Search results for "Biomonitor"
showing 10 items of 211 documents
Air Quality during New Year’s Eve: A Biomonitoring Study with Moss
2021
Mosses are one of the best bioindicators in the assessment of atmospheric aerosol pollution by heavy metals. Studies using mosses allow both short- and long-term air quality monitoring. The increasing contamination of the environment (including air) is causing a search for new, cheap and effective methods of monitoring its condition. Once such method is the use of mosses in active biomonitoring. The aim of the study was to assess the atmospheric aerosol pollution with selected heavy metals (Ni, Cu, Zn, Cd, Hg and Pb) from the smoke of fireworks used during New Year’s Eve in the years 2019/2020 and 2020/2021. In studies a biomonitoring moss-bag method with moss Pleurozium schreberi (Willd. e…
Spontaneous urban weeds: a resource against environmental pollution
2022
Quality of the environment and social well-being, both at a collective and individual level, are closely interrelated issues. It is, in fact, a relationship that invests values of primary importance, such as those relating to human health and safety, heritage and resources to be passed on to future generations. Plant growth and survival can be challenged by harsh urban conditions. Many studies show the persistence of endemic species in built-up areas and document the ecosystem services provided. With this research we wanted to investigate the bioaccumulation of heavy metals such as cobalt (Co), nickel (Ni), copper (Cu), zinc (Zn), arsenic (As), molibden (Mo), cadmium (Cd), lead (Pb) and mer…
Presence and biodistribution of perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) in Paracentrotus lividus highlight its potential application for environmental biomonit…
2021
AbstractThe first determination of presence and biodistribution of PFOA in ninety specimens of sea urchin Paracentrotus lividus from two differently contaminated sites along Palermo’s coastline (Sicily) is reported. Analyses were performed on the sea urchins’ coelomic fluids, coelomocytes, gonads or mixed organs, as well as on seawater and Posidonia oceanica leaves samples from the collection sites. PFOA concentration ranged between 1 and 13 ng/L in seawater and between 0 and 794 ng/g in P. oceanica. The analyses carried out on individuals of P. lividus from the least polluted site (A) showed PFOA median values equal to 0 in all the matrices (coelomic fluid, coelomocytes and gonads). Conver…
Teaching Green Analytical Chemistry on the Example of Bioindication and Biomonitoring (B & B) Technologies
2019
Teaching of Green Analytical Chemistry (GAC) requires a not inconsiderable willingness on the part of the lecturer to familiarize himself with a relatively new field in analytical chemistry. Although there is much that can be derived from Green and Sustainable Chemistry, the GAC’s forward-looking perspectives in particular are independent approaches that must not be neglected. In the first chapter of this article, approaches are pursued “how (teachers) learn to learn,” ultimately based on a consensus on ethics, which allows dealing with people, society and the environment to become an interdisciplinary unit. The end of all this is a smart method of conflict management which provides solutio…
Speichel als Matrix für das Humanbiomonitoring in der Arbeits- und Umweltmedizin [Biomonitoring Methods in German Language, 2015]
2016
Saliva as a matrix for human biomonitoring in occupational and environmental medicine Purpose: Human biomonitoring (HBM) implies the assessment of internal exposure to hazardous substances by measuring the substances, their metabolites or reaction products, as well as effect parameters in human body fluids. Along with blood, plasma and urine, saliva is of increasing interest as an alternative matrix for HBM. Methods: This paper reviews studies that measure salivary background levels of hazardous substances, elevated levels after environmental or occupational exposure, as well as references which deal with physiological and toxicokinetic behaviour of saliva and salivary parameters, respectiv…
Biomonitoring of non-persistent pesticides in urine from lactating mothers: Exposure and risk assessment
2019
Abstract The aim of the present study was to assess the exposure to pesticides in urine from Spanish lactating mothers (n = 116). Six nonspecific (dialkyl phosphates) and 20 specific metabolites of organophosphate pesticides (OPs), herbicides and pyrethroids were analyzed. The most frequently detected biomarkers were diethyl phosphate, p-nitrophenol, 3,5,6-trichloro-2-pyridinol and 3-phenoxybenzoic acid, whose geometric means were 1.9 ng·mL−1, 0.8 ng·mL−1, 1.5 ng·mL−1 and 1.4 ng·mL−1, respectively. Herbicide metabolites were the least frequently detected biomarkers with detection frequencies between 0% (2,4,5-Trichlorophenoxyacetic acid) and 22% (2,4-Dichlorophenoxyacetic acid). Multiple re…
Application of algae in active biomonitoring of the selected holding reservoirs in swietokrzyskie province
2016
Abstract During the years 2014-2015, biomonitoring studies were carried out at three holding reservoirs located in Swietokrzyskie Province (central Poland): Kielce artificial lake, Chancza reservoir and Sielpia reservoir. In sea water algae Palmaria palmata (Linnaeus) Weber & Mohr, exposed in the analysed waters, the increases of concentrations were determined by the atomic absorption spectrometry method (AAS), of the following: Mn, Fe, Cu, Zn, Cd and Pb. Conductivity and pH were also determined in the reservoirs waters. The differences between the increases of heavy metal concentrations in the samples of algae found along the coastline were indicated; they result from different distanc…
Is Active Moss Biomonitoring Comparable to Air Filter Standard Sampling?
2022
Recently, significant attention has been paid to air quality awareness and its impact on human health, especially in urban agglomerations. Many types of dust samplers for air quality monitoring are used by governmental environmental monitoring agencies. However, these techniques are associated with high costs; as a consequence, biological methods such as active moss biomonitoring are being developed. The main disadvantages of such techniques are the lack of standardization of the preparation procedures and the lack of reliable comparisons of results with data from instrumental analyses. Our study aimed to compare the results obtained from active biomonitoring with the use of three moss spec…
Lead isotopic fingerprint in human scalp hair: The case study of Iglesias mining district (Sardinia, Italy)
2017
The Sulcis-Iglesiente district (SW Sardinia, Italy) has been, until recently, one of the most important Italian polymetallic mining areas for the extraction of lead. Epidemiological studies conducted over several decades have indicated this site at high risk of environmental crisis with possible adverse effects on the public health. In the present paper we discuss Pb isotope signatures in human scalp hair and road dust collected from the Sulcis-Iglesiente area in order to trace the exposure of populations to potential Pb sources. A total of 23 determinations (20 on hair samples and 3 on road dust samples) of lead isotope ratios (206Pb/207Pb and 208Pb/206Pb) were carried out. The obtained re…
Internal exposure of firefighting instructors to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) during live fire training
2019
Firefighting instructors in live fire training are inevitably exposed to emissions containing, carcinogenic PAH. The study investigated PAH uptake in a group of firefighting instructors during short-term exposure in live fire training by urinary biomonitoring. Six firefighting instructors (non-smokers) completed five 2 h-training sessions each in a carbonaceous-fired simulation unit using self-containing breathing apparatuses (SCBA). Complying with a minimum time interval of six days between the individual training sessions, the participants provided urine samples before and immediately after, as well as 1, 3, 6, 9, 11, and 18 h after each training session. Samples were analyzed for 10 mono…