Suchergebnisse

Over the past few decades, many countries have issued legislation for risk based management of contaminated soils, sediments and water. Establishing appropriate guidelines for risk based management of antimony contaminated environments is of great importance due to its toxicological properties. Antimony (Sb) is a toxic metalloid with a wide range of industrial applications that can cause adverse effects on natural ecosystems and human health. There are numerous soil and water national and international toxicity guidelines, legislation and clean up target values for evaluating the risks and health hazards associated with Sb contaminated soils and water. Although they are not accurate definitive indices of environmental hazards, they can be used as a surrogate tool for estimating harmful effects of contaminants. In this summary report, five common soil and sediment toxicity guidelines set by the USA, Canada, Australia, the Netherlands and Finland as well as some of water toxicity guidelines and their derivation methods are compared. There are, however, substantial variations between toxicity threshold values due to the different scientific bases, software models and ecotoxicological criteria used for developing these guidelines. It is evident from the literature that site specific factors e.g. redox potential, pH and ageing may greatly affect the environmental availability of Sb. Hence, establishing universally acceptable regulatory guidelines and toxicity essays with an array of bioavailability based approach and site specific considerations would greatly improve the reliability and robustness of the current techniques used for environmental management and remediation of contaminated soils.

AbstractExposure to air pollution is associated with increased cardio- and cerebrovascular diseases. However, the evidence regarding the short-term effect of air pollution on cardio- and cerebrovascular hospitalisations in areas with relatively low air pollution levels is limited. This study aims to examine the effect of short-term exposure to different air pollutants on hospital admissions due to cardio- and cerebrovascular diseases in rural and regional Australia with low air pollution. The study was conducted in five local Government areas of Hunter New England Local Health District (HNE-LHD). Hospitalisation data from January 2018 to February 2020 (820 days) were accessed from the HNE-LHD admitted patients' dataset. Poisson regression model was used to examine the association between the exposure (air pollutants) and outcome variables (hospitalisation due to cardio- and cerebrovascular disease). The concentrations of gaseous air pollutants, Sulphur Dioxide (SO2), Nitrogen Dioxide (NO2), Ozone (O3), Carbon Monoxide (CO), and Ammonia (NH3) were below national benchmark concentrations for every day of the study period. In single pollutant models, SO2 and NO2 significantly increased the daily number of cardio- and cerebrovascular hospitalisations. The highest cumulative effect for SO2 was observed across lag 0–3 days (Incidence Rate Ratio, IRR: 1.77; 95% Confidence Interval, CI: 1.18–2.65; p-value: 0.01), and for NO2, it was across lag 0–2 days (IRR: 1.13; 95% CI: 1.02–1.25; p-value: 0.02). In contrast, higher O3 was associated with decreased cardio- and cerebrovascular hospitalisations, with the largest effect observed at lag 0 (IRR: 0.94; 95% CI: 0.89–0.98; p-value: 0.02). In the multi-pollutant model, the effect of NO2 remained significant at lag 0 and corresponded to a 21% increase in cardio- and cerebrovascular hospitalisation (95% CI: 1–44%; p-value = 0.04). Thus, the study revealed that gaseous air pollutants, specifically NO2, were positively related to increased cardio- and cerebrovascular hospitalisations, even at concentrations below the national standards.