I am often reminded of the famous saying of Goethe: “Vedi Napoli e poi muori! - See Naples and die!”. Sadly, Naples is now confronted with a number of serious, ongoing problems with a need to ...alleviate pressure on the worsening environment. One serious problem facing the environment is the presence of the potentially hazardous persistent organic pollutants (POPs), although few systematic studies at regional scale have been conducted. In this study, samples of soil, air, and bulk deposition were collected in Naples metropolitan area (NMA) to characterize the status of POPs, including organochlorine pesticides (OCPs), polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). The results obtained showed that most of these compounds are pervasive in all the studied environmental matrices, especially in some hotspot areas, such as the Bagnoli Brownfield Site and the infamous “Triangle of the Death”, where unwanted ecological risk conditions for PAHs and Endosulfan were determined, respectively. The interactional complexity between urban and the surrounding rural areas was also confirmed, as is the role that urban areas play in the migration and transformation process of POPs. High urban-rural gradients for atmospheric PAHs and PCBs were observed in the NMA, and the urban areas were identified as the emission source of these contaminants. Similarly, the OCP residues, historically originated from the nearby agricultural regions, experience long-term soil re-emission and continuously influence the connected urban environment via atmospheric transport processes.
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•Presents systemic data on POP concentrations in a multimedia environment.•Urban areas were identified as the emission source of PAHs and PCBs.•Validates long-term soil re-emission of the OCP residues.•Identifies ongoing effects of “hotspots” on surrounding areas via atmospheric transport.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
Objectives. Higher natural concentrations of lithium in drinking water may be associated with lower local rates of suicide. Methods. Lithium concentrations in drinking water were assayed by mass ...spectrometry at 145 sites in Italy, and compared with reported local suicide rates for men and women between 1980 and 2011. Results. Lithium concentrations in drinking water averaged 5.28 CI: 4.08-6.48 μg/L (0.761 0.588-0.934 μEq/L) and ranged from 0.110 to 60.8 μg/L (1.58 to 8.76 μEq/L). Lithium concentrations and local suicide rates were not significantly inversely related, except in 1980-1989, particularly among women. Conclusions. A proposed association between trace lithium concentrations in drinking water and risk of suicide was only partially supported, and mechanisms for potential clinical effects of trace levels of lithium are unknown.
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IJS, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, UL, UM, UPUK
Ce, La and Y from agricultural (Ap) and grazing land (Gr) soils of Europe have been investigated using new geochemical data produced by the GEMAS (Geochemical mapping of agricultural and grazing land ...soils) project. Interpolated maps showing Ce, La, and Y distributions in Ap and Gr were generated using ArcView and classified with the concentration — area (CA) fractal method. The median values of the investigated elements show similar concentrations in Ap and Gr soils, while the median values obtained by XRF-total analyses are generally higher than those obtained by aqua regia extraction, ICP-MS (aqua regia). In general, high pH alkaline soils have higher REE concentrations while specific anomalies can often be correlated with known phosphate and REE mineralizations. The GEMAS and the topsoils media from the FOREGS (Forum of European Geological Surveys) Project databases are compared. FOREGS geochemical data shows larger extended anomalies, such as the European wide north–south division, which are difficult to attribute to local processes, while the GEMAS anomalies are spatially more restricted, and can be related to a number of more local factors (e.g., climate, geology, pH, clay content and presence of till).
► We present Ce, La, Y distribution in agricultural and grazing-land soils of Europe. ► We compare the GEMAS and top soils media from FOREGS datasets. ► We compare the Agriculture and grazing-land soils of Europe. ► The anomalies of Ce, La, and Y in Europe are described. ► Distributions of REEs mineralization and phosphate have been presented.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK
The Experimental Zooprophylactic Institute of Southern Italy (Istitituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale del Mezzogiorno, IZSM) is a public health institution operating within the Italian National ...Health Service. Over the past 5 years IZSM has promoted several research studies and interventions in an effort to tackle the ‘Land of Fires’ phenomenon, caused by the continued trafficking and uncontrolled incineration of waste that has affected some areas of Campania for decades. In this article, a mathematical model that generates a municipality index of environmental pressure is presented. The model was developed by a multidisciplinary team led by an environmental engineer and included researchers in the fields of veterinary and human medicine, biology and computer science. This model may serve as a geostratification tool useful for the design of human biomonitoring studies, although it may also be employed for strategic planning of remediation programs and public health interventions.
The complex environmental scenario of the ‘Land of Fires’ phenomenon is caused by the continued trafficking and uncontrolled incineration of waste, and has affected some areas of Campania in Italy for decades. In this article a mathematical model that generates a municipality index of environmental pressure is presented. This index may be used for the design of biomonitoring studies as well as for planning of remediation interventions.
This paper presents a different point of view on the conservation of the built heritage, adding ionizing radiation to the most well-known digital documentation dataset. Igneous building materials ...characterize most of the built heritage in the Campania region, and in a large part of southern Italy. The ionizing radiations proceeding from these materials can produce stochastic biological effects on the exposed living beings. The research team designed and tested a technical-scientific protocol to survey and analyse this natural phenomenon in association with the use of geological material for building purposes. Geographical Information Systems (GISs), City Information Modelling (CIM), and Building Information Modelling (BIM) are the digital tools used to manage the construction entities and their characteristics, and then to represent the thematic data as false-colour images. The emission spectra of fair-faced or plastered materials as a fingerprint of their nature is proposed as a non-invasive method. Due to both the huge presence of historical buildings and an intense touristic flow, the main square of Pompei has been selected as a study area.
In this work we compare the inorganic content of bottled mineral water, steadily increasing as a source of drinking water, and tap water which is often affected by intensive chemical treatment ...Bottled mineral water should be representative of the hydrogeochemical composition of groundwater, whereas tap water could derive from multiple sources such as groundwater or surface water including rivers and reservoirs. The data of this paper were collected within a project carried out by the EuroGeoSurvey Geochemistry Expert Group aimed at the characterization of groundwater geochemistry using bottled mineral waters purchased in supermarkets all over Europe which included also the analysis, for comparative purposes, of tap water.
The comparison of two extensive databases of 69 elements on 157 tap water samples and 178 bottled mineral waters on Italian territory enabled the recognition of very wide ranges of variation in both databases. The elements with the highest variation are Y, Li, U, I, HCO
3
−, Be, Yb, Tm, Zr, Lu, F, and Cs in the bottled mineral database and Ga, PO
4
3−, Zn, Mg, Ti, Th, Cd, Pb, and Cu in the tap water database. The first group of elements in bottled mineral water includes elements with localized very high concentration due to prolonged interaction with unusual rock types, whereas the second group of elements in tap water includes elements that are released by corrosion reaction with the material of the distributing systems. Aside from these differences, tap water displayed a much more restricted range of variation for major ions compared to bottled mineral water because of quality guidelines imposed by Italian Law for selected major ions (Ca, Cl
−, SO
4
2−).
Some elements do not display statistically different distributions between the two databases (As, Cr, I, Li, Mo, Rb, Sr, Se, U, V) and for some of these (e.g., Cr and V) non-natural sources cannot be excluded in both databases (e.g. pipeline corrosion or container leaching). The spatial distribution of the ionic species provides similar information as far as the role of geology, groundwater condition and, additional sources is concerned. Among the elements displaying significant differences, Al, Cd, Cu, Fe, Ni, Pb and Zn are strongly enriched in tap water samples, whereas Be, Cs, Sb, Sn and Tl are significantly enriched in the bottled mineral water. The group of elements enriched in tap water is controlled also by corrosion processes, so their spatial distribution is random and virtually unrelated to geological or geochemical conditions. Among the elements enriched in the bottled mineral water group, Sb derives from PET container leaching, whereas the other elements likely derive from water–rock interaction.
►The research compares bottled mineral water and tap water from Italy ►69 chemical parameters were analyzed in 157 tap water and 178 bottled mineral water ►Major element distribution limited in tap water compared to bottled mineral water ►As, Cr, I, Li, Mo, Rb, Se, U and V have similar distributions ►Distribution system cause tap water enrichment of Al, Cd, Cu, Fe, Ni, Pb and Zn
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK
An epidemiological environmental study was carried out on the Salerno province territory in the Southern Italy. Epidemiological data reporting the Standardized Incidence Ratio (SIR) of various cancer ...types in the local population and the distribution of some toxic metals in the stream sediments of the whole province were investigated to assess if any correlation between them could be stated.
Results showed that in correspondence with the areas markedly contaminated by heavy metals, there is a good spatial correlation between the incidence of some cancer types and the distribution patterns of contaminants. Specifically, in the Sarno River plain, where heavy metals are concentrated in sediments, cancer of lungs, liver and prostate always show values of SIRs generally higher than the most of the remaining provincial territory. The distribution of lung cancer shows a noticeable spatial correlation also with the distribution of the natural radioactivity especially across the Sarno River plain and its surroundings.
•Spatial distribution of cancer incidence and toxic metals was investigated.•Cancer incidence is higher in the areas markedly contaminated by toxic metals.•Lung cancer is spatially correlated with natural radioactivity.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK
Rivers can be sinks for potential toxic elements (PTEs) inputted in their systems by both natural and anthropic processes. Many indices have been proposed to assess the contamination degree of ...sediments and the environmental conditions of surficial water bodies. Above all, enrichment factor (EF) is the most used tool, but also it is the most debated for its limitations. The need for a reference element and for a background/baseline composition makes the EF method dependent on the researcher's expertise, implying that its repeatability may not be granted. Starting from the awareness that geochemical processes, bringing to compositional changes in the environmental matrices, involve multiple elements rather than individual variables, we developed a modified EF (mEF) based on the use of elemental associations. Different multivariate statistical methods (i.e. Robust Principal Component Analysis and Fuzzy Clustering), in a compositional data analysis (CoDA) perspective, were used to set all the terms of the mEF. The mEF was applied to 101 sediment samples collected from a 2 m-long core, covering a sedimentation period of about 150 years (1850–2007), located in the lower Changjiang River (China).
The method resulted effective in recognizing most of the signals proceeding from the main natural and anthropogenic events which affected the lower river basin in the considered timespan. The largest geochemical variations recorded fit well the flooding events occurred; besides, the effects produced on the system by the recent socio-economic development (following the end of the civil war in 1949 and the beginning of economic reforms in 1978) and the start-up of the Three Gorges Dam (the world's largest power station since 2012) were also intercepted.
The proposed method represents a step forward to enhance the effectiveness of the EF in discriminating geochemical anomalies that may be significant to assess the human historical impact on the environment.
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•Geochemical baselines were estimated through a multivariate statistical approach.•Ratios among groups of elements improved the assessment of the enrichment factor.•The most significant variations throughout the core are associated with flood events.•The increasing anthropic impact of recent years on the catchment was individuated.•The Three Gorges Dam's influence on sediment geochemistry was also recognized.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
An empirical method was applied to estimate the 222Rn fluxes distribution across the Campania region (Italy) by using both gamma-rays and U, Th, K concentrations in soils. As a first step, K, Th and ...U soil concentrations and 4 K, 238U and 232Th activity have been converted into their own specific activity to calculate the Terrestrial Gamma Dose Rate (TGDR). This latter has been then used to determine the 222Rn fluxes across the region. Regardless of the radiometric or geochemical origin, 222Rn fluxes reached, as expected, their maximum values in correspondence with the volcanic centres of Campania (Mt. Somma-Vesuvius, Phlegrean Fields, Mt. Roccamonfina). However, comparing the results obtained from the two different datasets, it was also possible to infer the existence of contributions to surficial 222Rn fluxes proceeding from both some underlying geological bodies and active seismogenic sources.
In line with some national regulations, the 222Rn flux esteemed from gamma radiations was also used to assess the possible regional distribution of risk deriving from the indoor environmental exposure to 222Rn; results were compared with standardized incidence rates (SIRs) of lung cancer for an area on the south-western sector of Mt. Somma-Vesuvius showing a potential spatial relationship among flux data and SIRs.
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•Elemental concentrations and activity values of radionuclides were used to calculate the terrestrial gamma dose rate (TGDR).•222Rn fluxes released from the ground were estimated using terrestrial gamma dose rate for Campania region (Italy).•Spatial patterns of 222Rn fluxes show connections with regional geolithological variability and some seismogenic sources.•222Rn fluxes from radiometric data were used to assess the risk.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
In the last decades, investigating geochemistry of sea sediments has been challenging in the eastern sector of Pozzuoli Bay, source of the metal(loid)s has been a matter of debate and the proposed ...origin of potentially toxic elements (PTEs) has been occasionally inconsistent. In this study, compositional data analysis (CoDA) was used because the results are independent of the measurement unit, the selected subgroup of elements and the order of chemicals in the dataset. The robust variant of principal component analysis (PCA) indicated that Hg, Cd, Cu, Pb and Zn were positively correlated with mud and organic matter in the sediments deposited in front of the former industrial site. Concentrations of these metals decrease along the cores and in the distal zone. Nevertheless, Al, As, V, Fe, Cr, Ni and sand form an association along the coast which strengthens with increasing distance from fumaroles in the proximal zone. It suggests that arsenic was mainly originated from the pyroclastic deposits of Campi Flegrei and some of the seepages with hydrothermal component, supported by low contribution of the variables in robust PCA of the sediments from distal zone. Therefore, this pioneering article suggests CoDA as a powerful tool for answering the long-lasting questions over sediment geochemistry in polluted areas.
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•A transformation was proposed for mapping clr-transformed values with fractal approach.•Dealing with data closure changes spatial distribution of some PTEs, particularly As and V.•Hg, Cd, Cu, Pb and Zn were positively correlated with mud and organic matter.•Association of Al, As, V, Fe, Cr, Ni and sand is stronger along the coast and far from fumaroles.•Pyroclastic deposits and the seepages with hydrothermal component are the main As sources.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
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