Environmental contamination

1. Recent national and international policy initiatives have aimed to reduce the exposure of humans and wildlife to lead from ammunition. Despite restrictions, in the UK, lead ammunition remains the most widespread source of environmental lead contamination to which wildlife may be exposed. 2. The risks arising from the use of lead ammunition and the measures taken to mitigate these have prompted intense and sometimes acrimonious discussion between stakeholder groups, including those advancing the interests of shooting, wildlife conservation, public health and animal welfare. 3. However, relatively little is known of the perspectives of individual ammunition users, despite their role in adding lead to the environment and their pivotal place in any potential changes to practice. Using Q-methodology, we identified the perspectives of ammunition users in the UK on lead ammunition in an effort to bring forward evidence from these key stakeholders. 4. Views were characterised by two stat...

Pesticide residues are the traces of pesticide compounds that remain on or in the crop, water, soil and air after the application. Pesticide residues get into the environment as a result of application or by accident and can be found in the air, water and soil. Pesticide residues, if present in air, soil and water can pose a serious threat to biological diversity and human health. After depositing in the environment, the pesticides start to break down and forms metabolites that are more or less toxic. Pesticide residues decline as the pesticide breaks down over time, therefore the levels of residues are highest immediately after the application and diminish as the crops continue to grow. When exposed to sunlight or microorganisms in the soil, most pesticides degrade easily however, the utmost number of pesticides after application scatter into non-target areas or leach into groundwater or move in surface runoff by misuse and misapplication while handling or spraying. The impact of widespread usage of chemical pesticides has made an uncountable number of effects on human health, environment and other life forms and has turned into a serious issue across the globe. The present study aims to present an introduction to the environmental pesticide residues and various aspects highlighting their impact on nature and biodiversity.

Pesticides, regardless of their known toxic impacts to human health and environment, are widely used in the rapid growing agricultural sectors of developing countries. As an agricultural country with small lands and enormous population to feed, a developing country like Bangladesh rely heavily on the uses of pesticides to increase crop yields. Nevertheless, during the past decades, Peoples' Republic of Bangladesh has experienced 26.46% decrease in total pesticide consumption. However, the presence of unregistered pesticides in the environmental samples and agricultural products has pointed out the weakness in the existing legal regime of the pesticide governance. This, in turn, is threatening the livelihood and health of the farmers, food safety and consumer health. This paper reviews the antiquity of the status of pesticide consumption, evolution and drawbacks of pesticide in the context of existing socioeconomic position of Bangladesh. A consolidated uniform system is lacking to project pesticide management in the country. Existing legal policy, rules and regulations in the context of international agreements regarding pesticide management have been reviewed and suggested for further amendment. Moreover, role of green microfinance in sustainable management of pesticides and food safety were recommended. A framework is proposed for pesticide governance with a stronger pesticide surveillance program and coordination of ministries interlinking environmental, occupational health and food safety.

This article contributes to ongoing debates on how bottom-up social cooperation can halt and reverse processes of environmental and human degradation, dispossession and impoverishment, by proposing a synchronization of resistance and of commoning practices. The article moves from the empirical case of social and ecological conflicts currently unfolding in the so-called Land of Fires, an area in Southern Italy infamous for the socio-environmental impacts of two decades of waste disposal, mismanagement and contamination. Within this context, a coalition of grassroots movements is struggling to resist livelihoods degradation through an alliance with anti-Mafia social cooperatives. We provide an in-depth analysis of emerging social and economic networks that connect the strategies of grassroots movements
for environmental justice with the work of social cooperatives that reclaim lands and assets confiscated to Mafia. The interests of environmental activists meet the interests of social cooperatives at the crossroad of territory reclamation with the spheres of social and economic production and reproduction.
Framing the case as a cultural and physical re-appropriation of territory, we provide an analysis of strategies and limits for a symbolic and practical project of social re-appropriation of the commons (De Angelis 2012)

Since contaminants such as metals, POPs (Persistent Organic Pollutants) and PAHs (Polycyclic aromatic compounds represent a risk to human health and to the environment, it is therefore extremely necessary to study their biological effects. Man-made chemicals endocrine disruptors such as estrogens pose the potential to modulate endocrine function and thus adversely affect humans and other animal’s reproductive development. In this work, sublethal toxicity tests were carried out with the sea anemones Actinia equina and Anemonia sulcata exposed to 17-β-Estradiol. A. equina and A. sulcata are species that present a wide geographic distribution and might possibly be effective pollution indicators. Histological and histochemical techniques were used to detect morphological changes in sea anemones in order to find histological parameters that could be useful as early biomarkers of environmental contamination. The histological and histochemical procedures followed by standard methods to Hematoxylin and eosine (H & E), Periodic acid Shiff reagent (PAS) and Masson`s Tricrome (TMass) stained adaptated to Actiniidae conditions. Such as, the fixation (formalin and alcohol) time is high (96 hours), because this organisms are almost 98% of water body constitution. The slides obtained were observed by light microscopy means. The assemblage of methodologies described permitted the identification of several anomalies/pathologies in different parts of the sea anemones body, with special attention to reproductive structures. Results obtained for A. sulcata showed vitellogenic oocytes with anomalous dimensions, altered cytoplasm or without cellular membrane limits (Figure 1). It can also be observed lipid accumulations and cells membranes not always preserved. In certain areas oocytes presents small reactivity with atypical PAS low basophilic patterns. In the mesoglea the amoebocytes showed more eosinophilic cytoplasm or extracellular bodies suggesting necrosis or protein content.  The effects at 10 µg/L concentrations show a considerable number of oocytes with germinal vesicles membranes and indistinct cytoplasm boundaries (Figure 1). Results obtained for A. equina showed some morphological changes in the spermatocytes of male gonads and in the germinal vesicles the female gonads. The effects observed at higher concentrations shows oocytes and ovarian tissues disintegration. The morphologic alterations observed suggested a delay in spermatogenesis and although there have been no alterations in female vitellogenic granules, there are changes in their maturation. The whole effects lead to verify the role that the estradiol in the Anthozoan reproductive system.

1. Recent national and international policy initiatives have aimed to reduce the exposure of humans and wildlife to lead from ammunition. Despite restrictions, in the UK, lead ammunition remains the most widespread source of environmental lead contamination to which wildlife may be exposed.
2. The risks arising from the use of lead ammunition and the measures taken to mitigate these have prompted intense and sometimes acrimonious discussion between stakeholder groups, including those advancing the interests of shooting, wildlife conservation, public health and animal welfare.
3. However, relatively little is known of the perspectives of individual ammunition users, despite their role in adding lead to the environment and their pivotal place in any potential changes to practice. Using Q-methodology, we identified the perspectives of ammunition users in the UK on lead ammunition in an effort to bring forward evidence from these key stakeholders.
4. Views were characterised by two statistically and qualitatively distinct perspectives: (a) Open to change-comprised ammunition users that refuted the view that lead ammunition is not a major source of poisoning in wild birds, believed that solutions to reduce the risks of poisoning are needed, were happy to use non-lead alternatives and did not feel that the phasing out of lead shot would lead to the demise of shooting; and (b) Status quo-comprised ammunition users who did not regard lead poisoning as a major welfare problem for wild birds, were ambivalent about the need for solutions and felt that lead shot is better than steel at killing and not wounding an animal. They believed opposition to lead ammunition was driven more by a dislike of shooting than evidence of any harm.
5. Adherents to both perspectives agreed that lead is a toxic substance. There was consensus that involvement of stakeholders from all sides of the debate was desirable and that to be taken seriously by shooters, information about lead poisoning should come from the shooting community.

In this paper, we examine the economic impact of a tightly clustered complex of hog barns, a  type of concentrated animal feeding operation (CAFO) on residential property in a rural area
near Benton, Kentucky. The operation creates noxious and offensive odors associated with  swine-raising and waste disposal activities. Theory and practice indicate that buyers would  avoid purchasing a property believed to be contaminated or subject to effects of  unsustainable environmental disamenities.

Introduction Palm oil mill effluent (POME) contains large quantities of organic matter in the form of total suspended solids (TSS), volatile suspended solids (VSS), total solids (TS), oil and grease (O & G) that increase biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) and chemical oxygen demand (COD) of POME if left untreated. The main aim of the present study was to investigate the ability of bacterial strains either pure (individually) or mixed (combinations), to degrade and metabolize organic load from palm oil mill effluent. Results Sequencing of the 16S rRNA of the isolates suggests that they were identified as Micrococcus luteus 101 PB, Stenotrophomonas maltophilia 102 PB, Bacillus cereus 103 PB, Providencia vermicola 104 PB, Klebsiella pneumoniae 105 PB and Bacillus subtilis 106 PB. The use of mixed cultures in the present study showed more extensive removal of organic load (COD and BOD) than pure single cultures. Mixed cultures were found to reduce the pollutant dynamically. Thus, the mixed cultures C 1 (Bacillus cereus 103 PB and Bacillus subtilis 106 PB) were the most effective bacterial combination for use in biological treatment technology of POME having the highest COD and BOD reduction rate. C 1 produced the highest degradative activity in reducing COD (90.64 %) and BOD (93.11 %). Conclusion The indigenous microbial isolates from POME were observed to possess potential to degrade organic components whereas the use of mixed cultures resulted in more extensive degradation of COD and BOD than pure single cultures. This suggests that mixed culture of bacteria in the present study can be used for bioreme-diation of environment contaminated with polluted waste-waters. This study, however, indicates the prospect of isolating indigenous microorganisms in the POME for effective biotreatment of POME. Keywords Bacteria Á BOD Á COD Á Organic load Á POME Á Reduction Á Treatment Á Wastewater

In situ γ-ray spectrometry uses a portable detector to quantify radionuclides in materials. The main shortcoming of in situ γ-ray spectrometry has been its inability to determine radionuclide depth distributions. Novel collimator designs were paired with a commercial in situ γ-ray spectrometry system to overcome this limitation for large area sources. Positioned with their axes normal to the material surface, the cylindrically symmetric collimators limited the detection of unattenuated γ-rays from a selected range of polar angles (measured off the detector axis). Although this approach does not alleviate the need for some knowledge of the γ-ray attenuation characteristics of the materials being measured, the collimation method presented in this paper represents an absolute method that determines the depth distribution as a histogram, while other in situ methods require a priori knowledge of the depth distribution shape. Other advantages over previous in situ methods are that this method does not require multiple γ-ray emission energies, provides the capability for characterizing complex depth distributions. The disadvantages are that collimation adds weight to the in situ system and increases the counting time by reducing the detector's field of view. Using a high-purity germanium spectrometry system, collimated in situ measurements of large area sources buried in attenuating materials were performed in laboratory settings and demonstrated the method's capability to yield accurate depth information.

Human activities involving urbanization, agricultural development, overuse of fertilizers, inadequate management of land use and waste disposal can affect the quality of water and making it unfit for both aquaculture and domestic purposes. Thus, overexploitation and its attendant pollution is dangerous and threatening to spoil freshwater and aquatic ecosystems. Hence, this study was designed to evaluate quality of water around an industrial area in order to assess its suitability for aquatic life and to evolve policies for use and protection of water resources. A total number of thirty (30) water samples were collected from six (6) different sites and were subjected to hydrochemical analysis using various standard methods to determine their conformity to World Health Organization (WHO) maximum allowance concentration. As against the WHO recommendation of absence of colouration for drinking water, the water samples were not all colourless but had varying colours ranging from light green to greenish brown. The mean values of Conductivity (387.27uS), pH (7.38), Total Suspended Solids [TSS] (423.87mg/L) and Total Dissolved Solids[TDS] (212.97mg/L) fall within the WHO standard, those of Salinity (0.18%), Turbidity (149.00 NTU), Biochemical Oxygen Demand[BOD] (106.80mg/L), Chemical Oxygen Demand[COD] (187.10mg/L) and NH 4 (4.44mg/L) were higher than the WHO standard while Dissolved Oxygen[DO] (3.49mg/L) and Cl-(39.48mg/L) fall below the standard. These parameters make Alaro river unsuitable for aquatic life (fish) and therefore recommended that government and other stakeholders should take overdue steps in the development and implementation of waste water and industrial effluent receiving facilities in order to prevent discharge of untreated effluents into water bodies.

In order to fully understand the impact of contamination on Indigenous communities, this
paper explores how intersectionality has been integral to the development of environmental
justice (EJ) and reproductive justice (RJ), and how considering the ways in which these two
frameworks then intersect with each other is necessary to more fully explicate how toxicants
have threatened the reproduction of human beings and tribal culture. The concept of
environmental reproductive justice (ERJ), or ensuring that environmental issues do not
interfere with physical or cultural reproduction, involves expanding reproductive justice to
include a deeper focus on the environment, and to include the reproduction of language and
culture as concerns, in addition to the reproduction of human beings. ERJ also aims to
expand the framework of environmental justice to more closely consider the impact of
environmental contaminants on physical and cultural reproduction. Through the example
of Akwesasne, a Mohawk American Indian community located downstream from industrial
sites on the New York/Canadian border, this paper explores how the concept of ERJ can be
utilized to understand the unique situation of American Indian communities who are arguing
that justice necessitates going beyond equal protection.

Contamination by chemicals from the environment is a major global food safety issue, posing a serious threat to human health. These chemicals belong to many groups, including metals/metalloids, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), persistent organic pollutants (POPs), perfluorinated compounds (PFCs), pharmaceutical and personal care products (PPCPs), radioactive elements, electronic waste, plastics, and nanoparticles. Some of these occur naturally in the environment, whilst others are produced from anthropogenic sources. They may contaminate our food—crops, livestock, and seafood—and drinking water and exert adverse effects on our health. It is important to perform assessments of the associated potential risks. Monitoring contamination levels, enactment of control measures including remediation, and consideration of sociopolitical implications are vital to provide safer food globally.

Various fields of knowledge, such as the political ecology and the environmental justice movement, have already widely scrutinized how the environmental conflicts and the spatialization of inequalities affect the right to the city. For instance, several researches have unearthed the connections between the socio-economic-health status of residents and the localization of risk coming from industrial facilities, mines and dumps to detriment of powerless communities (Gaventa, 1990). In line with these studies, the Sendai Framework (2015) has wished for a holistic approach to the risk assessment that is inseparable from the enhancement of democratic processes involving locals in paths of public participation (Aarhus Convention, 1998) and co-production of knowledge about risk.
Nevertheless, both the mainstream planning and the Italian normative mainly adopt quantitative approaches to the risk landscapes based on calculations and big data. By starting from the idea of landscapes as privileged tools to read the transformation dynamics of the individual- society-environment relationships (Pizziolo, 2000), this paper proposes to re-signify the risk as an eco-systemic landscape phenomenon (Gravagno and Messina, 2008) which is readable in-depth only through the ensemble of relational information embodied into the texture of life of human and non-human communities. We prefer to call such kind of information "small data" which can be captured only using a street science (Corburn, 2005) "made with feet" (Secchi, 2013), active listening (Sclavi, 2003) and toxic autobiographies (Armiero, 2019).
The authors aspire to discuss the potential role of small data, street science and toxic autobiographies for mapping the cartography of conflicts, resistant and resilient practices and collective capabilities (Rosignoli, 2019) by presenting the first results of an ongoing experimentation in Gela, a Sicilian village which was converted by a multinational oil company into one of the main Italian petrochemical poles and which is facing today many environmental, economic, social and health problems.

Background: Campylobacter jejuni and C. coli are important agents of diarrhea in human beings. Several animals are reservoirs for these bacteria and they may contribute to environmental contamination through fecal shedding. The presence of dog feces in urban settings could be a risk of Campylobacter environmental contamination and a problem of public health concern. Besides environmental contamination, the increasing antimicrobial resistance among Campylobacter is another issue of public health significance. The aims of this study were to determine the prevalence of C. jejuni and C. coli in dog feces collected from public parks of Loja city, Ecuador, and establishing their susceptibility to six antibiotics. Materials, Methods & Results: A total of 70 fresh-looking non-diarrheal dog fecal samples were collected from public parks of Loja city. An amount (c. a. 1 g) of each fecal specimen was collected with a swab, placed in a tube containing Bolton enrichment broth and processed within the next six hours. Campylobacter spp. were isolated by direct plating onto Butzler selective agar and into Bolton enrichment broth, which were incubated at 42°C for 48 h in microaerophilic conditions. From Bolton enrichment broth subcultures to Butzler selective agar were made and also to blood agar, the latter using the passive filtration method in order to isolate C. upsaliensis. Identification was made firstly using the traditional phenotypic test (cata-lase, oxidase, oxygen tolerance, growth at 25°C, hippurate and indoxyl acetate hydrolysis, and cephalothin and nalidixic acid susceptibility) and corroborated by the genus-specific polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and by the multiplex PCR (m-PCR) method proposed for the characterization of the six most common clinical Campylobacter species. Susceptibility to ampicillin, amoxicillin/clavulanic acid, erythromycin, tetracycline, ciprofloxacin and gentamycin was performed by the disk diffusion method following the 2014 recommendations of The European Committee on Antimicrobial Susceptibility Testing (EUCAST) and the Committee for the Antibiogram of the French Society of Microbiology. Campylobacter was isolated in 7/70 samples (10%) corresponding 4 (5.7%) to C. jejuni and 3 (4.3%) to C. coli. C. upsaliensis was not found. All the strains were susceptible to ampicillin, amoxicillin/clavulanic acid, erythromycin and gentamycin, six were resistant to tetracycline but all the seven strains were ciprofloxacin-resistant. Discussion: The isolation frequency of C. jejuni and C. coli in dog feces collected in the public parks of Loja city was higher than that reported by Wright (4.6%) for similar type of samples. However, it was lower than that shown in the other reports when dogs were directly sampled. Besides the aesthetically undesirable aspect of the presence of feces in public settings, they may represent a hygiene and public health problem because dog feces may contain potentially pathogenic bacteria for humans, like Salmonella spp., Escherichia coli, Yersinia spp. and Campylobacter spp. All seven isolated strains were susceptible to ampicillin, amoxicillin/clavulanic acid, erythromycin and gentamycin, six were resistant to tetracycline and surprisingly all of them were resistant to ciprofloxacin. The latter fact reflects the overuse of fluoroquinolones in animals, representing an emerging epidemiological problem with implications for treatment in humans. Dog feces deposited in public parks of Loja city yielded C. jejuni and C. coli suggesting that dogs could be a common source of environmental contamination with the additional risk of widespread ciprofloxacin resistant strains.

The aim of this study was to assess levels of aflatoxin M1 (AFM1) in milk samples from Kerman, Iran. AFM1 was detected in 72 samples, ranging in concentration from 50.01 to 0.41 mg lÿ1. The samples were analyzed using immunoaffinity column for clean-up and HPLC for determining AFM1. Milk samples were collected from six dairy farms. AFM1 was found in 50% of the milk samples. The average level of AFM1 was below the tolerance limit (0.05 mg lÿ1), but 50% of the samples had greater levels than the maximum tolerance limit accepted by EU and the Iranian national standard. The method detection limit and limit of quantification were 0.01 and 0.03 mg lÿ1, respectively, and recovery of the method was 87%. The results showed that AFM1 contamination is a serious problem for public health. To achieve a low level of AFM1 in milk, cattle feed must be monitored regularly for aflatoxin contamination and protected from fungal contamination as much as possible.

Publisher: CommonDreams.org & Halifax Media Co-op
Author: Rana Encol
Date: Aug. 11, 2013 by Halifax Media Co-op

Canadian Energy Industry, Energy Industry, Environment, Environmental Contamination, Fracking, Natural Gas, New Brunswick, Oil, Water, Water Contamination

Publisher: New York Times
Author: Jacques Leslie
Date: Mar. 30, 2014

Alberta oil sands, Alberta tar sands, Athabasca oil sands, Athabasca tar sands, BP, Canadian oil, Canadian oil production, Canadian oil sands, Canadian tar sands, Carbon dioxide, CO2 emissions, Chevron, China National Petroleum Corp, ConocoPhillips, Ecological disaster, Enbridge, Energy, Environmental contamination, Environmental poison, Exxon Mobil, Fort McMurray, Greenhouse gases, Imperial Oil, Nexen, Oil, Oil sands, Petro-Canada, Royal Dutch Shell, Statoil, Suncor, Syncrude Canada, Tar sands