We would like to make our authors and referees aware that from Monday 1st October 2012 our online submission portal will be changed to reflect our new name, Environmental Science: Processes & Impacts.
Author and referee accounts will remain valid, and we would like to remind all our readers that the scope of the journal remains the same.
If you have any queries about the name change please do not hesitate to contact us, we will be very happy to help!
We’ve had a bit of a break in HOT articles for the summer holidays but now we’re back with a scorcher!
In December 2008 the Irish Government recalled all Irish pork and bacon products from pigs slaughtered in Ireland since September 1 2008 as a result of polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) contamination identified during routine monitoring of Irish pork products. This lead to the slaughter of thousands of of pigs and cattle, and the destruction of tens of thousands of tonnes of pork products.
In this Focus article Ian Marnane from the Irish Environmental Protection Agency looks at the source and multiple factors that contributed to the contamination – the use of contaminated fuel in the animal-feed drying facilities – and what lessons could be learnt from this extremely unfortunate event.
The article is free to access* for the next four weeks:
Comprehensive environmental review following the pork PCB/dioxin contamination incident in Ireland
Ian Marnane
DOI: 10.1039/C2EM30374D
Looking for some more summer reading? Why not check our some of our other HOT articles..
*Free access is provided to subscribing institutions or through an RSC Publishing Personal Account. Registration is quick and easy at http://pubs.rsc.org/en/account/register.
We’ve just published our latest Environmental News article, brought to you each month by Mike Sharpe from MS Consulting. Here’s a sneak peek of some of the great content in the article, download for more!
Europe debates offshore rules
European policymakers are said to be making good progress with proposals to tighten rules on the safety of offshore oil and gas installations. The measures were first set out two years ago in the wake of the Deepwater Horizon disaster.
Mercury talks stall in Uruguay
The prospects of a meaningful international treaty on mercury appear to be receding after the latest round of talks in Uruguay made only sluggish progress. ‘‘We have only one meeting left [before the adoption of a global mercury treaty] and all big issues are still open,’’ said Elena Lymberidi of NGO coalition the Zero Mercury Working Group at the meeting in early July.
Diesel exhaust is carcinogenic: official
The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), an agency of the World Health Organization based in Lyon, France, has issued a new evaluation of whether exhaust emissions from diesel and gasoline engines are human carcinogens. Based on the review of a large number of epidemiological, toxicological, and mechanistic studies of older diesel engines and gasoline engines, an IARC expert panel concluded that diesel exhaust is a Group 1, or known, human carcinogen and gasoline exhaust is a Group 2B, or possible, human carcinogen.
New evidence links ozone to heart attacks
Young, healthy adult volunteers exposed for two hours to ozone developed physiological changes associated with cardiovascular ailments, according to a study by EPA scientists. The changes were temporary and reversible in the young, healthy participants.
Nanoparticles combat marine fouling
Tiny vanadium pentoxide (V2O5) nanoparticles can inhibit the growth of barnacles, bacteria, and algae on surfaces in contact with water, such as ship hulls, sea buoys, or offshore platforms, scientists say. The discovery by researchers at Johannes Gutenberg University, Mainz (JGU) in Germany could lead to the development of new protective, antifouling coatings and paints that are less damaging to the environment than the products currently used.
Don’t forget that these articles are free to access through subscribing institutions or through an RSC Publishing Personal Account. Registration is quick and easy at http://pubs.rsc.org/en/account/register.
Andrew Meharg, University of Aberdeen, and colleagues from Universidad Miguel Hernández have investigated a number of essential and toxic trace elements present in baby foods, looking particularly at the diet of infants with celiac disease. Although research into trace element availability has been undertaken before, most focus on only a few essential elements such as zinc and iron, and none have specially investigated the foods designed for infants suffering from celiac disease.
Meharg et al. examined gluten-free rice-based baby foods, baby cereals with gluten and puréed baby foods from Spain and compared these with baby foods produced in the US, UK and China for essential (Ca, Na, Fe, Cu, Mn, Zn, Se, Cr, Ni and Co) and non-essential (As, Pb, Cd and Hg) elements. They found that baby cereals (which contain gluten) were richer in Ca, Fe, Cu, Mn, Zn, Cr and Ni than the gluten-free baby rice options and in line with other recent studies, they found that the content of As in rice-based foods was elevated. The researchers also discuss the fortification of different baby foods with trace essential elements in line with WHO recommendaitons.
Read the full article here:
Essential and toxic elements in infant foods from Spain, UK, China and USA
Ángel A. Carbonell-Barrachina, Amanda Ramírez-Gandolfo, Xiangchun Wu, Gareth J. Norton, Francisco Burló, Claire Deacon and Andrew A. Meharg
DOI: 10.1039/C2EM30379E
Dr Kevin Ashley from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, NIOSH, USA, was recently awarded the prestigious Moyer D. Thomas Award for his “outstanding contributions to the standardization of the sampling and analysis of atmospheres” from the ASTM International Committee D22 on Air Quality.
Dr Ashley is a senior research scientist at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), where he has worked since 1991. His current research is working to evaluate and validate workplace air sampling techniques to improve sample collection and analysis aspects and to harmonize methods for occupational exposure assessment.
A regular author in JEM, some of Dr Ashley’s recent work on environmental atmospheric analysis was published as part of our issue from last year’s AIRMON conference:
Interlaboratory evaluation of trace element determination in workplace air filter samples by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry
Kevin Ashley, Stanley A. Shulman, Michael J. Brisson and Alan M. Howe
J. Environ. Monit., 2012,14, 360-367
DOI: 10.1039/C1EM10695C
Preparation, certification and interlaboratory analysis of workplace air filters spiked with high-fired beryllium oxide
Thomas J. Oatts, Cheryl E. Hicks, Amy R. Adams, Michael J. Brisson, Linda D. Youmans-McDonald, Mark D. Hoover and Kevin Ashley
J. Environ. Monit., 2012,14, 391-401
DOI: 10.1039/C1EM10688K
The Moyer D. Thomas award was established in 1975 and is awarded in recognition of outstanding achievement in the standardization of the sampling and analysis of atmospheres. It was last awarded in 2010, to George Luciw, by a task group of the Executive Committee of Committee D22 on Sampling and Analysis of Atmospheres.
Our congratulations to Dr Ashley on receiving this award.
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!
Our latest issue is dedicated to Emerging Investigators – highlighting the research of the best and brightest young minds in environmental science and engineering. This is the third year we have produced an issue dedicated to new researchers to the field, and we are delighted that 2010 Emerging Investigators David Cwiertny and Tamar Kohn guest edited this issue with us.
David Cwiertny and Tamar Kohn discuss the unique nature of the young environmental science field in their editorial and the challenges facing new researchers, from marketing work to funding agencies to communicating science to the public.
The issue contains plenty of HOT research, including fluvial transport of arsenic, groundwater contamination at an ex-uranium mine, Cr VI formation during chlorination of drinking water, interactions of organic matter and gold nanoparticles, effect of water treatment on antibiotic resistance and improving the measurement accuracy for water-soluble composition of PM2.5.
View the rest of the issue here
A quantitative model to predict arsenic concentration patterns in the area surrounding abandoned mining sites has been developed in this recently published HOT paper.
The model looks at the fluvial transport of arsenic from mine waste in semi-arid areas, which has a significant contribution in the distribution of contaminants from the original source – particularly after heavy rain. Despite the important role of fluvial transport, it has been somewhat overlooked to date – perhaps because of the intermittent and unpredictable nature of our weather systems.
James Rytuba from the U.S. Geological Survey, and colleagues from Chapman University hope that their model will help inform environmental remediation strategies for arsenic and other related contaminants in similar environments.
Read the details of the model here – the paper is free to access for 4 weeks:
Fluvial transport and surface enrichment of arsenic in semi-arid mining regions: examples from the Mojave Desert, California
Christopher S. Kim, David H. Stack and James J. Rytuba
DOI: 10.1039/C2EM30135K
Scientists from Technical University Darmstadt and the Competence Centre for Environment, Austria have investigated ways to reduce exposure to the chalk commonly used to dry climber’s hands in indoor climbing gyms.
Stephan Weinbruch and team conducted experiments in several indoor climbing gyms in Germany to determine the level of exposure to climbers and gym staff, assessing the concentrations of aerosol particulate from different formulations of the chalk. They found that the use of liquid chalk (a suspension of magnesia alba in ethanol) produced the least particulate matter, and so switching to this product may provide a low-cost way of reducing the exposure of climbers and staff to chalk dust.
Read the details of the study here:
Reducing dust exposure in indoor climbing gyms
Stephan Weinbruch, Thomas Dirsch, Konrad Kandler, Martin Ebert, Gerhard Heimburger and Franz Hohenwarter
DOI: 10.1039/C2EM30289F
The air above a small forest in the Campine region of Flanders, Belgium, was the subject of this decade-long study to understand ozone flux patterns. The data, which was presented at the COST International Conference on Ozone, Climate Change and Forests in June last year, shows that rain had a significant effect on the deposition of O3 in the tree canopy.
R. Ceulemans and colleagues found that during the day a dry canopy was the best sink for ozone, whereas at night the converse was true – a wet canopy showed the highest ozone deposition. Read the article for their speculations about non-stomatal deposition:
Insights into ozone deposition patterns from decade-long ozone flux measurements over a mixed temperate forest
J. Neirynck , B. Gielen , I. A. Janssens and R. Ceulemans
DOI: 10.1039/C2EM10937A
This article is part of the collection: Ozone
This HOT article is free to access for the next four weeks following a simple registration for individual users.
