Showing papers in "Science of The Total Environment in 2008"

TL;DR: It is concluded that with the exception of brake dust particles which may be identified from their copper (Cu) and antimony (Sb) content, unequivocal identification of particles from other sources is likely to prove extremely difficult, either because of the lack of suitable tracer elements or compounds, or of the interactions between sources prior to the emission process.

TL;DR: In this review, an overview of the chemistry of both manufactured and natural aquatic NPs is outlined and key advances related to the characterisation of the manufactured NPs and natural colloids are identified.

TL;DR: It is indicated that PEC/PNEC ratios greater than 1 cannot be ruled out for freshwater ecosystems, in particular sediments, and no risk is predicted for microbial communities in sewage treatment plants.

TL;DR: Data will help prioritize and determine the need, if any, for future occurrence, fate and transport, and health-effects research for subsets of these chemicals and their degradates most likely to be found in water resources used for drinking water in the United States.

TL;DR: The general population should be warned against the employment of Se supplements for prevention of hepatopathies, cardiovascular or cancer diseases, because benefits of Se supplementation are still uncertain, and their indiscriminate use could generate an increased risk of Se toxicity.

TL;DR: Water samples were collected from a network of 47 groundwater sites across 18 states in 2000 and detections of some OWCs could have resulted from leaching of well-construction materials and/or other site-specific conditions related to well construction and materials.

TL;DR: It is concluded that the capacity to retain (process) P within the river channel, and hence regulate the downstream delivery of P without stressing the aquatic communities present, is considerable, especially in headwaters.

TL;DR: Some of the latest iron-based technologies in contaminated land and groundwater remediation, their current state of development, and their potential applications and limitations are reviewed.

TL;DR: Investigation of the residues of pharmaceuticals and personal care products in three urban streams and the Major Pearl River at Guangzhou found endocrine-disrupting phenols and salicylic acid, clofibric acid and ibuprofen were found to be widely present at rather high concentrations in the urban riverine water of Guangzhou.

TL;DR: A conceptual model of molecular soil C dynamics is presented to stimulate inter-disciplinary research into the ecological implications of molecular C turnover and its management- and process-level controls.

TL;DR: The results of this study stress the importance of efficient measures to combat bulk emissions and to promote the registration of potentially toxic emissions on a more comprehensive scale.

TL;DR: Investigations concerning the origins of this contamination were made by means of a longitudinal profile along the Seine River between Paris and Poses, and showed large inputs of norfloxacin, ofloxac in, trimethoprim and sulfamethoxazole from wastewater treatment plants.

TL;DR: Production of low-Cd crop cultivars can be used as a tool to reduce the risk of movement of Cd into the human diet and to increase the concentration of desirable trace elements and reduce that of potentially harmful trace elements such as cadmium (Cd).

TL;DR: This review aims to give an up-to-date glance into current developments in the field of Al toxicity and resistance in plants, also providing sufficient background information for non-specialists in aluminum research.

TL;DR: The input of Cd in European agricultural soils has decreased from previously estimated values and the soil Cd mass balance was close to steady state on an average basis, whereas the reverse was true for Zn, Ni, and Pb.

TL;DR: Fluorescence spectroscopy is recommended as a portable or laboratory tool for the determination of the presence of biodegradable organic matter with intrinsic oxidising potential in natural waters.

TL;DR: At present, levels of most contaminants in Antarctic organisms are lower than those in related species from other remote regions, except for the natural accumulation of Cd and Hg in several marine organisms and especially in albatrosses and petrels.

TL;DR: Health risk due to the added effects of eight HMs was significant for rural children and rural adults, but not for urban adults and urban children, while non-carcinogenic risks presented values inside the safe interval.

TL;DR: GWR models are able to reveal the information previously ignored by OLS models on the local causes of water pollution, and so improve the model ability to explain local situation of water quality.

TL;DR: In this paper, influent, effluent and biosolids from three wastewater treatment facilities in Northwest Ohio, USA, and a stream containing effluent discharge from a rural treatment facility were analyzed.

TL;DR: A trend of a reduction in feeding with deterioration in morphology was observed in the Hydra, with the exception of novobiocin, where a lower than expected EC(50) of 13.53 mg/L was found with no negative effect on morphology.

TL;DR: The index of local Moran's I is a useful tool for identifying pollution hotspots of Pb pollution in urban soils, and for classifying them into spatial clusters and spatial outliers, but it is hard to decide the best way of using this index.

TL;DR: The principal component analysis demonstrated different distribution patterns for PAH, PCB and PCDD/F congeners and for the various sites/regions examined, and the isomer ratios of DDTs and HCHs indicated different sources and residue levels in soils.

TL;DR: The enormous loads of anthropogenic pollutants disposed to the river were diluted by the large water discharge of the Yangtze even during the lowest flow resulting in the relatively low concentration levels of trace elements and organic pollutants observed.

TL;DR: A comprehensive reconnaissance of over seventy individual wastewater contaminants in the region of Western Balkan confirmed a widespread occurrence of the emerging contaminants in municipal wastewaters of the region, including some prominent classes of emerging contaminants such as pharmaceuticals and personal care products, surfactants and their degradation products, plasticizers, pesticides, insect repellents, and flame retardants.

TL;DR: Levels of pharmaceuticals detected in surface water samples upstream STPs were generally very low compared to the downstream samples, suggesting that the STPs potentially be a major source of the test pharmaceuticals into Han River.

TL;DR: The current approach will lead to some improvement in water quality but not to the fundamental change in ecological quality intended by the Directive and has partly been encouraged by lack of definition and contradictions within the Directive itself.

TL;DR: This paper examines the current status and future requirements of modeling global GPP thereby focusing on the light use efficiency approach which expresses GPP as product of the photosynthetically active radiation, the fraction of PAR being absorbed by the plant canopy and the efficiency epsilon which can be converted into biomass.

TL;DR: Inter-species ratio and Pearson's correlations indicate that gasoline vehicular exhaust could be the major source of BTEX in Delhi and the inter-species ratios exhibit clear seasonal variations indicating differential reactivity of the VOC species in different seasons.

TL;DR: Evidence was found that SRHA enhances particle stability at extreme pH values (ionic strength<0.01 M) by substituting and/or over-coating the original stabilizer on the gold nanoparticle surface, thus affecting surface charge and chemistry.