Articles

The radiological assessment, hazard evaluation, and spatial distribution for a hypothetical nuclear power plant accident at Baiji potential site

The safety assessment in site selection for a new nuclear power plant is an essential issue for human health. It could be improved by predicting the consequences for a hypothetical accident. This paper is cont...

Authors: Ismael Mohammed Mohammed Saeed, Muneer Aziz Mohammed Saleh, Suhairul Hashim, Younis Mohammed Salih Hama, Khaidzir Hamza and Shwan Hassan Al-Shatri

Persistent, mobile and toxic substances in the environment: a spotlight on current research and regulatory activities

Certain persistent and polar substances may pose a hazard to drinking water resources. To foster the knowledge exchange in this field the Working Group Environmental Monitoring of the German Chemical Society (GDC...

Authors: Heinz Rüdel, Wolfgang Körner, Thomas Letzel, Michael Neumann, Karsten Nödler and Thorsten Reemtsma

Regulating water reuse for agricultural irrigation: risks related to organic micro-contaminants

In recent years, more and more countries see irrigation using reclaimed water as an opportunity to secure and enhance agricultural production. Despite the benefits of water reuse, the scientific community rais...

Authors: Manuela Helmecke, Elke Fries and Christoph Schulte

Chemical surveillance in freshwaters: small sample sizes underestimate true pollutant loads and fail to detect environmental quality standard exceedances

Chemical surveillance in surface waters is crucial to identify potential threats to the health of freshwater ecosystems. Usually, the concentrations of pollutants are highly variable over the course of the yea...

Authors: Denise Babitsch and Andrea Sundermann

The activation of antioxidant and apoptosis pathways involved in damage of human proximal tubule epithelial cells by PM_2.5 exposure

Exposure to airborne fine particulate matter (PM_2.5) has been reported to be harmful to the human kidney. However, whether the activation of oxidative stress and cell apoptosis plays key roles in the nephrotoxici...

Authors: Xiaoliu Huang, Xiujuan Shi, Ji Zhou, Sen Li, Lijuan Zhang, Huijun Zhao, Xingya Kuang and Jue Li

Relationship between agricultural pesticides and the diet of riparian spiders in the field

Examining the effects of pesticides is difficult in regions such as Western Europe because of the relatively ubiquitous use of agrochemicals and the lack of unaffected areas. To study a wide gradient of agroch...

Authors: Nadin Graf, Karina P. Battes, Mirela Cimpean, Martin H. Entling, Katharina Frisch, Moritz Link, Andreas Scharmüller, Verena C. Schreiner, Eduard Szöcs, Jochen P. Zubrod and Ralf B. Schäfer

Certainties and uncertainties in accessing toxicity of non-extractable residues (NER) in soil

Discussion concerning the bioavailability and ecotoxicological relevance of non-extractable residues (NER) in soil is still ongoing. Is NER formation a detoxification process or a hidden hazard? The use of rad...

Authors: Joop Harmsen, Dieter Hennecke, Kerstin Hund-Rinke, Joost Lahr and John Deneer

Assessing the ecological impact of chemical pollution on aquatic ecosystems requires the systematic exploration and evaluation of four lines of evidence

The aim of the European Water Framework Directive is to ensure good ecological status for all European surface waters. However, although current monitoring strategies aim to identify the presence and magnitude...

Authors: Thomas Backhaus, Werner Brack, Paul J. Van den Brink, Björn Deutschmann, Henner Hollert, Leo Posthuma, Helmut Segner, Thomas-Benjamin Seiler, Ivana Teodorovic and Andreas Focks

Korean consumers’ awareness of the risks of chemicals in daily consumer products

Recent tragic accidents due to the use of humidifier disinfectants have caused severe distrust and anxiety over chemicals in consumer products in Korea. Therefore, a survey was conducted to determine consumer ...

Authors: Seunghye Sim, Jeongsu Lee, Yoonhee Uhm, Soonbok Kim, Eun Jeong Han, KeunOh Choi, Junyeong Choi, Q-man Ban, Taeje Cho, Augustine Yonghwi Kim, Dong Il Lee, Eunkyung Lim and YoungJoo Lee

Implementation of the Minamata Convention to manage mercury pollution in India: challenges and opportunities

The Minamata Convention (MC), a multilateral environmental agreement (MEA), aims to protect human health and the environment from anthropogenic emissions and releases of mercury and its compounds. The success ...

Authors: Brij Mohan Sharma, Girija K. Bharat, Kateřina Šebková and Martin Scheringer

Estimation of greenhouse gas emission factors based on observed covariance of CO₂, CH₄, N₂O and CO mole fractions

Covariances among major anthropogenic greenhouse gases were studied during three cold-air pool episodes in the Pannonian Basin to better constrain their emission factors for Europe.

Authors: László Haszpra, Zita Ferenczi and Zoltán Barcza

Characterization of residential household dust from Shanghai by particle size and analysis of organophosphorus flame retardants and metals

Physical and biological properties of dust particles might affect the availability and distribution of chemicals associated to indoor dust; however it has not been adequately examined. In this study, household...

Authors: Li Li, Yanling Qiu, Åsa Gustafsson, Annette M. Krais, Jana M. Weiss, Thomas Lundh and Åke Bergman

Costs and benefits of agricultural ammonia emission abatement options for compliance with European air quality regulations

In Europe, ammonia (NH₃) emissions strongly contribute to fine particulate matter (PM2.5) pollution and associated premature human mortality. The National Emission Ceilings Directive 2016/2284/EU has set an oblig...

Authors: Elias Giannakis, Jonilda Kushta, Adriana Bruggeman and Jos Lelieveld

Insufficient risk assessment of herbicide-tolerant genetically engineered soybeans intended for import into the EU

The introduction of herbicide-tolerant (HT) genetically engineered (GE) soybeans has raised new challenges for the European risk assessment of imported food and feed. Food and feed products derived from these ...

Authors: Juliana Miyazaki, Andreas Bauer-Panskus, Thomas Bøhn, Wolfram Reichenbecher and Christoph Then

Evaluating the ecotoxicity of nitrification inhibitors using terrestrial and aquatic test organisms

The increasing demand for food and animal fodder worldwide has led to an intensified agriculture with an increasing use of nitrogen fertilizers. More recently, nitrate leaching and gaseous nitrogen emissions h...

Authors: Julia Elli Kösler, Olga C. Calvo, Jürgen Franzaring and Andreas Fangmeier

Validating the map of current semi-natural ecosystem types in Germany and their upscaling using the Kellerwald-Edersee National Park as an example

Implementation Action 5 of the EU Biodiversity Strategy to 2020 includes that Member States map and assess the state of ecosystems and their services in their national territory. A fundamental component of the...

Authors: Stefan Nickel, Winfried Schröder and Barbara Völksen

Climate effects on the onset of flowering in the United Kingdom

A warmer climate has consequences for the timing of phenological events, as temperature is a key factor controlling plant development and flowering. In this study, we analyse the effects of the long-term clima...

Authors: Nigel Fox and Anna Maria Jönsson

Hypo- or hyperactivity of zebrafish embryos provoked by neuroactive substances: a review on how experimental parameters impact the predictability of behavior changes

Tests with zebrafish embryos have gained wide acceptance as an alternative test model for drug development and toxicity testing. In particular, the behavioral response of the zebrafish embryo is currently seen...

Authors: Afolarin Ogungbemi, David Leuthold, Stefan Scholz and Eberhard Küster

Food-related exposure to systemic pesticides and pesticides from transgenic plants: evaluation of aquatic test strategies

The aquatic Environmental Risk Assessment (ERA) for pesticides relies on standardized experimental protocols focusing on exposure via the water phase or the sediment. Systemic pesticides (e.g., neonicotinoids)...

Authors: Rebecca Bundschuh, Mirco Bundschuh, Mathias Otto and Ralf Schulz

Evaluation of microbial shifts caused by a silver nanomaterial: comparison of four test systems

Before chemicals, pesticides and biocides are registered and approved, their effects on soil microorganisms must be tested, specifically their impact on nitrogen transformation. Following a request from the Eu...

Authors: Kerstin Hund-Rinke, Anna Hümmler, Ruben Schlinkert, Franziska Wege and Gabriele Broll

Freshwater ecosystems profit from activated carbon-based wastewater treatment across various levels of biological organisation in a short timeframe

Wastewater treatment plants are known as major sources for the release of micropollutants and bacteria into surface waters. To reduce this contaminant and microbial input, new technologies for effluent treatme...

Authors: Rita Triebskorn, Ludek Blaha, Claudia Gallert, Sabrina Giebner, Harald Hetzenauer, Heinz-R. Köhler, Bertram Kuch, Frauke Lüddeke, Jörg Oehlmann, Katharina Peschke, Frank Sacher, Marco Scheurer, Simon Schwarz, Paul Thellmann, Karl Wurm and Sabrina Wilhelm

Linking biological toxicity and the spectral characteristics of contamination in seriously polluted urban rivers

Urban river pollution risks to environments and human health are emerging as a serious concern worldwide. With the aim to achieve the health of urban river ecosystem, numerous monitoring programs have been imp...

Authors: Zhongli Chen, Zihan Zhu, Jiyu Song, Ruiyan Liao, Yufan Wang, Xi Luo, Dongya Nie, Yumeng Lei, Ying Shao and Wei Yang

Multiple physiological response analyses aid the understanding of sensitivity variation between Microcystis aeruginosa and Chlorella sp. under paraquat exposures

Sensitivity differences to chemical pollutants in different phytoplankton species may potentially shape the community structure of phytoplankton. However, detailed information supporting the understanding of s...

Authors: Fang Bai, Yunlu Jia, Cuiping Yang, Tianli Li, Zhongxing Wu, Jin Liu and Lirong Song

A novel family of PLAC8 motif-containing/PCR genes mediates Cd tolerance and Cd accumulation in rice

Cd is one of the highly toxic heavy metals to most organisms, including humans and plants, and Cd-contaminated rice from China has become a global food safety issue. The early prediction of OsPCR (the plant ca...

Authors: Feijuan Wang, Haifeng Tan, Jiahui Han, Yiting Zhang, Xigeduleng He, Yanfei Ding, ZhiXiang Chen and Cheng Zhu

Occurrence and distribution of antibiotic resistance genes in the water and sediments of Qingcaosha Reservoir, Shanghai, China

Qingcaosha Reservoir is China’s largest river impoundment and an important drinking water resource for Shanghai city. Although antibiotics contamination in the reservoir has been reported, little is known abou...

Authors: Zhifeng Huang, Wanting Zhao, Ting Xu, Binghui Zheng and Daqiang Yin

Correlating elements content in mosses collected in 2015 across Germany with spatially associated characteristics of sampling sites and their surroundings

The aim of the study was a statistical evaluation of the statistical relevance of potentially explanatory variables (atmospheric deposition, meteorology, geology, soil, topography, sampling, vegetation structu...

Authors: Stefan Nickel and Winfried Schröder

Assessment of mercury pollution sources in beach sand and coastal soil by speciation analysis

An essential requisite for controlling and monitoring mercury in the environment is to identify its species in different types of soils and sediments, as this will help not only to establish its mobility in th...

Authors: José Luis R. Gallego, Maria Antonia López-Antón, Deva Martínez de la Rosa, Eduardo Rodríguez-Valdés, Nerea García-González, Elena Rodríguez and Maria Rosa Martínez-Tarazona

Moss species-specific accumulation of atmospheric deposition?

This article presents statistical analyses of elements concentrations in mosses collected in two monitoring programmes: 1. The German moss monitoring as part of the European Moss Survey conducted in 1990, 1995...

Authors: Winfried Schröder and Stefan Nickel

Correction to: Assessing the leaching behavior of different gunshot materials in natural spring waters

The authors note a correction to the original article [1]. Table 3 legend is incorrectly processed. This article presents the corrected version of Table 3.

Authors: Julian Fäth and Axel Göttlein

Towards a reliable prediction of the aquatic toxicity of dyes

The Max Weaver Dye Library (MWDL) from North Carolina State University is a repository of around 98,000 synthetic dyes. Historically, the uses for these dyes included the coloration of textiles, paper, packagi...

Authors: Gisela de A. Umbuzeiro, Anjaina F. Albuquerque, Francine I. Vacchi, Malgorzata Szymczyk, Xinyi Sui, Reza Aalizadeh, Peter C. von der Ohe, Nikolaos S. Thomaidis, Nelson R. Vinueza and Harold S. Freeman

Groundwater and connected ecosystems: an overview of groundwater body status assessment in Croatia

Croatia, as a Member State of the European Union, has to shape its water policy in accordance with the European Union Water Framework Directive. One of the tasks is to determine whether groundwater are suscept...

Authors: Željka Brkić, Mladen Kuhta, Ozren Larva and Sanja Gottstein

Solutions for present and future emerging pollutants in land and water resources management. Policy briefs summarizing scientific project results for decision makers

Authors: Werner Brack

Exploring the ‘solution space’ is key: SOLUTIONS recommends an early-stage assessment of options to protect and restore water quality against chemical pollution

Present evaluations of chemical pollution in European surface and groundwater bodies focus on problem description and chemical classification of water quality. Surprisingly, relatively low attention has been p...

Authors: Leo Posthuma, Thomas Backhaus, Juliane Hollender, Dirk Bunke, Werner Brack, Christin Müller, Jos van Gils, Henner Hollert, John Munthe and Annemarie van Wezel

The European Collaborative Project SOLUTIONS developed models to provide diagnostic and prognostic capacity and fill data gaps for chemicals of emerging concern

The European Union Water Framework Directives aims at achieving good ecological status in member states’ water bodies. Insufficient ecological status could be the result of different interacting stressors, amo...

Authors: Jos van Gils, Leo Posthuma, Ian T. Cousins, Claudia Lindim, Dick de Zwart, Dirk Bunke, Stela Kutsarova, Christin Müller, John Munthe, Jaroslav Slobodnik and Werner Brack

Mixtures of chemicals are important drivers of impacts on ecological status in European surface waters

The ecological status of European surface waters may be affected by multiple stressors including exposure to chemical mixtures. Currently, two different approaches are used separately to inform water quality m...

Authors: Leo Posthuma, Werner Brack, Jos van Gils, Andreas Focks, Christin Müller, Dick de Zwart and Sebastian Birk

Improved component-based methods for mixture risk assessment are key to characterize complex chemical pollution in surface waters

The present monitoring and assessment of water quality problems fails to characterize the likelihood that complex mixtures of chemicals affect water quality. The European collaborative project SOLUTIONS sugges...

Authors: Leo Posthuma, Rolf Altenburger, Thomas Backhaus, Andreas Kortenkamp, Christin Müller, Andreas Focks, Dick de Zwart and Werner Brack

Mixture risks threaten water quality: the European Collaborative Project SOLUTIONS recommends changes to the WFD and better coordination across all pieces of European chemicals legislation to improve protection from exposure of the aquatic environment to multiple pollutants

Evidence is mounting that chemicals can produce joint toxicity even when combined at levels that singly do not pose risks. Environmental Quality Standards (EQS) defined for single pollutants under the Water Fr...

Authors: Andreas Kortenkamp, Michael Faust, Thomas Backhaus, Rolf Altenburger, Martin Scholze, Christin Müller, Sibylle Ermler, Leo Posthuma and Werner Brack

The RiBaTox web tool: selecting methods to assess and manage the diverse problem of chemical pollution in surface waters

Chemical pollution of water bodies is a complex problem around the globe. When described by the extremes of the range of problem definitions, water bodies can be chemically polluted by a single compound that i...

Authors: Kees J. M. Kramer, Frank Sleeuwaert, Guy Engelen, Christin Müller, Werner Brack and Leo Posthuma

A holistic approach is key to protect water quality and monitor, assess and manage chemical pollution of European surface waters

Chemical pollution of surface waters is a societal concern around the globe. Key problems in current water quality protection, assessment and management are the narrow focus on a small fraction of the chemical...

Authors: Leo Posthuma, John Munthe, Jos van Gils, Rolf Altenburger, Christin Müller, Jaroslav Slobodnik and Werner Brack

Prioritisation of water pollutants: the EU Project SOLUTIONS proposes a methodological framework for the integration of mixture risk assessments into prioritisation procedures under the European Water Framework Directive

Current prioritisation procedures under the EU Water Framework Directive (WFD) do not account for risks from chemical mixtures. SOLUTIONS proposes a multiple-lines-of-evidence approach to tackle the problem ef...

Authors: Michael Faust, Thomas Backhaus, Rolf Altenburger, Valeria Dulio, Jos van Gils, Antoni Ginebreda, Andreas Kortenkamp, John Munthe, Leo Posthuma, Jaroslav Slobodnik, Knut Erik Tollefsen, Annemarie van Wezel and Werner Brack

Establish data infrastructure to compile and exchange environmental screening data on a European scale

Robust techniques based on liquid (LC) and gas chromatography (GC) coupled with high-resolution mass spectrometry (HR-MS) enable sensitive screening, identification, and (semi)quantification of thousands of su...

Authors: Jaroslav Slobodnik, Juliane Hollender, Tobias Schulze, Emma L. Schymanski and Werner Brack

Increase coherence, cooperation and cross-compliance of regulations on chemicals and water quality

An analysis of existing regulatory frameworks for chemicals reveals a fragmented situation with a number of regulatory frameworks designed for specific groups of chemicals; for protection of different end-poin...

Authors: John Munthe, Jenny Lexén, Tina Skårman, Leo Posthuma, Werner Brack, Rolf Altenburger, Eva Brorström-Lundén, Dirk Bunke, Michael Faust, Magnus Rahmberg, Frank Sleeuwaert, Jaroslav Slobodnik, Jos van Gils and Annemarie van Wezel

Strengthen the European collaborative environmental research to meet European policy goals for achieving a sustainable, non-toxic environment

To meet the United Nations (UN) sustainable development goals and the European Union (EU) strategy for a non-toxic environment, water resources and ecosystems management require cost-efficient solutions for p...

Authors: Werner Brack, Selim Ait-Aissa, Thomas Backhaus, Sebastian Birk, Damià Barceló, Rob Burgess, Ian Cousins, Valeria Dulio, Beate I. Escher, Andreas Focks, Jos van Gils, Antoni Ginebreda, Daniel Hering, L. Mark Hewitt, Klára Hilscherová, Juliane Hollender…

High-resolution mass spectrometry to complement monitoring and track emerging chemicals and pollution trends in European water resources

Currently, chemical monitoring based on priority substances fails to consider the majority of known environmental micropollutants not to mention the unexpected and unknown chemicals that may contribute to the ...

Authors: Werner Brack, Juliane Hollender, Miren López de Alda, Christin Müller, Tobias Schulze, Emma Schymanski, Jaroslav Slobodnik and Martin Krauss

Seasonal distribution, gas–particle partitioning and inhalation exposure of brominated flame retardants (BFRs) in gas and particle phases

Atmosphere is one of the sources and sinks to gas- and particle-bound brominated flame retardants (BFRs). Therefore, BFRs can enter human body via inhalation. In the present study, 79 of gas- and particle-phas...

Authors: Yuan Meng, Hongli Zhang, Yanling Qiu, Xinyu Du, Dong Niu, Zhibo Lu, Zhiliang Zhu, Jianfu Zhao and Daqiang Yin

Ensuring sustainability in plastics use in Africa: consumption, waste generation, and projections

Currently, plastic is at the top of the international agenda for waste management. Recent meetings of the Conferences of the Parties to the Basel and the Stockholm Conventions have expressed concerns over the ...

Authors: Joshua O. Babayemi, Innocent C. Nnorom, Oladele Osibanjo and Roland Weber

The accessibility of data on environmental risk assessment of pharmaceuticals: Is the marketing authorisation procedure in conflict with the international right of access to environmental information?

For a large part of the active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) available on the market, there is no or no comprehensive environmental risk assessment (ERA) existent/available. Existing ERAs are, moreover, tr...

Authors: Kim Oelkers and Carolin Floeter

Prediction of fecal indicator organism concentrations in rivers: the shifting role of environmental factors under varying flow conditions

Fecal indicator organisms such as Escherichia coli, enterococci, and coliphages are important to assess, monitor, and predict microbial water quality in natural freshwater ecosystems. To improve predictive modell...

Authors: Ilona Herrig, Wolfgang Seis, Helmut Fischer, Julia Regnery, Werner Manz, Georg Reifferscheid and Simone Böer

Assessing the leaching behavior of different gunshot materials in natural spring waters

Owing to the high environmental risk of lead-based gunshot, especially as the main source of acute lead poisoning in waterfowl, restrictions on its use in European wetlands are being put into place. In order t...

Authors: Julian Fäth and Axel Göttlein

Relevance of body weight effects for the population development of common voles and its significance in regulatory risk assessment of pesticides in the European Union

The common vole (Microtus arvalis) is typically the wild mammal species driving regulatory pesticide risk assessment (RA) in Europe. The risk assessment endpoint for wild mammals is taken from the studies conduct...

Authors: Magnus Wang, Markus Ebeling and Jörg Hahne