Search results for "risk assessment."

Pharmaceuticals and other urban contaminants threaten Amazonian freshwater ecosystems

2021

Abstract Urban areas in the Brazilian Amazon have grown at an unprecedented rate during the last years. About 90% of the wastewater produced by these urban areas are discharged untreated into Amazonian freshwater ecosystems, constituting a potential environmental pathway for pharmaceuticals and other chemicals consumed by modern societies (e.g. psychostimulants, personal-care products, hormones). The distribution of these chemicals into the Amazon River and their potential risks for freshwater biodiversity have not been evaluated so far. Here, we show the results of the largest chemical monitoring campaign conducted in the Amazon region. We assessed exposure patterns for 43 pharmaceuticals …

Anticipating the impact of pitfalls in kinetic biodegradation parameter estimation from substrate depletion curves of organic pollutants

2019

[EN] Accurate and reliable estimation of kinetic parameters of pollutant biodegradation processes is essential for environmental and health risk assessment. Common biodegradation models proposed in the literature, such as the nonlinear Monod equation and its simplified versions (e.g. Michaelis-Menten-like and first-order equations), are problematic in terms of accuracy of kinetic parameters due to the parameter correlation. However, a comparison between these models in terms of accuracy and reliability, related to data imprecision, has not been performed in the literature. This task is necessary, mainly because the model selection cannot be straightforward, as shown in this work. To facilit…

Pesticides and Agricultural Air Quality

2016

Biomonitoring of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in the urine of lactating mothers: Urinary levels, association with lifestyle factors, and risk ass…

2020

Abstract Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are pollutants produced during incomplete combustion of organic matter and several industrial processes. Humans can be exposed to PAHs through ingestion of food, inhalation of tobacco smoke or polluted air, and dermal contact, causing immunologic, developmental, and reproductive problems. In the present research, eleven metabolites of PAHs were analyzed in the urine of 110 lactating women living in Spain (2015). PAH metabolites were extracted from the urine samples by liquid-liquid extraction and their determination was performed by liquid chromatography coupled to tandem mass spectrometry. In addition, information on lifestyle and dietary ha…

Approach to a water safety plan for recreational waters: disinfection of a drainage pumping station as an unconventional point source of fecal contam…

2020

Abstract In the context of the management of bathing water quality, the intermittent contamination of rainwater drainage pumps (unconventional point sources) could be controlled by peracetic acid disinfection. Thus, a field experimental study was carried out to set up a water safety plan, determining the monitoring parameters and the critical limit for corrective actions. With a 0.5 mg/l dosage, the average logarithmic microbial reduction was 0.50 ± 0.48 for Escherichia coli (EC) and 0.43 ± 0.54 for intestinal enterococci. Among the chemical and physical parameters that could be monitored in real time, the oxidation–reduction potential was the only one able to predict the microbial concentr…

Occurrence, distribution, and risk assessment of pharmerciuticals in wastewater and open surface drains of peri-urban areas: Case study of Juja town,…

2020

Abstract The occurrence of Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (APIs) in the environment is becoming a major area of concern due to their undesirable effects on non-target organisms. This study investigated the occurrence and risk of contamination by five antibiotics and three antiretrovirals drugs in a fast-growing peri-urban area in Kenya, with inadequate sewer system coverage. Due to poor sewage connectivity and poorly designed decentralized systems, wastewater is directly released in open drains. Water and sediment samples were collected from open surface water drains, while wastewater samples were collected from centralized wastewater treatment plants (WWTP). Solid-phase extraction and u…

Children’s exposure to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in the Valencian Region (Spain): Urinary levels, predictors of exposure and risk assessment

2021

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are pollutants that are released into the environment during incomplete combustion of organic matter and which can have a negative effect on human health. PAHs enter the human body mostly through ingestion of food or inhalation of tobacco smoke. The purpose of the present study is to evaluate the internal levels of PAHs that children living in the Valencian Region (Spain) are exposed to. In total, we measured eleven biomarkers of exposure to naphthalene, fluorene, phenanthrene, pyrene, and benzo(a)pyrene in the urine of 566 children aged 5-12. The analytical method was based on a liquid-liquid extraction of the PAH metabolites from the urine samples, …

Analysis of drought and vulnerability in the North Darfur region of Sudan

2018

North Darfur of Sudan is located on the edge of the Sahara Desert and endures frequent droughts due to water shortages and high summer temperatures. Monitoring and understanding drought characteristics are essential for integrated drought risk mitigation and prevetion of land degradation. This study evaluates drought conditions in North Darfur by analyzing the spatiotemporal distribution of drought using three drought indices (Standardized Precipitation Index, Vegetation Condition Index, and Soil Moisture Content Index) and their combined drought index (CDI) from 2004 to 2013. Biophysical and socioeconomic indicators are further used to measure vulnerability to drought risk and its three co…

A risk assessment of the effects of mercury on Baltic Sea, Greater North Sea and North Atlantic wildlife, fish and bivalves

2021

Abstract: A wide range of species, including marine mammals, seabirds, birds of prey, fish and bivalves, were investigated for potential population health risks resulting from contemporary (post 2000) mercury (Hg) exposure, using novel risk thresholds based on literature and de novo contamination data. The main geographic focus is on the Baltic Sea, while data from the same species in adjacent waters, such as the Greater North Sea and North Atlantic, were included for comparative purposes. For marine mammals, 23% of the groups, each composing individuals of a specific sex and maturity from the same species in a specific study region, showed Hg-concentrations within the High Risk Category (H…

Economic performance and risk of farming systems specialized in perennial crops: An analysis of Italian hazelnut production

2019

Abstract Assessing farm profitability and economic risk is important to support farmers' decisions. Several factors affect yields and product prices, in turn influencing farmers' income level and economic risk. However, the literature has often neglected to explicitly account for the role of product quality. This is particularly important for crops such as hazelnut because farmers' prices vary according to the quality of the harvested product. Furthermore, it seems fundamental to disentangle the role of parameters influencing farm results, noticeably yield, product price and quality. This is because farmers select their risk management tools to satisfy their needs, but these are often suita…