Search results for "WASTE"
showing 10 items of 2580 documents
Medium-term dynamics of element concentrations in a sparid fish and its isopod parasite after the Prestige oil-spill: Shifting baselines?
2019
Historically, the European Atlantic is probably the most important oil-spill hotspot worldwide. One of the most recent accidents occurred in 2002 when the oil-tanker Prestige sank over the Galician Bank causing two major oil-spills followed by several small leaks until March 2003. This resulted in contamination of virtually all types of marine habitat. Considering that parasites have proved to be good effect and accumulation bioindicators, the present study addresses the medium-term changes in trace element content after the Prestige oil-spill in a model host-parasite system, the bogue, Boops boops (Sparidae) and the isopod Ceratothoa oestroides. To our knowledge, this study is the first to…
Recommendations for ecotoxicity testing with stygobiotic species in the framework of groundwater environmental risk assessment.
2019
As a consequence of the growing global dependence on groundwater resources, environmental risk assessments (ERA) for groundwater are increasingly required and, with that, ecotoxicological studies with groundwater fauna (stygofauna). However, the literature on the ecotoxicological studies with stygobiotic species (i.e. species that complete their life cycle exclusively in groundwater) has not expanded significantly since the first paper published in this field. The limitations regarding the use of stygobiotic species for ecotoxicological testing are clear and consistent across the globe; stygobiotic species are often 1) naturally present in low numbers, 2) difficult to collect, and 3) diffic…
Estimating population size in wastewater-based epidemiology. Valencia metropolitan area as a case study.
2017
Wastewater can provide a wealth of epidemiologic data on common drugs consumed and on health and nutritional problems based on the biomarkers excreted into community sewage systems. One of the biggest uncertainties of these studies is the estimation of the number of inhabitants served by the treatment plants. Twelve human urine biomarkers —5-hydroxyindoleacetic acid (5-HIAA), acesulfame, atenolol, caffeine, carbamazepine, codeine, cotinine, creatinine, hydrochlorothiazide (HCTZ), naproxen, salicylic acid (SA) and hydroxycotinine (OHCOT)— were determined by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC–MS/MS) to estimate population size. The results reveal that populations calculated fr…
Comparing analytical methods to detect SARS-CoV-2 in wastewater
2021
Wastewater based epidemiology (WBE) has emerged as a reliable strategy to assess the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Recent publications suggest that SARS-CoV-2 detection in wastewater is technically feasible; however, many different protocols are available and most of the methods applied have not been properly validated. To this end, different procedures to concentrate and extract inactivated SARS-CoV-2 and surrogates were initially evaluated. Urban wastewater seeded with gamma-irradiated SARS-CoV-2, porcine epidemic diarrhea virus (PEDV), and mengovirus (MgV) was used to test the concentration efficiency of an aluminum-based adsorption-precipitation method and a polyethylene…
The impact of soil erosion on soil fertility and vine vigor. A multidisciplinary approach based on field, laboratory and remote sensing approaches
2018
Soil erosion processes in vineyards, beyond surface runoff and sediment transport, have a strong effect on soil organic carbon (SOC) loss and redistribution along the slope. Variation in SOC across the landscape can determine differences in soil fertility and vine vigor. The goal of this research was to analyze the interactions among vines vigor, sediment delivery and SOC in a sloping vineyard located in Sicily. Six pedons were studied along the slope by digging 6 pits up to 60 cm depth. Soil was sampled every 10 cm and SOC, water extractable organic carbon (WEOC) and specific ultraviolet absorbance (SUVA) were analyzed. Erosion rates, detachment and deposition areas were measured by the po…
A preliminary study on the ecotoxic potency of wastewater treatment plant sludge combining passive sampling and bioassays.
2021
Highlights • The passive samplers collected bioavail able and bioaccessible chemicals from the WWTP sludge samples. • The sampler extracts were acutely and chronically toxic to water flea. • The sampler extracts were cytotoxic and genotoxic. • The sludge treatment such as composting and digesting diminished the toxicity. • Effect-based methods should be part of the risk assessment of sludge recycling. Sewage sludge is an inevitable byproduct produced in wastewater treatment. Reusing nutrient-rich sludge will diminish the amount of waste ending in soil dumping areas and will promote circular economy. However, during sewage treatment process, several potentially harmful organic chemicals are …
Energy-environmental assessment of the UIA-OpenAgri case study as urban regeneration project through agriculture
2020
Abstract Sustainable agriculture is strongly promoted by Agenda 2030 and peri-urban agriculture is considered strategic for agri-food sustainability. Although, innovative farming practices are being implemented, the analysis of their impacts often does not reach the required depth. Within the EU project ‘UIA-OpenAgri - New Skills for new Jobs in Peri-urban Agriculture’, a regeneration process of a peri-urban area in Milan (Italy) was started, through the development of an innovative food hub. 28 innovative foodchains are assessed by a Life Cycle Assessment approach based on primary data collected from the involved start-ups. Non-Renewable Cumulative Energy Demand and the Global Warming Pote…
Exposure and risk assessment to arsenic species in Spanish children using biomonitoring
2018
We present a new approach to arsenic (As) risk assessment using biomonitoring. In this pilot study we determined the levels of total and speciated urinary arsenicin 109 Spanish school children aged between 6 and 11 years, and interpreted these concentrations in a risk assessment context. The geometric mean (GM) for total As (TAs) was 33.82 mu/L. The order of occurrence and average concentrations of the different species was arsenobetaine (AsB) (100%, 15 mu g/L), dimethylarsinic (DMA) (97%, 8.32 mu g/L), monomethylarsonic (MMA) (26%, 027 mu g/L) and inorganic As (iAs) (4%, 0.14 mu g/L). 18% of children presented exposures to inorganic arsenic (7.52 mu g/g creatinine) higher than guidance val…
Erodibility prioritization of sub-watersheds using morphometric parameters analysis and its mapping: A comparison among TOPSIS, VIKOR, SAW, and CF mu…
2018
Soil erosion, every year imposes extensive damages to human beings by means of reducing soil productivity and filling reservoirs from sedimentation in Ghaemshahr Basin in Mazandaran Province, (Iran); therefore, identifying prone areas to soil erosion for preventive measures is essential in this basin. In this research, erodibility prioritization of sub-watersheds of Ghaemshahr Basin has done using morphometric parameters analysis and different multi-criteria decision making (MCDM) models such as simple additive weighing (SAW), VlseKriterijumska optimizacija I Kompromisno Resenje (VIKOR), technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS), and compound factor (CF). For t…
Modelling of Mercury Emissions from Large Solid Fuel Combustion and Biomonitoring in CZ-PL Border Region
2016
Abstract Tightening of norms for air protection leads to a development of new and significantly more effective techniques for removing particulate matter, SOx and NOx from flue gas which originates from large solid fuel combustion. Recently, it has been found that combinations of these environmental technologies can also lead to the reduction of mercury emissions from coal power plants. Now the greatest attention is paid especially to the coal power plant in Opatovice nad Labem, close to Hradec Kralove. Its system for flue gas dedusting was replaced by a modern type of cloth fabric filter with the highest particle separation efficiency which belongs to the category of BAT. Using this techno…