary approach to port-related air pollution would encourage local production of goods in order to reduce marine traffic, greener design for new terminals, and state-of-the art approaches to emissions-control that have been successfully demonstrated at ports throughout the world.     

Accumulation and maternal transfer of polychlorinated biphenyls in Steller Sea Lions (Eumetopias jubatus) from Prince William Sound and the Bering Sea, Alaska

The western stock of the Steller sea lion (Eumetopias jubatus) in the northern Pacific Ocean has declined by approximately 80% over the past 30 years. This led to the listing of this sea lion population as an endangered species in 1997. Chemical pollution is a one of several contributing causes. In the present study, 145 individual PCBs were determined in tissues of male sea lions from Tatitlek (Prince William Sound) and St. Paul Island (Bering Sea), and placentae from the Aleutian Islands. PCBs 90/101, 118, and 153 were abundant in all the samples. The mean toxic equivalents (TEQ) were 2.6, 4.7 and 7.4 pg/g lw in the kidney, liver, and blubber samples, respectively. The mean TEQ in placentae was 8 pg/g lw. Total PCBs concentrations (2.6-7.9 μg/g lw) in livers of some males were within a range known to cause physiological effects. Further suggesting the possibility of adverse effects on this stock.     

Concentration of trace elements in feathers of three Antarctic penguins: Geographical and interspecific differences

Antarctica is often considered as one of the last pristine regions, but it could be affected by pollution at global and local scale. Concentrations of Al, Cr, Mn, Fe, Ni, Cu, Zn, As, Se, Cd and Pb were determinated by ICP-MS in feathers (n = 207 individuals) of gentoo, chinstrap and Adélie penguin collected in 8 locations throughout the Antarctic Peninsula (2006-2007). The highest levels of several elements were found in samples from King George Island (8.08, 20.29 and 1.76 μg g⁻¹ dw for Cr, Cu and Pb, respectively) and Deception Island (203.13, 3.26 and 164.26 μg g⁻¹ dw for Al, Mn and Fe, respectively), where probably human activities and large-scale transport of pollutants contribute to increase metal levels. Concentrations of Cr, Mn, Cu, Se or Pb, which are similar to others found in different regions of the world, show that some areas in Antarctica are not utterly pristine.     

Modelling of stem biomass accumulation in Pinus densiflora seedlings exposed to aqueous-phase OH radicals generating mist

The present study aimed to evaluate the short-term biomass accumulation of forest trees exposed to wet acidic depositions. A hierarchical Bayesian model of tree growth was developed based on the data of a short-term experiment in which 2-year-old Japanese red pine (Pinus densiflora Sieb. et Zucc.) seedlings were exposed to aqueous phase OH radicals generated by an iron-oxalate-H₂O₂ mist (a pseudo-polluted dew) over two growing periods. We conducted a statistical comparison of tree growth between the control and pollution treatment groups by using the growth model incorporated the random effects due to the unknown characteristics of each seedling. The variability among seedlings is expressed in this model by the posterior probabilistic distributions of unobserved dry weight of a stem cohort before exposure treatment. The analysis of the effects of pollution treatment on the stem growth revealed that this treatment decreases the biomass allocation in the current year stems. However, the effects on the relative growth rate of pre-existing stems were unclear. Based on these results, we can speculate that in a polluted environment, the short-term growth of the young stems in the seedlings inhibited by pollution treatment, thereby resulting in the slowdown of long-term biomass accumulation. This can explain the patterns observed in the declining Japanese red pine forests that are subjected to OH-generating dews in the polluted area of western Japan.     

Environmental behavior of antibiotic monensin: preliminary studies in Argentina

The increase of intensive bovine production systems in Argentina involves the use of therapeutic agents and growth promoters that reach the environment through animal excreta. The growth promoter most widely used in Argentina is monensin, an ionophore polyether antibiotic produced by Streptomyces cinnamoniensis. Here, the behavior of monensin in different solid environmental matrices is analyzed, and preliminary results that suggest a strong dependence of monensin retention with the organic matter content of the matrix are discussed.     

Monitoring of environmental exposure to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons: a review

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are a large group of organic compounds with two or more fused aromatic rings. They have a relatively low solubility in water, but are highly lipophilic. Most of the PAHs with low vapour pressure in the air are adsorbed on particles. When dissolved in water or adsorbed on particulate matter, PAHs can undergo photodecomposition when exposed to ultraviolet light from solar radiation. In the atmosphere, PAHs can react with pollutants such as ozone, nitrogen oxides and sulfur dioxide, yielding diones, nitro- and dinitro-PAHs, and sulfonic acids, respectively. PAHs may also be degraded by some microorganisms in the soil. PAHs are widespread environmental contaminants resulting from incomplete combustion of organic materials. The occurrence is largely a result of anthropogenic emissions such as fossil fuel-burning, motor vehicle, waste incinerator, oil refining, coke and asphalt production, and aluminum production, etc. PAHs have received increased attention in recent years in air pollution studies because some of these compounds are highly carcinogenic or mutagenic. Eight PAHs (Car-PAHs) typically considered as possible carcinogens are: benzo(a)anthracene, chrysene, benzo(b)fluoranthene, benzo(k)fluoranthene, benzo(a)pyrene (B(a)P), dibenzo(a,h)anthracene, indeno(1,2,3-cd)pyrene and benzo(g,h,i)perylene. In particular, benzo(a)pyrene has been identified as being highly carcinogenic. The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has promulgated 16 unsubstituted PAHs (EPA-PAH) as priority pollutants. Thus, exposure assessments of PAHs in the developing world are important. The scope of this review will be to give an overview of PAH concentrations in various environmental samples and to discuss the advantages and limitations of applying these parameters in the assessment of environmental risks in ecosystems and human health. As it well known, there is an increasing trend to use the behavior of pollutants (i.e. bioaccumulation) as well as pollution-induced biological and biochemical effects on human organisms to evaluate or predict the impact of chemicals on ecosystems. Emphasis in this review will, therefore, be placed on the use of bioaccumulation and biomarker responses in air, soil, water and food, as monitoring tools for the assessment of the risks and hazards of PAH concentrations for the ecosystem, as well as on its limitations.     

Disease prevention and resistance in social insects: modeling the survival consequences of immunity,hygienic behavior,and colony organization

Understanding the origin of disease resistance in social insects is difficult due to the lack of well-established phylogenies of presocial and eusocial species and the absence of extant basal and intermediate forms. Moreover, comprehensive accounts of infection-control traits in social insect lineages are not available. Therefore, to explore the evolution of pathogen control in social insects we used cellular automata models to analyze the efficacy of immunity and nest hygiene, which we assumed were basal traits, and allogrooming, which likely followed the transition to eusociality, and their interactions with colony demography and patterns of worker spatial distribution. Models showed that nest hygiene provided an immediate survival benefit and that immunity lowered overall disease susceptibility under both constant and periodic exposure scenarios. Allogrooming increased survivorship in chronically challenged colonies but also increased pathogen transmission rates under conditions of periodic exposure. Colonies having demographies biased towards young or old individuals had slightly higher mortality than those with heterogeneous demographies. The distribution of older individuals relative to the nest center had no significant effect on susceptibility and provided only a minor survival advantage. Models indicated that nest hygiene and immunity function on different temporal scales and can interact with demography to lower disease risks. Our results suggest how infection control systems in social insects could have been built upon the inducible immune defenses and nest hygienic behaviors of solitary and presocial ancestors and served as important preadaptations to manage disease exposure and transmission in colonies of eusocial species.     

南京市典型地区大气多环芳烃污染特征及健康风险评价

采用气相色谱-质谱法,于2016年9月和12月对南京市2个典型地区大气中16种多环芳烃(PAHs)的质量浓度进行分析,并开展了PAHs组成特征、来源解析及人体健康风险评价研究。结果表明,工业区(六合区)和生活区(江宁区)大气(气态和可吸入颗粒态)中16种PAHs的质量浓度分别为914.82和712.27 ng/m~3,苯并[a]芘毒性等效浓度分别为274.1和309.84 ng/m~3,且呈现冬季高、秋季低的特征。比值法源解析结果表明,燃煤污染是六合区PAHs污染主要来源,而江宁区主要表现为交通污染。人体健康风险评价结果表明,六合区和江宁区人群通过大气吸入PAHs的超额致癌风险分别为5.17×10~(-5)和5.85×10~(-5),均略高于可接受水平10~(-6)。     

Fiscal spending and the environment: Theory and empirics

During economic crises, governments often increase fiscal spending to stimulate the economy. While the fiscal spending surge may be temporary, spending composition is often altered in favor of expenditures on social programs and other public goods which may persist over time. We model and measure the impact of fiscal spending patterns on the environment. The model predicts that a reallocation of government spending composition towards social and public goods reduces pollution. However, increasing total government spending without altering its composition does not reduce pollution. We empirically test these predictions for air and water pollutants showing that they are fully supported.     

Household incidence of pollution control policies: A robust welfare analysis using general equilibrium effects

This study assesses the incidence of pollution control policies on households. In contrast to previous studies, we employ an integrated framework combining a multisector general equilibrium model with a stochastic dominance analysis using household-level data. We consider three policy instruments in a domestic emission trading system: (i) an output-based allocation (OBA) of permits; (ii) the use of the proceeds of permit sales to reduce payroll taxes (RPT); (iii) and the use of these proceeds to reduce consumption taxes instead (UCS). The general equilibrium results suggest that the return to capital is more negatively affected than the wage rate in all simulations, since polluting industries are capital intensive. Abstracting from pollution externalities, the dominance analysis suggests that all three policies have a normatively robust negative (positive) impact on welfare (poverty). Formal dominance tests indicate that RPT first-order welfare dominates OBA over all values of household incomes. UCS also first-order poverty dominates RPT for any choice of poverty line below $CAN 18,600, and poverty dominates for any poverty line (and thus welfare dominates) at the second order. Finally, while the three pollution control policies do not have a numerically large impact on inequality (in comparison to the base run), statistical tests indicate that inequality increases significantly more with OBA and RPT than with UCS.