Occurrence of benzotriazole ultraviolet stabilizers (BUVs) in different environmental matrices has attracted researchers and regulatory agencies worldwide due to its persistency, bioaccumulative and ...toxic properties. Environmental occurrence of BUVs in Indian freshwater is lacking. The present study analyzed six targeted BUVs in surface water and sediments of three rivers of Central India. BUVs were determined in pre- and post-monsoon seasons to reveal their concentration, spatio-temporal distribution and probable ecological risks. Results indicated that total concentration of BUVs (ƩBUVs) ranged from ND to 42.88 μg/L in water, and ND to 165.26 ng/g in sediments with UV-329 as the predominant BUV in surface water and sediments during pre- and post-monsoon seasons. Surface water samples from Pili River, and sediment of Nag River accounted for maximum BUVs concentration. Partitioning coefficient results confirmed the effective transfer of BUVs from overlaying water to sediments. The observed concentration of BUVs in water and sediments posed low ecological risk to planktons. Untreated municipal discharges and poor waste management practices including dumping of wastes might be the sources of BUVs in water bodies.
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•First evidence on the environmental occurrence of six BUVs in Indian water bodies•UV-329 and UV-327 were the dominant BUVs in sediment and water.•Pseudo partitioning coefficient reveals the release from BUVs from sediment to water.•BUVs posed low risk to planktons in water bodies.•Plastic debris and wastewater discharge were major sources of BUVs.
Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), “famous” as persistent organic pollutants (POPs), have been managed nationally since the 1970s and globally under the Stockholm Convention on POPs since 2004, ...requiring environmentally sound management (ESM) of PCBs by 2028. At most, 30% of countries are on track to achieve ESM by 2028. Globally over 10 million tonnes of PCB-containing materials remain, mostly in countries lacking the ability to manage PCB waste. Canada (Ontario) and Czechia, both parties to the Stockholm Convention, are close to achieving the 2028 goal, having reduced their stocks of pure PCBs by 99% in the past 10 years. In contrast, the USA, not a party to the Stockholm Convention, continues to have a substantial but poorly inventoried stock of PCBs and only ∼3% decrease in mass of PCBs since 2006. PCB management, which depends on Stockholm Convention support and national compliance, portends major challenges for POP management. The failure to manage global PCB stocks >30 years after the end of production highlights the urgent need to prioritize reducing production and use of newer, more widely distributed POPs such as chlorinated paraffins and per- and polyfluorinated alkyl substances, as these management challenges are unlikely to be resolved in the coming decades.
Decabromodiphenyl ether (Deca-BDE) was officially listed in Annex A of the Stockholm Convention for persistent organic pollutants (POPs). It is necessary to establish its emission inventory to help ...reduce Deca-BDE contamination in the environment. We established a comprehensive Deca-BDE emission inventory in China. The results reveal that, from 2015 to 2017, the Deca-BDE emissions in its production source (source I) were less altered but increased annually in flame retarded plastics processing (source II), Deca-BDE-containing products usage (source III), and electronic waste (e-waste) treatment (source IV). We show that Deca-BDE emissions declined significantly in sources I and II but grew in source III and source IV from 2017 to 2018. We set up the provincial emission inventory to a gridded map on a spatial resolution of 0.25°× 0.25° latitude/longitude. The gridded inventory was incorporated into ChnMETOP model to simulate Deca-BDE concentrations in air and soil, and the modeled concentrations were compared to field-sampling data. The results show that the Deca-BDE emission inventory developed in this study agreed well with observed data, demonstrating that the Deca-BDE inventory in China developed in the present study is reliable. The inventory provides a support for quantifying human exposure risk to Deca-BDE and developing effective mitigation measures to mitigate Deca-BDE emissions.
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•Deca-BDE emissions occurred mainly in eastern and southeastern China.•A significant reduction of Deca-BDE emissions in China was identified after the 2017.•ChnMETOP simulations of Deca-BDE were performed using Deca-BDE emissions.•Deca-BDE emissions were verified by comparing modeled and measured concentrations.
The 1972 UN Stockholm Conference on the Human Environment (UNCHE) was ahead of its time in asserting that “Man has the fundamental right to freedom, equality and adequate conditions of life, in an ...environment of a quality that permits a life of dignity and well-being”. Fifty years later, at Stockholm+50, the human rights approach to environment protection has been significantly consolidated in international law and governance. The article describes and reflects on these developments from the 1972 Stockholm Conference to the 2022 Stockholm Meeting. The consolidation of the human rights approach to environment protection results from normative advances at regional and global scales, further world summits on environment and sustainable development, international treaty-making to protect the environment and human rights, international policy documents and declarations, and remarkable jurisprudential developments. In parallel, fundamental rights relating to the environment have also been recognised in numerous national constitutions and laws. While the human rights approach is not a panacea to resolve all environmental concerns, and to ascertain due concerns for non-human species and interests that are not directly linked to human well-being, it is a key to ensure that no one is left behind in the pursuit for sustainable development and prosperity.
To support the global monitoring plan on persistent organic pollutants (GMP) under the Stockholm Convention, 41 countries have exposed passive air samplers equipped with polyurethane foam disks ...(PUFs) to monitor perfluoroalkane substances (PFAS). The recommended procedure had PUFs exposed for three months during two years; analysis was performed in one expert laboratory to generate harmonized results. Chemical analysis using Soxhlet extraction with methanol or a 60:40 MTBE:methanol mixture, solid-phase extraction and UPLC/MSMS detection posed challenges as to matrix interference and sensitivity. Single PUFs as quarterly samples and combination of up to 4 PUFs as annual samples were analyzed; all concentrations were normalized to one PUF and 3 months exposure. Exceptionally high values (up to 36 000 pg SPFOS/PUF) were observed in nine samples from Zambia where a local source was identified. For the remaining 308 PUFs, PFOA had a higher median value (188 pg/PUF) than SPFOS (125 pg/PUF) whereas the mean value of SPFOS (254 pg/PUF) was slightly higher than the mean value for PFOA (230 pg/PUF). PFHxS concentrations were much lower in concentration and detection frequency and FOSA, as the only relevant PFOS precursor compound, showed a median value of zero. No clear regional differentiation was found.
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•350 polyurethane foam disks analyzed for PFOS and precursors, PFOA and PFHxS.•PFOS (with wide range of values) and PFOA dominate over PFHxS and other PFAS.•No correlation found between PFOS and its precursors.•Low sorption capacity of PUFs hampers analysis and quantification of PFAS.
Ultraviolet absorbers (UVAs) are emerging pollutants of concern owing to their environmental persistence and endocrine-disrupting effects. UVAs are added to agricultural films to prevent UV-induced ...degradation, potentially leading to the release of UVAs into the soil. In this study, the occurrence of four frequently used UVAs (UV-324, UV-326, UV-328, and UV-531) in film-mulched agricultural soils (using conventional polyethylene films and biodegradable films) was investigated. Results showed that the UVA concentrations were several orders of magnitude higher in film-mulched soil (mean 91.4 μg/kg) than in unmulched soil (mean 0.08 μg/kg), indicating that mulch films are important sources of UVAs released into agricultural soil. Notably, the mean UVA concentration was up to 10 times higher in biodegradable-film-mulched soils than in polyethylene (PE) film-mulched soils; this result is consistent with our finding that the mean UVA concentration was 448 times higher in commercial biodegradable films than in PE films. In simulated migration experiments, UVAs migrated more readily into the soil from the biodegradable film than from the PE film. To our knowledge, this is the first report demonstrating that the use of mulch films may cause the accumulation of UVAs in agricultural soils as non-point sources. In particular, biodegradable plastic mulches can release more UVAs into soils.
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•UV absorber levels were much higher in film-mulched soils than in unmulched soils.•Mulch films are important sources of UV absorbers in agricultural soil.•Biodegradable mulch films contained more UV absorbers than polyethylene films.•UV absorbers are readily leached into soils from biodegradable mulch films.
The Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) aims to protect human health and the environment from POPs through a range of measures aimed at reducing and ultimately eliminating ...their releases into the environment and subsequent human exposure. Article 16 of the Convention sets the basis for a mechanism to assess the success of the activities undertaken worldwide to implement the Convention. One of major pillars for the evaluation of the effectiveness of the Convention is monitoring data obtained through the Global Monitoring Plan (GMP) for POPs.
The implementation of the GMP over the last eleven years, since the entry into force of the Convention, shows how a global treaty such as the Stockholm Convention streamlined existing monitoring efforts and triggered harmonization and further development of a global monitoring network.
In its initial stages, long term POPs monitoring programmes were available only in some parts of the globe. Over more than a decade of generation of harmonized, comparable monitoring data on 23 chemicals of global concern, a rich and extremely valuable dataset has been generated in the frame of the GMP. Long-term monitoring programmes have enlarged the scope of their activities to cover newly listed chemicals, and new programmes have emerged.
Monitoring data are broadly shared through the GMP data warehouse, the Convention's clearing-house mechanism, and through other appropriate global tools. Through its global reach, the GMP contributes to the global chemicals and waste policy agenda, supports and triggers further research initiatives, and provides information to the general public at large.
The global monitoring plan under the Stockholm Convention has generated over the last eleven years a valuable POPs dataset, supported and triggered further research and monitoring activities, while contributing to the larger global chemicals and waste policy agenda.
Das schwedische Bibliotheksgesetz von 2014 ist bis heute ein wichtiger Bezugspunkt für die kontinuierliche Aushandlung des öffentlichen Auftrags und der demokratiefördernden Funktionen der ...Bibliotheken. Ausgehend von diesem Gesetz wird die konkrete bibliothekarische Arbeit in den Bibliotheksplänen der Kommunen oder einzelner Bibliotheken formuliert und reflektiert. In den Jahren 2016 bis 2021 zeugen die Pläne und Berichte von den Herausforderungen, die durch die wachsende soziale Kluft, aber auch infolge der medialen Transformation der Öffentlichkeit entstanden sind. Die Agenda der Bibliotheken erfährt derzeit eine Politisierung, was sich auf das Selbstverständnis des Bibliothekspersonals und die Lehrinhalte der Bibliotheksund Informationswissenschaften auswirken wird.
For the global monitoring plan (GMP) established under the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs), passive air samplers (PAS) equipped with polyurethane foam disks (PUFs) were ...recommended for generating comparative results on the presence of POPs in countries. One representative sampling location was designed in each of the 42 countries and the PAS/PUFs exposed for three months to collect POPs during 2017–2019. The PUFs were analyzed in three laboratories according to their chemical nature and concentrations reported per PUF and 90 ± 3 days of exposure. In total, 381 PUFs were analyzed for organochlorine pesticides (OCPs), industrial chlorinated POPs, dioxin-like POPs (dl-POPs), brominated flame retardants (BFRs), and perfluoroalkane substances (PFAS). Concentrations typically varied by a factor of up to three for a POP and often within the same geographic region or other denominator such as similar latitudes or altitudes. Maximum values were found for DDT (895 ng/PUF) in Africa, but the highest medium value was in the Latin American countries. Also, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCB) and hexachlorobenzene (HCB) were most abundant across all parameters assessed. Noteworthy were high values in single countries, such as DDT in the Solomon Islands, toxaphene in Mexico, β-HCH and lindane in Tanzania, hexachlorobutadiene and hexabromocyclododecone in Mongolia, deca-BDE and PFOS in Zambia. Although we had two sampling locations at very high altitudes, >2000 m, we could determine increasing POPs concentrations with increasing altitudes only for HCB but not for other POPs. A general dependency on latitudes with higher concentrations towards the north and south pole could not be found, although the most northern station in Mongolia had two of the maxima and elevated values for some legacy POPs.
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•POPs measured by dedicated laboratories in 42 countries.•Legacy POPs showed higher concentrations than emerging POPs.•Exceptional high amounts of selected POPs detected occasionally.•Abundance and scale of PBDE 209 surprising.•No clear dependence of concentrations with latitude or altitude identified.
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