The sustenance of humans and livestock depends on the protection of the soil. Consequently, the pollution of the soil with potentially toxic elements (PTEs) is of great concern to humanity. The objective of this study is to investigate the source apportionment, concentration levels and spatial distribution of PTEs in selected soils in Frýdek-Místek District of the Czech Republic. The total number of soil samples was 70 (topsoil 49 and 21 subsoils) and was analysed using a portable XRF machine. Contamination factor and the pollution index load were used for the assessment and interpreting the pollution and distribution of PTEs in the soils. The inverse distance weighting was used for the spatial evaluation of the PTEs. The results of the analysis showed that the area is composed of low-to-high pollution site. PTEs displayed spatial variation patterns. The average PTE concentration decreases in this Fe > Ti > Ba > Zr > Rb > Sr > Cr > Y>Cu > Ni > Th order for the topsoil and also decreases in this Fe > Ti > Zr > Ba > Rb > Sr > Cr > Y > Cu > Ni > and Th order for the subsoil. These PTEs Cr, Ni, Cu, Rb, Y, Zr, Ba, Th, and Fe were far above the baseline European average value and the World average value level, respectively. The source apportionment showed the dominance of Cr, Ni, Rb, Ti, Th, Zr, Cu, Fe in the topsoil, while the subsoil was dominated by all the PTEs (factor 1 to 6) except Ba. The study concludes that indiscriminate human activities have an enormous effect on soil pollution.
- MeSH
- Risk Assessment MeSH
- Soil Pollutants analysis toxicity MeSH
- Humans MeSH
- Environmental Monitoring MeSH
- Spatial Analysis MeSH
- Soil chemistry MeSH
- Metals, Heavy analysis toxicity MeSH
- Environmental Pollution analysis statistics & numerical data MeSH
- Check Tag
- Humans MeSH
- Publication type
- Journal Article MeSH
- Geographicals
- Czech Republic MeSH
We propose a method for monitoring heavy metal deposition in the vicinity of roads using the leaf surfaces of two expansive grass species which are greatly abundant. A principle of the proposed procedure is to minimize the number of operations in collecting and preparing samples for analysis. The monitored elements are extracted from the leaf surfaces using dilute nitric acid directly in the sample-collection bottle. The ensuing steps, then, are only to filter the extraction solution and the elemental analysis itself. The verification results indicate that the selected grasses Calamagrostis epigejos and Arrhenatherum elatius are well suited to the proposed procedure. Selected heavy metals (Zn, Cu, Pb, Ni, Cr, and Cd) in concentrations appropriate for direct determination using methods of elemental analysis can be extracted from the surface of leaves of these species collected in the vicinity of roads with medium traffic loads. Comparing the two species showed that each had a different relationship between the amounts of deposited heavy metals and distance from the road. This disparity can be explained by specific morphological properties of the two species' leaf surfaces. Due to the abundant occurrence of the two species and the method's general simplicity and ready availability, we regard the proposed approach to constitute a broadly usable and repeatable one for producing reproducible results.
The use of Ni and Cu isotopes for tracing contamination sources in the environment remains a challenging task due to the limited information about the influence of various biogeochemical processes influencing stable isotope fractionation. This work focuses on a relatively simple system in north-east Norway with two possible endmembers (smelter-bedrock) and various environmental samples (snow, soil, lichens, PM10). In general, the whole area is enriched in heavy Ni and Cu isotopes highlighting the impact of the smelting activity. However, the environmental samples exhibit a large range of δ(60)Ni (-0.01 ± 0.03‰ to 1.71 ± 0.02‰) and δ(65)Cu (-0.06 ± 0.06‰ to -3.94 ± 0.3‰) values which exceeds the range of δ(60)Ni and δ(65)Cu values determined in the smelter, i.e. in feeding material and slag (δ(60)Ni from 0.56 ± 0.06‰ to 1.00 ± 0.06‰ and δ(65)Cu from -1.67 ± 0.04‰ to -1.68 ± 0.15‰). The shift toward heavier Ni and Cu δ values was the most significant in organic rich topsoil samples in the case of Ni (δ(60)Ni up to 1.71 ± 0.02‰) and in lichens and snow in the case of Cu (δ(65)Cu up to -0.06 ± 0.06‰ and -0.24 ± 0.04‰, respectively). These data suggest an important biological and biochemical fractionation (microorganisms and/or metal uptake by higher plants, organo-complexation etc.) of Ni and Cu isotopes, which should be quantified separately for each process and taken into account when using the stable isotopes for tracing contamination in the environment.
BACKGROUND: The EU strategy for the Danube Region addresses numerous challenges including environment, health and socioeconomic disparities. Many old environmental burdens and heavily polluted areas in Europe are located in the Danube Region, consisting of 14 countries, with over 100 million people. Estimating the burden of environmental exposures on early-life health is a growing research area in Europe which has major public health implications, but the data from the Danube Region are largely missing. AIM: This review presents an inventory of current environmental challenges, related early-life health risks, and knowledge gaps in the Danube Region, based on publicly available databases, registers, and literature, as a rationale and incentive for a new integrated project. The review also proposes the concept for the project aiming to characterize in utero exposures to multiple environmental factors and estimate their effect on early-life health, evaluate economic impact, as well as identify interventions with a potential to harness social norms to reduce emissions, exposures and health risks in the Danube Region. METHODS: Experts in environmental epidemiology, human biomonitoring and social science in collaboration with clinicians propose to establish a new large multi-center birth cohort of mother-child pairs from Danube countries, measure biomarkers of exposure and health in biological samples at birth, collect centrally measured climate, air and water pollution data, conduct pre- and postnatal surveys on lifestyle, indoor exposures, noise, occupation, socio-economic status, risk-averting behavior, and preferences; and undertake clinical examinations of children at and after birth. Birth cohort will include at least 2000 newborns per site, and a subset of at least 200 mother-child pairs per site for biomonitoring. Novel biomarkers of exposure, susceptibility, and effect will be applied, to gain better mechanistic insight. Effects of multiple environmental exposures on fetal and child growth, respiratory, allergic, immunologic, and neurodevelopmental health outcomes will be estimated. Parent's willingness to pay for reducing health risks in children will be elicited by survey, while values of cost-of-illness will be gathered from literature and national statistics. Effects of risk reducing interventions will be examined. CONCLUSIONS: The proposed project would provide novel estimates of the burden of early childhood diseases attributable to environmental exposures and assess health impacts of different intervention scenarios in the Danube Region, in an integrated approach combining human biomonitoring, epidemiological and social science research.
- MeSH
- Child MeSH
- Environmental Health economics methods MeSH
- Humans MeSH
- Maternal Exposure MeSH
- Environmental Monitoring methods MeSH
- Infant, Newborn MeSH
- Child, Preschool MeSH
- Prospective Studies MeSH
- Public Health economics methods MeSH
- Environmental Exposure adverse effects analysis statistics & numerical data MeSH
- Child Development MeSH
- Fetal Development MeSH
- Health Status MeSH
- Environmental Pollution adverse effects analysis statistics & numerical data MeSH
- Check Tag
- Child MeSH
- Humans MeSH
- Male MeSH
- Infant, Newborn MeSH
- Child, Preschool MeSH
- Female MeSH
- Publication type
- Journal Article MeSH
- Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't MeSH
- Review MeSH
- Geographicals
- Europe MeSH
Aims: Impact of potentially toxic elements (PTE) on the health status of population of the Slovak Republic has been studied in two historical mining areas with ore extraction from Middle Ages (the Middle Slovak Neovolcanics, the Slovak Ore Mts.) and one historical mining area with more than hundred years brown coal mining (Upper Nitra region). Methods: The contents of PTE were analysed in groundwater/ drinking water and soils. The health status of resident population was evaluated based on 43 health indicators classified according to the international classi- fication of diseases (ICD, 10th revision), including mainly those indicators characterizing mortality on cardiovascular and oncological diseases. In these areas the health status of population living in municipalities with increased PTE contents (As, Pb, Zn, Cu, Cd, Hg and Sb) was compared with that in adjacent municipalities showing low PTE contents.
- MeSH
- Water Pollution, Chemical analysis statistics & numerical data MeSH
- Geological Phenomena MeSH
- Geologic Sediments MeSH
- Mining * MeSH
- Cardiovascular Diseases mortality MeSH
- Soil Pollutants analysis MeSH
- Water Pollutants analysis MeSH
- Humans MeSH
- Neoplasms mortality MeSH
- Drinking Water chemistry MeSH
- Groundwater chemistry MeSH
- Industrial Waste MeSH
- Coal Mining MeSH
- Health Status Indicators MeSH
- Environmental Exposure * MeSH
- Environmental Pollution * analysis statistics & numerical data MeSH
- Check Tag
- Humans MeSH
- Publication type
- Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't MeSH
- Comparative Study MeSH
- Geographicals
- Slovakia MeSH
V současné době se definice zdraví člověka neomezuje jen na absenci nemocí nebo tělesných vad, ale je chápána jako stav úplné tělesné, duševní a sociální pohody. Dosáhnout takového stavu je však obtížné a rozhodně toho nelze dosáhnout bez zajištění takové kvality životního prostředí, kde hodnoty koncentrací člověkem vytvořených znečišťujících látek nemají významné dopady na lidské zdraví, resp. neznamenají pro lidské zdraví žádná nepřijatelná rizika. Výzkumy posledních let jasně ukazují, že mezi zdravím člověka a znečišťováním životního prostředí existuje kauzální souvislost a že zlepšení zdravotního stavu obyvatelstva nelze dosáhnout bez zlepšení životního prostředí, ve kterém lidé žijí, pracují, odpočívají a vykonávají řadu dalších aktivit. Nově se konstituující obor „environmentálního zdraví“ by se měl zabývat nejen studiem jednotlivých faktorů životního prostředí, které mají na lidské zdraví negativní či pozitivní účinek, ale měl by se především zabývat hodnocením zdravotních rizik. Tím se rozumí především posouzení míry závažnosti zátěže populace vystavené rizikovým faktorům životních a pracovních podmínek a způsobu života. V současné době existuje několik naléhavých problémů, kterými by se měla biomedicína ve vztahu k environmentálnímu zdraví zabývat a které souvisejí jak s globálními problémy životního prostředí, tak s problémy lokálními.
At present, the definition of the human health is not limited only to the absence of diseases or corporal disorders, it is interpreted as the state of complete corporal, mental and social well-being. To reach such a state is not easy though, and it is quite impossible to be reached without providing such environmental quality, where the concentration levels of pollution caused by human activity do not impact significantly human health, or rather they do not represent any unacceptable risks for the human health. Researches in the latest years clearly show the causal connection between human health and environmental pollution, and the impossibility to improve the health of the population without improving the environment where people live, work, rest and perform a plenty of other activities. The newly being constituted discipline of “environmental health” should deal not only with the studies of the particular environmental factors, that have a positive or a negative impact on human health, but should also deal with the evaluation of health risks. This is meant to be especially the assessment of the level and seriousness of the load the population exposed to the risk factors of the environment, work conditions and lifestyle faces. At present, there exist several exigent problems that biomedicine due to its relation to the environment should deal with, and that are related to the global environmental problems as well as to local problems.
- MeSH
- Arsenic adverse effects MeSH
- Food Safety MeSH
- Environmental Health * standards trends legislation & jurisprudence MeSH
- Radiologic Health MeSH
- Cadmium adverse effects MeSH
- Humans MeSH
- Lead adverse effects MeSH
- Drinking Water MeSH
- Radon adverse effects MeSH
- Risk Factors MeSH
- Mercury adverse effects MeSH
- Volatile Organic Compounds adverse effects MeSH
- Health MeSH
- Environment and Public Health standards legislation & jurisprudence MeSH
- Environment MeSH
- Water Pollution prevention & control legislation & jurisprudence MeSH
- Environmental Pollution * prevention & control statistics & numerical data legislation & jurisprudence MeSH
- Check Tag
- Humans MeSH
- Publication type
- Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't MeSH
- Review MeSH
The human diet is recognised as one possible major exposure route to the overall perfluorinated alkylated substances (PFAS) burden of the human population, resulting directly from contamination of dietary food items, as well as migration of PFAS from food packaging or cookware. Most European countries carry out national monitoring programs (food basket studies) to monitor contamination with pollutants. Usually, for PFASs, non-coordinated approaches are used in Europe, since food basket studies are mainly carried out by national authorities following national requirements and questions, making comparisons between different countries difficult. A harmonised sampling campaign collecting similar food items in a uniform procedure enabling direct comparison between different regions in Europe was designed. We selected four countries (Belgium, Czech Republic, Italy and Norway), representing the four regions of Europe: West, East, South and North. In spring 2010 and 2011, 20 different types of vegetables were sampled in Belgium, Czech Republic, Italy and Norway. Perfluorinated carboxylic acids (PFCAs) were the main group of detected PFASs, with perfluorinated octanoic acid (PFOA) as the most abundant PFCA (with exception of samples from Czech Republic), followed by perfluorinated hexanoic acid and perfluorinated nonanoic acid. Dietary intake estimates for PFOA show only low human exposure due to vegetable consumption for adults and children, mostly governed by high intake of potatoes.
- MeSH
- Diet statistics & numerical data MeSH
- Child MeSH
- Adult MeSH
- Fluorocarbons analysis MeSH
- Soil Pollutants analysis MeSH
- Humans MeSH
- Hazardous Substances analysis MeSH
- Environmental Exposure analysis statistics & numerical data MeSH
- Vegetables chemistry MeSH
- Environmental Pollution statistics & numerical data MeSH
- Check Tag
- Child MeSH
- Adult MeSH
- Humans MeSH
- Publication type
- Journal Article MeSH
- Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't MeSH
- Geographicals
- Belgium MeSH
- Czech Republic MeSH
- Italy MeSH
- Norway MeSH
- Keywords
- SOS Chromotest, Ames test,
- MeSH
- Escherichia coli K12 genetics MeSH
- Carcinogens, Environmental toxicity MeSH
- Air Pollutants adverse effects MeSH
- Humans MeSH
- Environmental Monitoring * methods standards MeSH
- Mutation genetics MeSH
- Particulate Matter adverse effects MeSH
- Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons adverse effects MeSH
- DNA Damage MeSH
- Salmonella typhimurium genetics MeSH
- Mutagenicity Tests * MeSH
- Air Pollution * analysis statistics & numerical data MeSH
- Environmental Pollution prevention & control statistics & numerical data adverse effects MeSH
- Check Tag
- Humans MeSH
- Publication type
- Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't MeSH
- Geographicals
- Czech Republic MeSH
Ochrana ovzduší, ISSN 1211-0337 23(43), příloha, 2011
24 s. : il., tab. ; 30 cm
- MeSH
- Databases, Factual MeSH
- Environmental Monitoring MeSH
- Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons analysis MeSH
- Volatile Organic Compounds analysis MeSH
- Metals, Heavy analysis MeSH
- Environment Design MeSH
- Air Pollution analysis statistics & numerical data MeSH
- Environmental Pollution analysis statistics & numerical data MeSH
- Conspectus
- Životní prostředí a jeho ochrana
- NML Fields
- environmentální vědy
- NML Publication type
- studie
