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"Pollution research"
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Potentially toxic elements in groundwater: a hotspot research topic in environmental science and pollution research
A scientometric analysis based on the Scopus database was conducted to provide insight into research activities on the occurrence of potentially toxic elements (PTEs) (As, Cd, Co, Cr, Cu, Hg, Ni, Pb, Sb, and Zn) in groundwater during 1970–2019. The selection of these PTEs was based on their significance concerning their reference frequency in environmental science and pollution research (ESPR) studies and their toxicity to living organisms. The analysis utilizes data about the quantity, type, journal, geographical, institutional, and funding patterns of publications. The results indicate that the publications’ annual output has increased over the years, and especially after 2000, it presents a remarkable growth rate. The most studied PTEs were As and Pb; nevertheless, the research on the rest of PTEs cannot be neglected as it shows continuously increasing trends over time. The evolution of instrumentation and the dissemination of contamination case studies that affect a large part of the world population contributed significantly to the scientific community and relative stakeholders’ interest. According to the analysis, the USA and China are the two principal countries with the most considerable contribution, producing the most research regarding the number of publications, research institutions, and funding sponsors. China owns the most influential research institution (i.e., Chinese Academy of Sciences) and largest funding sponsor (i.e., National Natural Science Foundation of China; ≈5% of global funding) on a worldwide scale due to its investment in research and development (R&D) and is expected to become the greatest force in the future.
Journal Article
Poisonous skies : acid rain and the globalization of pollution
Poisonous Skies explores how scientists and policymakers came to grasp the danger fossil fuels posed to the global environment by looking at the first air pollution problem identified as having damaging effects on areas far from the source of emissions: acid rain. This is the first history to investigate acid rain in an international context, spanning from its identification in the 1960s to the present day. The story Rachel Emma Rothschild unfurls reveals how a legacy of military sponsorship of physics, chemistry, and other fields during wartime influenced the direction of research on the environment; the importance of environmental diplomacy to the d tente process of the Cold War; the role of the British and American coal industries in environmental science; and finally, how acid rain shaped ideas about environmental risk and the precautionary principle. Grounded in archival research in eight different countries and five languages as well as interviews with leading scientists from both government and industry, Poisonous Skies should interest anyone seeking to learn from our past in order to better understand and approach the environmental crises of our present day.
Book
Estimates of non-traditional secondary organic aerosols from aircraft SVOC and IVOC emissions using CMAQ
Utilizing an aircraft-specific parameterization based on smog chamber data in the Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model with the volatility basis set (VBS), we estimated contributions of non-traditional secondary organic aerosols (NTSOA) for aircraft emissions during landing and takeoff (LTO) activities at the Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport. NTSOA, formed from the oxidation of semi-volatile and intermediate volatility organic compounds (S/IVOCs), is a heretofore unaccounted component of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) in most air quality models. We expanded a prerelease version of CMAQ with VBS implemented for the Carbon Bond 2005 (CB05) chemical mechanism to use the Statewide Air Pollution Research Center 2007 (SAPRC-07) chemical mechanism and added species representing aircraft S/IVOCs and corresponding NTSOA oxidation products. Results indicated that the maximum monthly average NTSOA contributions occurred at the airport and ranged from 2.4 ng m−3 (34 % from idle and 66 % from non-idle aircraft activities) in January to 9.1 ng m−3 (33 and 67 %) in July. This represents 1.7 % (of 140 ng m−3) in January and 7.4 % in July (of 122 ng m−3) of aircraft-attributable PM2.5 compared to 41.0–42.0 % from elemental carbon and 42.8–58.0 % from inorganic aerosols. As a percentage of PM2.5, impacts were higher downwind of the airport, where NTSOA averaged 4.6–17.9 % of aircraft-attributable PM2.5 and, considering alternative aging schemes, was as high as 24.0 % – thus indicating the increased contribution of aircraft-attributable SOA as a component of PM2.5. However, NTSOA contributions were generally low compared to smog chamber results, particularly at idle, due to the considerably lower ambient organic aerosol concentrations in CMAQ compared to those in the smog chamber experiments.
Journal Article
Exposure to outdoor air pollution and its human health outcomes: A scoping review
Despite considerable air pollution prevention and control measures that have been put into practice in recent years, outdoor air pollution remains one of the most important risk factors for health outcomes. To identify the potential research gaps, we conducted a scoping review focused on health outcomes affected by outdoor air pollution across the broad research area. Of the 5759 potentially relevant studies, 799 were included in the final analysis. The included studies showed an increasing publication trend from 1992 to 2008, and most of the studies were conducted in Asia, Europe, and North America. Among the eight categorized health outcomes, asthma (category: respiratory diseases) and mortality (category: health records) were the most common ones. Adverse health outcomes involving respiratory diseases among children accounted for the largest group. Out of the total included studies, 95.2% reported at least one statistically positive result, and only 0.4% showed ambiguous results. Based on our study, we suggest that the time frame of the included studies, their disease definitions, and the measurement of personal exposure to outdoor air pollution should be taken into consideration in any future research. The main limitation of this study is its potential language bias, since only English publications were included. In conclusion, this scoping review provides researchers and policy decision makers with evidence taken from multiple disciplines to show the increasing prevalence of outdoor air pollution and its adverse effects on health outcomes.
Journal Article
Global sources of local pollution
Recent advances in air pollution monitoring and modeling capabilities have made it possible to show that air pollution can be transported long distances and that adverse impacts of emitted pollutants cannot be confined to one country or even one continent.
eBook
Two communities, one highway and the fight for clean air: the role of political history in shaping community engagement and environmental health research translation
Background
This paper explores strategies to engage community stakeholders in efforts to address the effects of traffic-related air pollution (TRAP). Communities of color and low-income communities are disproportionately impacted by environmental threats including emissions generated by major roadways.
Methods
Qualitative instrumental case study design was employed to examine how community-level factors in two Massachusetts communities, the City of Somerville and Boston’s Chinatown neighborhood, influence the translation of research into practice to address TRAP exposure. Guided by the Interactive Systems Framework (ISF), we drew on three data sources: key informant interviews, observations and document reviews. Thematic analysis was used.
Results
Findings indicate political history plays a significant role in shaping community action. In Somerville, community organizers worked with city and state officials, and embraced community development strategies to engage residents. In contrast, Chinatown community activists focused on immediate resident concerns including housing and resident displacement resulting in more opposition to local municipal leadership.
Conclusions
The ISF was helpful in informing the team’s thinking related to systems and structures needed to translate research to practice. However, although municipal stakeholders are increasingly sympathetic to and aware of the health impacts of TRAP, there was not a local legislative or regulatory precedent on how to move some of the proposed TRAP-related policies into practice. As such, we found that pairing the ISF with a community organizing framework may serve as a useful approach for examining the dynamic relationship between science, community engagement and environmental research translation. Social workers and public health professionals can advance TRAP exposure mitigation by exploring the political and social context of communities and working to bridge research and community action.
Journal Article