The latest issue of JEM is now online, featuring two HOT articles on the cover from Knut Breivik and Matthew Nonnenmann et al.
Knut Breivik and colleagues have developed a method to estimate the potential risks of organic chemical emissions emanating from commercial activities. No methods currently exist to quantitatively estimate the risks associated with such emissions and here the authors have sought to address this by developing an approach that looks at the quantities of organic chemicals used, their intended function and physical–chemical properties to estimate emissions to air, soil and water:
Screening organic chemicals in commerce for emissions in the context of environmental and human exposure
Knut Breivik, Jon A. Arnot, Trevor N. Brown, Michael S. McLachlan and Frank Wania
DOI: 10.1039/C2EM30259D
Matthew Nonnenmann et al have sought to overcome some of the limitations associated with culture-based techniques for identifying and quantifying fungi in environmental samples by using pyrosequencing. Pyrosequencing offers the potential for discovering new fungal species, where are more traditional methods such as PCR and QPCR require known species to develop assays. The paper compares the two approaches in dust samples, where fungi may be associated with lung disease:
Utilizing pyrosequencing and quantitative PCR to characterize fungal populations among house dust samples
Matthew W. Nonnenmann, Gloria Coronado, Beti Thompson, William C. Griffith, John Delton Hanson, Stephen Vesper and Elaine M. Faustman
DOI: 10.1039/C2EM30229B
Also, don’t forget to take a look at the latest environmental digest, which this month discusses noise pollution, the disappointments at Rio+20 and more!
