Phthalates are synthetic compounds widely used as plasticisers, solvents and additives in many consumer products. Several animal studies have shown that some phthalates possess endocrine disrupting ...effects. Some of the effects of phthalates seen in rats are due to testosterone lowering effects on the foetal testis and they are similar to those seen in humans with testicular dysgenesis syndrome. Therefore, exposure of the human foetus and infants to phthalates via maternal exposure is a matter of concern. The metabolic pathways of phthalate metabolites excreted in human urine are partly known for some phthalates, but our knowledge about metabolic distribution in the body and other biological fluids, including breast milk, is limited. Compared to urine, human breast milk contains relatively more of the hydrophobic phthalates, such as di‐n‐butyl phthalate and the longer‐branched, di(2‐ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP) and di‐iso‐nonyl phthalate (DiNP); and their monoester metabolites. Urine, however, contains relatively more of the secondary metabolites of DEHP and DiNP, as well as the monoester phthalates of the more short‐branched phthalates. This differential distribution is of special concern as, in particular, the hydrophobic phthalates and their metabolites are shown to have adverse effects following in utero and lactational exposures in animal studies.
The most relevant human urinary metabolites of cocaine (nine metabolites) were measured in urban wastewater in Italy and USA. A novel analytical method based on liquid chromatography tandem mass ...spectrometry allowed the identification of ecgonine, ecgonine methyl ester and the pyrolytic derivatives of cocaine in untreated wastewater. The aim of this study was to verify whether the pattern of cocaine metabolites in wastewater reflected the human excretion profile in urine. The performance of the method was good, with recoveries higher than 60% and limits of quantifications in the low ng/L range. The stability in untreated wastewater was assessed for all metabolites and the best storage condition resulted freezing samples immediately after collection and keep them frozen until analysis. All the selected compounds were measured in wastewater at concentrations up to 1.5 μg/L and their weekly loads were calculated during a five weeks monitoring campaign in Milan (Italy). The profiles of cocaine metabolites in wastewater matched with those in human urine reported in the literature, suggesting that measures in wastewater reflect the real human excretion and that wastewater analysis is suitable for assessing drug consumption. Benzoylecgonine was confirmed as the best target for estimating cocaine use by wastewater analysis, while cocaine itself should not be considered because its amount in wastewater is affected by other environmental sources such as transport, handling and consumption. Results suggested that the measurement of other metabolites in combination with benzoylecgonine might reflect 60% of an administered dose of cocaine providing also information on different patterns of use.
► Cocaine and its most relevant urinary metabolites were measured in urban wastewater in Italy and USA. ► Weekly loads of the main metabolites of cocaine increased during the weekend. ► The pattern of cocaine metabolites in wastewater reflected the human excretion profile in urine. ► Wastewater analysis of drugs metabolites is suitable for assessing drug consumption in a population. ► Wastewater analysis can provide information on different pattern of use of a drug.
Purpose
A regionalized life cycle inventory model to account for human excretion of food products is presented, constituting an update of a previous model published by the author in 2008.
Methods
The ...updated model provides country-specific estimates on toilet activities (use of toilet paper, tap water, soap) and wastewater/excreta management, the latter addressing not only wastewater collection and treatment as done in developed countries, but also decentralized options such as septic tanks, latrines, and open defecation. The model currently supports inventories for 92 countries, linked to the ecoinvent database. The model is tested here with three products (banana, breadcrumbs, cheese) in five countries (Bangladesh, Denmark, Niger, Israel, USA), where the results for human excretion, per kg food ingested, are compared to food production in terms of global warming and aquatic eutrophication.
Results and discussion
The results show that besides a wide geographical variability, the environmental impacts of sanitation linked to food consumption have a higher magnitude than previously anticipated. In global warming, human excretion impacts can be of similar and even higher magnitude than food production, as far as products with a low carbon footprint are concerned, such as bananas. This relevance decreases for products with a higher carbon footprint such as cheese. Regarding aquatic eutrophication, the results suggest a potentially high relevance for human excretion in countries with poor sanitation, while the opposite holds true in countries with advanced treatment of wastewaters.
Conclusions
We stress the importance of including human excretion in LCA studies of food products, especially when the goal is to identify life cycle hotspots or to assess dietary shifts.
The purpose of this research was to analyze the biology materials of the eleventh grade on the material of the human excretion system on the potential of empowering students' communication skills ...in one of the Senior High School in Madiun Regency. The research uses the descriptive method. The Technique of collecting data with teaching material is observed potency of empowering its communication skill directly based on communication skill assessment instrument covering twelve indicators which are divided on the four aspects namely expression aspect, evaluation, response, and negotiation. The teaching materials that were analyzed included two biology books from two different publishers, especially the material of human excretion system in Basic Competence 3.9 and 4.9 from 2013 curriculum. Data analyzed uses descriptive quantitative analysis. The result of analysis shows that the potential of empowerment of communication skill in teaching materials is still low, it’s indicated by the low of indicator and the low percentage of indicator that emerged, from the twelve indicators only four indicators that emerged: the first indicator 27,3%, the third indicator 18,2%, the eighth indicator 27,3%, and the twelfth indicator 27,3%. Based on the results of the analysis can be concluded that the biology materials eleventh grade on the material excretion system used in one of the Senior High School in Madiun Regency has not the potential to empower students' communication skills.
Abstract
The aims of this study is to reveal metacognition and critical thinking skill of students grade XI, and also the correlation between metacognition with crititical thinking skill on human ...excretion system. The participants of this study consist of 100 students from grade XI of five different high schools in Tasikmalaya. Correlational method was used in this study. Instruments which used to obtain the data consist of metacognition test and critical thinking test. The students' metacognition was captured with the essay item related to the human excretion system concept. The multiple choice-reason item and essay item was used to capture the critical thinking skills. The results showed that students’ score at metacognition and critical thinking have a low average. The results also proved that metacognition has a positive correlation and moderately strong with critical thinking skills. Keywords: Metacognition, Critical Thinking Skills, Human Excretion System
Background, aim and scope
The aim of this work is to find out to what extent human excretion is relevant in the context of a Spaniard’s overall food intake. A case study dealing with the average ...Spanish diet is carried out, including the whole life cycle of food: agricultural and animal production, industrial processing, distribution and retail, home storage and cooking, solid waste management and human excretion.
Methods
An extensive literature review was carried out to obtain life cycle assessment (LCA) data for Spanish food products. Also, the Danish LCA Food database and other European literature sources were used, along with ecoinvent background data. Human excretion and wastewater treatment were accounted for with a specific model recently developed, which required calculating the average nutritional composition of the Spanish diet. Concerning life cycle impact assessment, only three impact categories, namely global warming potential (GWP), acidification potential (AP) and eutrophication potential (EP), were assessed, along with primary energy use (PEU) as environmental indicator.
Results
Food production clearly appears as the main hotspot in the Spanish diet. Human excretion, along with further wastewater treatment, is not a negligible process in EP and GWP, where it is the second most important source of emissions, with 17% of the overall emissions. However, if biogenic CO
2
emissions are not taken into account, the contribution of human excretion to GWP becomes very small (3%). The contributions to AP (2%) and PEU (3%) are also very small.
Discussion
The main limitation of this study is the lack of representative data to cover food production in Spain. Nevertheless, our total estimates for GWP and PEU per person per year are in accordance with previous studies, as well as the identification of animal food as a main source of environmental impacts. These studies achieve similar results without including human excretion, but concerning EP, there are no previous studies focusing on this impact category at the diet level.
Conclusions
Food production is the most important life cycle stage in the Spanish diet, especially meat and dairy products. Nevertheless, human excretion as a life cycle stage has been found to be important in EP due to the emissions of nutrients in treated sewage.
Recommendations and perspectives
These results show that excretion should not be overlooked in LCA studies dealing with diet shifts and studies aimed at identifying the life cycle hotspots of food products.
The aims of this study is to reveal metacognition and critical thinking skill of students grade XI, and also the correlation between metacognition with crititical thinking skill on human excretion ...system. The participants of this study consist of 100 students from grade XI of five different high schools in Tasikmalaya. Correlational method was used in this study. Instruments which used to obtain the data consist of metacognition test and critical thinking test. The students' metacognition was captured with the essay item related to the human excretion system concept. The multiple choice-reason item and essay item was used to capture the critical thinking skills. The results showed that students’ score at metacognition and critical thinking have a low average. The results also proved that metacognition has a positive correlation and moderately strong with critical thinking skills
The main source of natural estrogens to municipal wastewater is human excretions via urine or feces, thus their concentrations in raw wastewater should show positive linear relationship with their ...human excretions. This study mainly focused on their concentration relationship in raw wastewater. Based on comparison between chemical analyses and predictions through human excretion rates, the observed concentrations of estriol (E₃) in municipal wastewater were found to be noticeably lower than the predicted values. The main cause for the disparity is that substantial conjugated E₃also exists in raw wastewater. This work suggested that monitoring both E₃and its conjugates is necessary to get more accurate E₃removal performance of wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs).
Natural estrogens are important endocrine disrupting compounds (EDCs), which may pose adverse effects on our environment. To avoid time-consuming sample preparation and chemical analysis, estimation ...of their concentrations in municipal wastewater based on their human urine/feces excretion rates has been generally adopted. However, the data of excretion rates available are very limited and show significant difference among countries. In the context of increasing reporting on the concentrations of natural estrogens in municipal wastewater around the world, this study presented a simple method to estimate their human excretion rates based on the concentrations of natural estrogens in raw sewage. The estimated human excretion rates of natural estrogens among ten countries were obtained, which totally covered over 33 million population. Among these, Brazilians had the largest excretion rates with estrone (E1) and 17β-estradiol (E2) as 236.9 and 60 μg/day/P, respectively, while Iran had the lowest value of 2 μg/day/P for E1 and 0.5 μg/day/P for E2. The average estimated human excretion rates of E1, E2, and estriol (E3) are 17.3, 6.4, and 39.7 μg/day/P, respectively. When the estimated human excretion rates obtained were applied for prediction, the predicted results showed better accuracies than those based on human urinary/feces excretion rates. The method in this study is simple, cost-effective and time-saving, which may be widely applied.
The role of human excretion, drinking water, and deposition as a source of heavy metals to municipal sewage was investigated and compared with common levels in sludge for soil application. These ...sources contributed more than half of the copper (Cu), zinc (Zn), and lead (Pb) content of municipal sewage sludge for soil application, while other sources dominated the fluxes of chromium (Cr) and cadmium (Cd). Drinking water was an important source for Cu and Zn. Deposition contributed about 40% to the Pb flux. Faecal excretion commonly caused less than 10% of the heavy metal load, while urinary excretion was here a negligible heavy metal source.
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