The global scope of pollution from plastic waste is a well-known phenomenon associated with trade, mass consumption, and disposal of plastic products (e.g., personal protective equipment (PPE), viral ...test kits, and vacuum-packaged food). Recently, the scale of the problem has been exacerbated by increases in indoor livelihood activities during lockdowns imposed in response to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. The present study describes the effects of increased plastic waste on environmental footprint and human health. Further, the technological/regulatory options and life cycle assessment (LCA) approach for sustainable plastic waste management are critically dealt in terms of their implications on energy resilience and circular economy. The abrupt increase in health-care waste during pandemic has been worsening environmental quality to undermine the sustainability in general. In addition, weathered plastic particles from PPE along with microplastics (MPs) and nanoplastics (NPs) can all adsorb chemical and microbial contaminants to pose a risk to ecosystems, biota, occupational safety, and human health. PPE-derived plastic pollution during the pandemic also jeopardizes sustainable development goals, energy resilience, and climate control measures. However, it is revealed that the pandemic can be regarded as an opportunity for explicit LCA to better address the problems associated with environmental footprints of plastic waste and to focus on sustainable management technologies such as circular bio-economies, biorefineries, and thermal gasification. Future researches in the energy-efficient clean technologies and circular bio-economies (or biorefineries) in concert with a “nexus” framework are expected to help reduce plastic waste into desirable directions.
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•Increased plastic waste disposal in COVID-19 can perturb the environment and biota.•Weathered micro/−nano scale plastics can impose occupational and human health risks.•Long-term critical assessment is needed on the effects of plastics pollution in COVID-19.•Plastic waste can act as potential biorefinery feedstock for sustainable plastic management.•Prioritizing circular bioeconomy principles should be kept in plastic waste management.
The transmission dynamics and health risks of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic are inextricably linked to ineract with environment, climate, air pollution, and meteorological conditions. ...The spread of COVID-19 infection can thus perturb the ‘planetary health’ and livelihood by exerting impacts on the temporal and spatial variabilities of environmental pollution. Prioritization of COVID-19 by the health-care sector has been posing a serious threat to economic progress while undermining the efforts to meet the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for environmental sustainability. Here, we review the multifaceted effects of COVID-19 with respect to environmental quality, climatic variables, SDGs, energy resilience, and sustainability programs. It is well perceived that COVID-19 may have long-lasting and profound effects on socio-economic systems, food security, livelihoods, and the ‘nexus’ indicators. To seek for the solution of these problems, consensus can be drawn to establish and ensure a sound health-care system, a sustainable environment, and a circular bioeconomy. A holistic analysis of COVID-19's effects on multiple sectors should help develop nature-based solutions, cleaner technologies, and green economic recovery plans to help maintain environmental sustainability, ecosystem resilience, and planetary health.
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•Our knowledge is short on the transmission dynamics of COVID-19.•The effects of COVID-19 are elucidated in relation to planetary public health and livelihood.•The COVID-19 effects are envisioned in terms of environmental sustainability.•The energy resilience, circular bioeconomy, ‘nexus’, and healthcare indicators are important.
The Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme (AMAP) is a working group under the Arctic Council with the aim to monitor and assess temporal trends of contaminants in Arctic ecosystems. The ...Greenland AMAP Core programme was established to contribute to this effort. The Core programme includes three main components; routine monitoring, retrospective studies and new POP screening studies. The programme is based on an adaptive approach, which has led to changes throughout the years. An overview of the temporal trends during the last two to three decades is presently given together with selected examples of different characteristic trends of POPs. The results show how tissue banked samples and retrospective studies has helped in establishing time-series of compounds of emerging concern. Lastly, the statistical power of the Greenlandic time-series is discussed. The lesson learned is that trend monitoring improves with samples over time, and only pays off after decades of data are generated.
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The lessons learned by twenty years of monitoring POP in Greenland biota.
•This article summarized the 12 articles of the BONUS BALTHEALTH EI VSI.•This project have increased our understanding of the effects of AHS in the Baltic.•We also provide the conceptual figure of ...the BONUS BALTHEALTH project.•We likewise provide a link to the BONUS BALTHEALTH web page.•Finally we provide a link to the more than 50 articles published under the project.
This introductory chapter to our Environment International VSI does not need an abstract and therefore we just include our recommendations below in order to proceed with the resubmission. Future work should examine waterbirds as food web sentinels of multiple stressors as well as Baltic Sea food web dynamics of hazardous substances and how climate change may modify it. Also, future work should aim at further extending the new frameworks developed within BALTHEALTH for energy and contaminant transfer at the population level (Desforges et al., 2018, Cervin et al., 2020/this issue Silva et al., 2020/this issue) and their long term effects on Baltic Sea top predators, such as harbour porpoises, grey seals ringed seals, and white-tailed eagles. Likewise, the risk evaluation conducted for PCB in connection with mercury on Arctic wildlife (Dietz et al., 2019, not a BONUS BALTHEALTH product) could be planned for Baltic Sea molluscs, fish, bird and marine mammals in the future. Finally, future efforts could include stressors not covered by the BONUS BALTHEALTH project, such as food web fluxes, overexploitation, bycatches, eutrophication and underwater noise.
Biomonitoring using raptors as sentinels can provide early warning of the potential impacts of contaminants on humans and the environment and also a means of tracking the success of associated ...mitigation measures. Examples include detection of heavy metal-induced immune system impairment, PCB-induced altered reproductive impacts, and toxicity associated with lead in shot game. Authorisation of such releases and implementation of mitigation is now increasingly delivered through EU-wide directives but there is little established pan-European monitoring to quantify outcomes. We investigated the potential for EU-wide coordinated contaminant monitoring using raptors as sentinels. We did this using a questionnaire to ascertain the current scale of national activity across 44 European countries. According to this survey, there have been 52 different contaminant monitoring schemes with raptors over the last 50years. There were active schemes in 15 (predominantly western European) countries and 23 schemes have been running for >20years; most monitoring was conducted for >5years. Legacy persistent organic compounds (specifically organochlorine insecticides and PCBs), and metals/metalloids were monitored in most of the 15 countries. Fungicides, flame retardants and anticoagulant rodenticides were also relatively frequently monitored (each in at least 6 countries). Common buzzard (Buteo buteo), common kestrel (Falco tinnunculus), golden eagle (Aquila chrysaetos), white-tailed sea eagle (Haliaeetus albicilla), peregrine falcon (Falco peregrinus), tawny owl (Strix aluco) and barn owl (Tyto alba) were most commonly monitored (each in 6–10 countries). Feathers and eggs were most widely analysed although many schemes also analysed body tissues. Our study reveals an existing capability across multiple European countries for contaminant monitoring using raptors. However, coordination between existing schemes and expansion of monitoring into Eastern Europe is needed. This would enable assessment of the appropriateness of the EU-regulation of substances that are hazardous to humans and the environment, the effectiveness of EU level mitigation policies, and identify pan-European spatial and temporal trends in current and emerging contaminants of concern.
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•We investigated the potential for EU-wide contaminant monitoring using raptors.•Most monitoring schemes have been conducted for >5years.•Legacy organic compounds and metals/metalloids were monitored in most countries.•Feathers and eggs were the matrices most commonly analysed.•There is a capability across Europe for contaminant monitoring using raptors.
•Largest health assessment of harbour porpoises from the Baltic: from Latvia, Poland, Germany and Denmark.•The animals were collected between 1990 and 2015 and were either by-caught or found dead on ...the coastline.•The respiratory tract had the highest number of pathological lesions.•45.5 to 100% of the animals from the different countries were known by-caught individuals.•Data on health status and the causes of death are valuable for management.
Harbour porpoise (Phocoena phocoena), the only resident cetacean species of the Baltic Sea is formed of two subpopulations populations, occurring in the western Baltic, Belt Seas and Kattegat and the Baltic Proper, respectively. Harbour porpoises throughout these areas are exposed to a large number of human activities causing direct and indirect effects on individuals, that might also harm this species on a population level. From Latvia, Poland, Germany and Denmark 385 out of 1769 collected dead harbour porpoises were suitable for extensive necropsy. The animals were collected between 1990 and 2015 and were either by-caught or found dead on the coastline. Following necropsies, histopathological, microbiological, virological and parasitological investigations were conducted. Females and males were equally distributed among the 385 animals. Most animals from the different countries were juveniles between 3 months and 3 years old (varying between 46.5 and 100% of 385 animals per country). The respiratory tract had the highest number of morphological lesions, including lungworms in 25 to 58% and pneumonia in 21 to 58% of the investigated animals. Of those with pneumonia 8 to 33% were moderate or severe. The alimentary, hearing, and haematopoietic systems had inflammatory lesions and parasitic infections with limited health impact. 45.5 to 100% of the animals from the different countries were known by-caught individuals, of which 20 to 100% varying between countries had netmarks. Inflammatory lesions, especially in the respiratory tract were found in higher numbers when compared to control populations in areas with less human activities such as arctic waters. The high number of morphological changes in the respiratory tract and of bycatches especially among immature animals before reaching sexual maturity is of serious concern, as well as the low number of adult animals among the material. Data on health status and the causes of death are valuable for management. A next step in this regard will combine data from health and genetic investigations in order to detect differences between the two populations of the Baltic.
•Mercury and neurochemical biomarkers measured in 10 brain regions of 5 marine mammals.•Mercury levels higher in toothed whales than fur bearing polar bears and ringed seals.•Methylmercury percentage ...lower in toothed whales than polar bears and ringed seals.•Brain regions differed in mercury concentrations and neurochemical activity.•Higher number of mercury associations to neurochemical biomarkers in toothed whales.
Mercury is a neurotoxic chemical that represents one of the greatest pollution threats to Arctic ecosystem health. Evaluating the direct neurotoxic effects of mercury in free ranging wildlife is challenging, necessitating the use of neurochemical biomarkers to assess potential sub-clinical neurological changes. The objective of this study was to characterize the distribution and speciation of mercury, as well as exposure-associated changes in neurochemistry, across multiple brain regions (n = 10) and marine mammal species (n = 5) that each occupy a trophic niche in the Arctic ecosystem. We found consistent species differences in mean brain and brain region-specific concentrations of total mercury (THg) and methyl mercury (MeHg), with higher concentrations in toothed whales (narwhal, pilot whales and harbour porpoise) compared to fur-bearing mammals (polar bear and ringed seal). Mean THg (μg/g dw) in decreasing rank order was: pilot whale (11.9) > narwhal (7.7) > harbour porpoise (3.6) > polar bear (0.6) > ringed seal (0.2). The higher THg concentrations in toothed whales was associated with a marked reduction in the percentage of MeHg (<40 %) compared to polar bears (>70 %) that had lower brain THg concentrations. This pattern in mercury concentration and speciation corresponded broadly to an overall higher number of mercury-associated neurochemical biomarker correlations in toothed whales. Of the 226 correlations between mercury and neurochemical biomarkers across brain regions, we found 60 (27 %) meaningful relationships (r>0.60 or p < 0.10). We add to the growing weight of evidence that wildlife accumulate mercury in their brains and demonstrate that there is variance in accumulation across species as well as across distinct brain regions, and that some of these exposures may be associated with sub-clinical changes in neurochemistry.
Perfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) are a class of organohalogenated compounds of environmental concern due to similar characteristics as the well-studied legacy persistent organic pollutants (POPs) ...that typically show environmental persistence, biomagnification and toxicity. Nevertheless, PFAS are still poorly regulated internationally and in many aspects poorly understood. Here, we studied liver and muscle concentrations in five cetacean species stranded at the southeastern coast of Spain during 2009–2018. Twelve of the fifteen targeted compounds were detected in >50% of the liver samples. Hepatic concentrations were significantly higher than those in muscle reflecting the particular toxicokinetics of these compounds. Bottlenose dolphins Tursiops truncatus showed the highest hepatic ΣPFAS (n = 5; 796.8 ± 709.0 ng g−1 ww) concentrations, followed by striped dolphin Stenella coeruleoalba (n = 29; 259.5 ± 136.2 ng g−1 ww), sperm whale Physeter macrocephalus (n = 1; 252.8 ng g−1 ww), short-beaked common dolphin Delphinus delphis (n = 2; 240.3 ± 218.6 ng g−1 ww) and Risso’s dolphin Grampus griseus (n = 1; 78.7 ng g−1 ww). These interspecies differences could be partially explained by habitat preferences, although they could generally not be related to trophic position or food chain proxied by stable N (δ15N) and C (δ13C) isotope values, respectively. PFAS profiles in all species showed a similar pattern of concentration prevalence in the order PFOS>PFOSA>PFNA≈PFFUnA>PFDA. The higher number of samples available for striped dolphin allowed for evaluating their PFAS burden and profile in relation to the stranding year, stable isotope values, and biological variables including sex and length. However, we could only find links between δ15N and PFAS burdens in muscle tissue, and between stranding year and PFAS profile composition. Despite reductions in the manufacturing industry, these compounds still appear in high concentrations compared to more than two decades ago in the Mediterranean Sea and PFOS remains the dominating compound.
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•PFASs was measured in five endemic Mediterranean cetacean’ species.•PFAS burdens are higher than those reported two decades ago.•PFOS and PFOSA are the dominant PFAS components of profiles.•Concentrations were higher in the coastal bottlenose dolphin.•Trophic position explains PFAS muscle burdens of striped dolphin.
Main findings: First study conducted in more than two decades of PFAS in stranded western Mediterranean. Despite its phase-out in the EU some of the PFAS burdens found can be considered high.
Biomonitoring using birds of prey as sentinel species has been mooted as a way to evaluate the success of European Union directives that are designed to protect people and the environment across ...Europe from industrial contaminants and pesticides. No such pan-European evaluation currently exists. Coordination of such large scale monitoring would require harmonisation across multiple countries of the types of samples collected and analysed-matrices vary in the ease with which they can be collected and the information they provide. We report the first ever pan-European assessment of which raptor samples are collected across Europe and review their suitability for biomonitoring. Currently, some 182 monitoring programmes across 33 European countries collect a variety of raptor samples, and we discuss the relative merits of each for monitoring current priority and emerging compounds. Of the matrices collected, blood and liver are used most extensively for quantifying trends in recent and longer-term contaminant exposure, respectively. These matrices are potentially the most effective for pan-European biomonitoring but are not so widely and frequently collected as others. We found that failed eggs and feathers are the most widely collected samples. Because of this ubiquity, they may provide the best opportunities for widescale biomonitoring, although neither is suitable for all compounds. We advocate piloting pan-European monitoring of selected priority compounds using these matrices and developing read-across approaches to accommodate any effects that trophic pathway and species differences in accumulation may have on our ability to track environmental trends in contaminants.
Abstract Cannabis continues to rise in popularity as the perception of its harmfulness decreases and evidence of its deleterious developmental effect increases. While internalizing distress and ...suicide risk have been linked with cannabis use problems (DSM-5 cannabis use disorder (CUD); DSM-IV cannabis abuse and dependence) it remains unclear how this association varies over the course of development in treatment-seeking men and women. The current study utilized the National Drug Abuse Treatment Clinical Trials Network (NIDA CTN) to conduct a cross-sectional comparison of internalizing distress and suicide risk among men (n=437) and women (n=163) spanning ages 18-50 who met DSM-5 criteria for CUD. Interactions between gender and developmental stage (i.e., late adolescence, early adulthood, and middle adulthood) were observed for suicide risk and anxiety but not depression problems. Specifically, women seeking CUD treatment in late adolescence and middle adulthood exhibited significantly higher rates of anxiety and suicide risk compared to men seeking treatment during the same developmental stages. Internalizing distress and suicide risk did not differ between treatment-seeking men and women in the early adult stage. Overall, results suggest that the structure of risk for CUD may differ in men and women across the lifespan and that women presenting for CUD treatment during late adolescence and middle adulthood may uniquely benefit from intervention designed to address these elevations in anxiety and suicide risk.
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