Water, Air, and Soil Pollution

UNLABELLED: Due to the COVID-19 epidemic, the consumption of pharmaceuticals, especially paracetamol, has sharply increased on a global scale. The increasing concentration of analgesic and anti-inflammatory drugs (AAIDs) in the aquatic medium is a global problem for human and aquatic life. Therefore, simple and effective treatment options for removing AAIDs from wastewater after the COVID-19 pandemic are needed. The removal of AAIDs (acetaminophen, acetylsalicylic acid, codeine, diclofenac, ibuprofen, indomethacin, ketoprofen, mefenamic acid, naproxen, and phenylbutazone) from sewage treatment plant (STP) effluents by the prepared magnetite nanoparticles synthesized from red mud (mNPs-RM) is presented for the first time in this study...

Water pollution is a global issue as a consequence of rapid industrialization and urbanization. Organic compounds which are generated from various industries produce problematic pollutants in water. Recently, metal oxide (TiO2 , SnO2 , CeO2 , ZrO2 , WO3 , and ZnO)-based semiconductors have been explored as excellent photocatalysts in order to degrade organic pollutants in wastewater. However, their photocatalytic performance is limited due to their high band gap (UV range) and recombination time of photogenerated electron-hole pairs...

UNLABELLED: Surface ozone ( O 3 ) pollution in China has become a serious environmental problem in recent years. In the present study, we targeted the HRB, a large region located in China's north-south border zone, to assess the driving forces of meteorology and emission changes on surface ozone. A Kolmogorov-Zurbenko ( KZ ) filter method was performed on the maximum daily average 8-h (MDA8) concentrations of ozone in the HRB during 2015-2020 to decompose the original time series. The findings demonstrated that the short-term ( O 3 ST ), seasonal ( O 3 SN ), and long-term components ( O 3 LT ) of MDA8 O 3 variations accounted for 34...

Previous studies focused on investigating particulate matter with aerodynamic diameter ≤ 2.5 µm (PM2.5 ) have shown the risk of disease development, and association with increased morbidity and mortality rates. The current review investigate epidemiological and experimental findings from 2016 to 2021, which enabled the systemic overview of PM2.5 's toxic impacts on human health. The Web of Science database search used descriptive terms to investigate the interaction among PM2...

UNLABELLED: Currently, air quality has become central to global environmental policymaking. As a typical mountain megacity in the Cheng-Yu region, the air pollution in Chongqing is unique and sensitive. This study aims to comprehensively investigate the long-term annual, seasonal, and monthly variation characteristics of six major pollutants and seven meteorological parameters. The emission distribution of major pollutants is also discussed. The relationship between pollutants and the multi-scale meteorological conditions was explored...

Performance optimization using process parameters of an indoor air filtration system is a requirement that has to be established through experimental and analytical means for increasing machine efficacy. A closed casing containing a motor-driven blower is placed in a glass-encapsulated control volume. Air flows axially through an inlet filter and is thrown radially by the blower. In the radial path, air is treated with free radicals from the UVC-irradiated nano-TiO2 coated in the inner wall of casing. A known quantity of Staphylococcus aureus bacteria is populated (Courtesy: EFRAC Laboratories) in the glass-encapsulated control volume...

Taking into consideration, the challenges faced by the environment and agro-ecosystem make increased for suggestions more reliable methods to help increase food security and deal with difficult environmental problems. Environmental factors play a critical role in the growth, development, and productivity of crop plants. Unfavorable changes in these factors, such as abiotic stresses, can result in plant growth deficiencies, yield reductions, long-lasting damage, and even death of the plants. In reflection of this, cyanobacteria are now considered important microorganisms that can improve the fertility of soils and the productivity of crop plants due to their different features like photosynthesis, great biomass yield, ability to fix the atmospheric N2, capability to grow on non-arable lands, and varied water sources...

UNLABELLED: The present study uses various statistical tools to understand the behaviour of PM2.5 and PM10 in the Kanjikode industrial area of Southern India. Annual PM2.5 and PM10 average concentrations in 2018-2020 were three times more than the World Health Organization-specified standards (5 and 15 µg m-3 ). The statistical distribution analysis suggested well-fitted lognormal and gamma distributions of 24-h average PM2.5 concentrations and gamma distributions of 24-h average PM10 concentrations...

The temporal and spatial variation characteristics of air quality index (AQI) in major cities in China were explored in this paper using statistical analysis, hot spot analysis, spatial autocorrelation, mean center, and geographic detector based on the daily AQI data from 2014 to 2020. The results show that ① the annual AQI average value dropped from 94 to 67 from 2014 to 2020. The percentage of cities with daily AQI excellent rates between 0.8 and 1 is significantly increasing, reaching 77% in 2020...

Wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) is a potential approach for determining the viral prevalence in a community. In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, researchers have begun to pay close attention to the presence of SARS-COV-2 RNA in various wastewaters. The potential for detecting SARS-CoV-2 RNA in hospital sewage could make it an invaluable resource for epidemiological studies. In this regard, two specialized hospitals dedicated to COVID-19 patients were chosen for this investigation. Both hospitals utilize the same wastewater treatment systems...

The need for clean water is the most basic human right. Water scarcity will be one important environmental problem of all countries in the future. Phosphate is a harmful matter for public health and the environment. In this study, the removal of phosphate from water by chitosan, which is an environmentally friendly material, was investigated. Chitosan adsorbent spheres were prepared for phosphate separation from water by adsorption, which is a feasible method. The effects of phosphate concentration, adsorbent dosage, and operation time on the removal were investigated...

Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) act as antipyretics, analgesics and anti-inflammatories. Among them, diclofenac and ibuprofen are the most consumed drugs worldwide. During the COVID-19 pandemic, some NSAIDs, such as dipyrone and paracetamol, have been used to alleviate the symptoms of the disease, causing an increase in the concentrations of these drugs in water. However, due to the low concentration of these compounds in drinking water and groundwater, few studies have been carried out on the subject, especially in Brazil...

The release of tetracycline hydrochloride (TCH) and methylene blue (MB) dye into the aquatic system uncontrollably caused major environmental and health problems; hence, their prevention required serious attention. Adsorption process is now being researched in order to increase adsorption efficiency and reprocess to alleviate environmental issues. The use of magnetic nanoparticle as an adsorbent for wastewater treatment has a lot of prospective. A magnetic iron oxide nanoparticle surface modified by Vasaka ( Justicia adhatoda ) leaf extract (JA-MIONs) is used to give a fast removal approach for MB dye and TCH antibiotics...

The consequences of plastic waste pollution have imposed wide global concerns. One of these consequences is the production of micro- and nanosized particles (MNPLs) from aged plastics. The problem of MNPLs is magnified by their potential to transport various contaminants due to their large surface area and other variable physiochemical properties. From this point on, it is important to know the real concentration of MNPLs in our environment and their potential to internalize wild organisms as well as transfer contaminants that are completely highlighted...

Photo-driven advanced oxidation process (AOP) with pharmaceutical wastewater has been poorly investigated so far. This paper presents the results of an experimental investigation on the photocatalytic degradation of emerging pharmaceutical contaminant chloroquine (CLQ) in water using zinc oxide (ZnO) nanoparticles as the catalyst and solar light (SL) as the source of energy. The catalyst was characterized by X-ray powder diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), scanning electron microscopy-energy dispersive X-ray analysis (SEM-EDAX), and transmission electron microscopy (TEM)...

The efficiency of heterogeneous electro-Fenton technology on the degradation of recalcitrant organic pollutants in wastewater is glaringly obvious. This green technology can be effectively harnessed for addressing ever-increasing water-related challenges. Due to its outstanding performance, eco-friendliness, easy automation, and operability over a wide range of pH, it has garnered significant attention from different wastewater treatment research communities. This review paper briefly discusses the principal mechanism of the electro-Fenton process, the crucial properties of a highly efficient heterogeneous catalyst, the heterogeneous electro-Fenton system enabled with Fe-functionalized cathodic materials, and its essential operating parameters...

In this study, the distribution and alterations of ozone concentrations in Tehran, Iran, in 2021 were investigated. The impacts of precursors (i.e., CO, NO2 , and NO) on ozone were examined using the data collected over 12 months (i.e., January 2021 to December 2021) from 21 stations of the Air Quality Control Company (AQCC). The results of monthly heat mapping of tropospheric ozone concentrations indicated the lowest value in December and the highest value in July. The lowest and highest seasonal concentrations were in winter and summer, respectively...

UNLABELLED: This study assesses the performance of waste sugarcane bagasse ash (SBA)-based ceramic membrane in anaerobic membrane bioreactor (AnMBR) treating low-strength wastewater. The AnMBR was operated in sequential batch reactor (SBR) mode at hydraulic retention time (HRT) of 24 h, 18 h, and 10 h to understand the effect on organics removal and membrane performance. Feast-famine conditions were also examined to evaluate system performance under variable influent loadings. An average removal of >90% chemical oxygen demand (COD) was obtained at each HRT and starvation periods up to 96 days did not significantly affect removal efficiency...

Due to the annual increase in wastewater treatment in most Chinese cities, a major environmental issue has arisen: safe treatment, disposal, and recycling of municipal sludge. Municipal sludge has a high content of carbon and essential nutrients for plant growth; hence, it has gained interest among researchers as a soil fertilizer. This study discusses the potential usage of municipal sludge as soil fertilizer (indicators include nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), and trace elements) along with its shortcomings and drawbacks (potentially toxic elements (PTEs), organic matter (OM), pathogens, etc...

Climate change mitigation is a major concern of the European Union (EU). In 2019, the EU presented the European Green Deal (EGD), a new environmental strategy that aimed to neutralize climate change by 2050. Within its policy areas, the EGD included the Farm to Fork (F2F) Strategy that aims to reduce pesticide use by 50%, by 2030. This reduction was proposed due to the supposed negative effects of pesticides on the environment and its biota. Among the different pesticide groups (herbicides, fungicides, insecticides, etc...