Acostapollard8142

Extensive evidence of elevated arsenic (As) in the food-chain, mainly rice, wheat and vegetables exists. Nevertheless, the importance of exposure from food towards total As exposure and associated health risks in areas with natural occurring As in drinking water is still often neglected, and accordingly mitigations are largely focused on drinking water only. In this study, the contribution of food over drinking water to overall As exposure was estimated for As exposed populations in Bihar, India. Increased lifetime cancer risk was predicted using probabilistic methods with input parameters based on detailed dietary assessment and estimation of As in drinking water, cooked rice, wheat flour and potato collected from 91 households covering 19 villages. Median total exposure was 0.83 μg/kgBW/day (5th and 95th percentiles were 0.21 and 11.1 μg/kgBW/day) and contribution of food (median = 49%) to overall exposure was almost equal to that from drinking water (median = 51%). More importantly and contrary to previous studies, food was found to contribute more than drinking water to As exposure, even when drinking water As was above the WHO provisional guide value of 10 μg/L. Median and 95th percentile excess lifetime cancer risks from food intake were 1.89 × 10-4 and 7.32 × 10-4 respectively when drinking water As was below 10 μg/L and 4.00 × 10-4 and 1.83 × 10-3 respectively when drinking water As was above 10 μg/L. Our results emphasise the importance of food related exposure in As-endemic areas, and, perhaps surprisingly, particularly in areas with high As concentrations in drinking water - this being partly ascribed to increases in food As due to cooking in high As water. These findings are timely to stress the importance of removing As from the food chain and not just drinking water in endemic areas.Deadwood decomposition is a complex and dynamic process with large implications for biogeochemical cycling of carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) in forest soil and litter. Moreover, it affects functional and structural diversity of fungal and bacterial communities in these components. Mesocosms with deadwood blocks at progressive decay classes were set in a black pine forest and incubated for 28 months in the field with the aim to assess the impact of deadwood decomposition on i) CO2, CH4 and N2O fluxes; ii) C and N pools and allocation among deadwood, litter and soil; iii) the fungal and bacterial structural diversity and activity. CO2, CH4 and N2O fluxes from deadwood were monitored throughout the field incubation; deadwood biomass loss and decay rate for each decay class were calculated. The stock of C and N, enzyme activities, fungal and bacterial communities in deadwood, litter fractions (fresh, fragmented and humified) and soil at two depths were measured. Emissions of CO2 and CH4 increased over the deadwood decomposition advancement and the decay reached the maximum rates in the last decomposition classes. N2O fluxes were low and showed either production (prevalent in the first year) or consumption. Independent of the decay class, 20% of C stored in deadwood was lost as CO2 in the atmosphere, whereas 32% was transferred to the fragmented and humified litter fractions in the last decay class. A corresponding increase of cellulose and hemicellulose degrading enzymes was found in deadwood, also favored by substrates accessibility through fragmentation and successional changes in fungal and bacterial communities. Deadwood, litter fractions and soil components were clearly distinguished in terms of chemical and microbiological properties and activities. Fragmented and humified litter fractions were the only components responsive to the advanced stage of deadwood decomposition, being directly affected by the physical redistribution of fragmented organic matter.Covid-19 was first reported in Iraq on February 24, 2020. Since then, to prevent its propagation, the Iraqi government declared a state of health emergency. A set of rapid and strict countermeasures have taken, including locking down cities and limiting population's mobility. In this study, concentrations of four criteria pollutants, NO2, O3, PM2.5 and PM10 before the lockdown from January 16 to February 29, 2020, and during four periods of partial and total lockdown from March 1 to July 24, 2020, in Baghdad were analysed. Overall, 6, 8 and 15% decreases in NO2, PM2.5, and PM10 concentrations, respectively in Baghdad during the 1st partial and total lockdown from March 1 to April 21, compared to the period before the lockdown. this website While, there were 13% increase in O3 for same period. During the 2nd partial lockdown from June 14 to July 24, NO2 and PM2.5 decreases 20 and 2.5%, respectively. While, there were 525 and 56% increase in O3 and PM10, respectively for same period. The air quality index (AQI) improved by 13% in Baghdad during the 1st partial lockdown from March 1 to April 21, compared to its pre-lockdown. The results of NO2 tropospheric column extracted from the Sentinel-5P satellite shown the NO2 emissions reduced up to 35 to 40% across Iraq, due to lockdown measures, between January and July, 2020, especially across the major cities such as Baghdad, Basra and Erbil. The lockdown due to COVID-19 has drastic effects on social and economic aspects. However, the lockdown also has some positive effect on natural environment and air quality improvement.In this study, a novel Cu0-Cu2O@CNTs composite was synthesized, characterized and applied to activate peroxydisulfate (PDS) for the degradation of 2, 4-dichlorophenol (2,4-DCP) in contaminated lake water. The results indicated that Cu0-Cu2O@CNTs can effectively activate PDS to produce O2•- radical, which has high selectivity to degrade organic pollutants in actual contaminated water. The efficiency of 2,4-DCP degradation and mineralization was 99.27% and 66.90%, respectively under the optimal condition. In the presence of Cl-, HCO3- and natural organic matters (NOMs) or in real wastewater containing 2,4-DCP, Cu0-Cu2O@CNTs/PDS system had a good selectivity for 2,4-DCP degradation. O2•- was the dominant reactive species in Cu0-Cu2O@CNTs/PDS system for 2,4-DCP degradation. The possible degradation pathway of 2,4-DCP was proposed. It was concluded that Cu0-Cu2O@CNTs composite could overcome the shortcomings of PDS activation by Cu0 and Cu2O alone, such as low activating capability of Cu0 and instability of Cu2O, which was high efficient for activating PDS.