With the high production and consumption of antibiotics in recent years due to increasing economic development and improving population health, China is facing serious antibiotic pollution in the ...environment, and it is becoming a significant threat to ecology and human health. This study explores the spatial distribution patterns of 65 antibiotics in soil, surface water and coastal water based on a systematic review. Potential emission sources of antibiotics are also analyzed using data extracted from the reviewed literature. The results suggest that China has very high antibiotic detection rates of 100%, 98.0% and 96.4% for soil, surface water and coastal water, respectively. Regions with high antibiotic levels are mainly located in Bohai Bay, including the Beijing‒Tianjin‒Hebei region, Liaoning and Shandong Provinces, and Yangtze River. Tetracyclines (TCs) and quinolones (QNs) are the dominant antibiotics observed in soil and are mainly attributed to the use of manure as fertilizer and the reuse of domestic wastewater. Sulfonamides (SAs), macrolides (MLs), TCs and QNs are the dominant antibiotics observed in surface water and are mainly attributed to aquaculture and the emission of domestic sewage. QNs are the dominant antibiotics observed in coastal water and are mainly attributed to marine cultivation. The detection frequencies and concentrations of TCs, QNs, SAs and MLs in both soil and water are much higher than those in other developed countries. Suggestions including restricting antibiotic usages in livestock farming and aquaculture, innovation of wastewater treatment technology to improve antibiotic removal rate, and establishing guidelines on antibiotic concentration for wastewater discharge and organic fertilizer are provided.
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•China has very high antibiotic detection rates for soil and aquatic environment.•Tetracyclines and quinolones were the dominant antibiotics in soil.•Antibiotic residues in soil were mainly from fertilizer and domestic wastewater.•Surface water had complex compositions of antibiotic residues.•Antibiotic pollution in aquatic environment were mainly attributed to aquaculture.
China has very high antibiotic detection rates for environments. Management of antibiotic exposure from environments should be given high public health priority.
Water quality is closely associated with human health and socio-economic sustainable development. With the increasingly intensive anthropogenic activities, pollutants especially trace elements, enter ...water aquatic system and cause harm to humans. This study conducted the first systematic comparison on the pollution status of surface water and groundwater in China. Water quality and health risk assessment of 12 trace elements were evaluated according to the water quality index (WQI), hazard quotient (HQ), hazard index (HI), and carcinogenic risk (CR). The results showed that the average values of trace elements in the majority of surface water were higher than those in groundwater. The WQI values demonstrated that 86.02% of surface water and 83.11% of groundwater were suitable for drinking water. Arsenic served as the predominant pollutant and contributed significantly to cause the non‑carcinogenic risk on human health in both surface water and groundwater, children were more vulnerable to the adverse effects than adults. In surface water, the priority non-carcinogenic risk sites were mainly distributed in Anning River, Taizi River, Middle reaches of Huai River and Jilin section of Songhua River. For groundwater, the high-risk sites were located in Huhhot Basin, Kuitun, Jianghan Plain, Datong Basin and Yucheng County. Arsenic posed potential carcinogenic risk to local resident in some water sites, and it presented higher in groundwater than surface water. More concerns should be paid on Songhua, Yangtze and Huai River Basins, in addition, Pearl, Southeast Coastal, Southwest and Northwest River Basins still need attention. The future work should be carried out more extensive range of the water sites and long-term monitoring in China. In particular, more attention should be dedicated to assess high As water bodies.
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•The WQI values manifested that 86.02% of surface water and 83.11% of groundwater were suitable for drinking water.•Children were more vulnerable to the adverse effects of trace elements than adults when exposed fromthe same water medium.•Arsenic contributed significantly to cause the non‑carcinogenic risk on human health in both surface water and groundwater, and it presented higher carcinogenic risk in groundwater than surface water.•More concerns should be paid on Songhua, Yangtze and Huai River Basins.
•Anewdatasetonurbanization and atmospheric particulate pollutants were presented.•The Spatio-temporal characteristics of urbanization and atmospheric particulate pollutants was revealed.•Relationship ...between urbanization and atmospheric particulate pollutants in the Bohai Rimhasincreasedinthepast6 years.
The coordinated development of urbanization and atmospheric environment is of great significance for improving the quality of urbanization and solving air pollution problems in the Bohai Rim region. We have constructed urbanization quality level system indicator system and atmospheric environment system indicator system. By combining the coupling coordination degree model and spatial autocorrelation method, we analyze the spatiotemporal changes of urbanization, PM2.5, and PM10 of 43 cities in the Bohai Rim region from 2015 to 2020 using the coupling coordination model and spatial autocorrelation method, revealing the spatiotemporal evolution law of the coupling coordination relationship between regional urbanization system and atmospheric environment system. The results show that: (1) The overall urbanization level is increasing and the concentration of atmospheric particulate matter pollution is decreasing from 2015 to 2020 in the Bohai Rim; the urbanization level shows a spatial distribution pattern of high in the northeast and low in the southwest, and the concentrations of PM2.5 and PM10 show a pattern of high in the southwest and low in the northeast, with obvious clustering characteristics; (2) The coupling and coordination relationship between urbanization and atmospheric environment is showing an increasing trend in the Bohai Rim region. During the research period, the lowest, highest, average, and coupling coordination levels of the coupling and coordination scheduling are continuously increasing. The spatial distribution pattern of the coupling coordination degree is low in the southwest and high in the northeast, and there is a strong regional convergence of the coupling coordination type transformation, with certain spatial and temporal dependence.
Geogenic arsenic (As) in groundwater has a negative impact on public health. Recent studies have introduced the mechanisms of temporal variation in arsenic concentrations in groundwater. Short-term ...drastic variations in groundwater arsenic are usually associated with anthropogenic activities, such as contamination and groundwater extraction. Periodic variations in groundwater arsenic are mainly caused by seasonal precipitation/evaporation changes, periodic irrigation/pumping and periodic anthropogenic input. Hydrogeochemical processes of these temporal variations in groundwater arsenic involve the dilution/concentration of As, oxidative dissolution of arsenopyrite, competitive adsorption between As and other ions including HCO3− and PO43−, reductive dissolution of As–Fe/Mn (oxyhydr)oxide, oxidative elimination of aqueous As(III), advection between the aquifers, and the release of As from clay layers. Compared with natural factors, the temporal changes in groundwater As are more susceptible to anthropogenic behaviors; however, topography and climate still play a significant role in diverse patterns of groundwater arsenic concentrations variations. In this study, decreasing groundwater arsenic concentrations in the rainy season and increasing groundwater arsenic concentrations in the dry season were more likely to occur in oxidative aquifers in mountainous areas with fractured bedrock; in coastal areas; or in arid/semiarid inland basins with less anthropogenic interference, such as mines, ponds, farmland, etc. An inverse trend was more likely to occur in reductive aquifers in humid plain/delta areas containing paddy fields and ponds at the surface. More investigations must be conducted to determine the heterogeneity of groundwater arsenic variations at different scales and correlations with the surface environment, including crop cultivation, climate change, land use, and other factors, by using long-term monitoring data.
•Temporal changes in groundwater arsenic (As) are related to natural/human processes.•Topography and climate play a significant role in diverse variations of As levels.•The correlation between As and surface environment should be further determined.
Mining and smelting are important economic activities. However, mining-related industries are also some of the largest sources of environmental pollution from heavy metals. China is one of the ...largest producers and consumers of lead and zinc in the world. A large amount of lead, zinc, and related elements, such as cadmium, have been released into the environment due to mineral processing activities and have impacted water resources, soils, vegetables, and crops. In some areas, this pollution is hazardous to human health. This article reviews studies published in the past 10 years (2000–2009), on the environmental and human health consequences of lead/zinc mineral exploitation in China. Polluted areas are concentrated in the following areas: the junction of Yunnan, Guizhou and Sichuan provinces, west-central Hunan province, central Guangxi province, northern Guangdong, northwestern Henan province, the border between Shanxi and Gansu provinces, and the region of Liaoning province near Bohai. Lead (Pb) and cadmium (Cd) are the main pollutants and are associated with human health effects such as high lead blood levels in children, arthralgia, osteomalacia, and excessive cadmium in urine.
Plastic shed production system (PSPS) provide abundant vegetable products for human consumption. Comprehensive and accurate heavy metal (HM) risk assessment of soil and vegetable under plastic sheds ...is crucial for human health. Pollution assessment, bioavailability and mobility evaluation and health risk assessment of Cd, Cr, Cu, Zn Ni, Pb, and As were performed in a presentative Plastic shed production system. The concentrations of the Cd, Cu and Zn exceeded their background value. Positive Igeo values suggested that soil under plastic sheds was widely contaminated with Cd. The bioavailability of heavy metals in soils was evaluated using DTPA extraction and DGT methods. The results of both methods demonstrated that Cd, Cu, and Zn have high bioavailability, especially Cd. Analogically, the results of mobility assignment based on DIFS showed that Cd has a high migration risk due to the large available pool. Based on specific cultivation and management patterns of plastic shed production system, pH reduction and salt and nutrient accumulation may increase the heavy metals migration risk in soil under plastic sheds, while a high organic matter content may reduce the heavy metals migration risk. The average concentrations of Cd, Cr, Cu, Zn, Ni, Pb, and As in vegetables were 0.023, 0.226, 0.654, 2.984, 0.329, 0.041, and 0.010 mg/kg, respectively. All samples were well below the threshold. The order of target hazard quotient of different heavy metals caused by vegetable consumption was Cd > Cr > As > Cu, Ni, Pb, Zn, and the average total hazard index value was below 1, which demonstrated that risk of vegetable consumption in the study area. However, due to its high concentration and transfer coefficient in spinach, Cd might pose a health risk to humans, which requires special attention. In this study, Cd caused a significant issue than other HMs, whether pollution level, health risk and migration risk. DGT and DIFS can be used as an effective evaluation tool in the research of controlling heavy metals migration in soil-crop systems.
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•Cd, Cu, Zn are the main pollutant elements in soil under plastic shed, especially Cd.•Cd has a largest available pool compere to other HMs in soil under plastic shed.•DGT method can better reflect the transfer of heavy metals from soil to vegetables.•Cd accounts for the largest proportion of comprehensive health risks of HMs.
This study provides an overview of the studies of heavy metal pollution regarding As, Cd, Cr, Hg, Pb, Cu, Zn and Ni in the urban soils throughout 71 cities of China, based on data from online ...literature, during the period 2003-2019. The concentrations, spatial distributions, contamination degrees and health risks of heavy metals in the urban soils were evaluated. The results demonstrated that the mean values of eight heavy metals all exceeded the soil background values in China, and the kriging interpolation method showed that the hot-spot cities with heavy metal contamination in urban soils were mainly concentrated in the southwest, southcentral, southeast coast, northcentral and northwest regions of China. The geoaccumulation index (
) indicated that Hg and Cd were at moderate contamination levels and that the levels of the other six metals did not appear contamination. The pollution index (
) showed that Cd and Hg reached high contamination levels, and the other metals reached moderate contamination levels. The integrated pollution index (
) and potential ecological risk index (
) indicated that the integral urban soils in the study areas ranked high contamination levels and moderate ecological risk degree, respectively, and Cd and Hg should be labeled as priority metals for control in the urban soils around China. The human health risk assessments for the heavy metals indicated that ingestion was the dominant exposure pathway for having adverse effects on human health. The mean Hazard index (
) values of eight heavy metals all showed that adverse effects on human health were unlikely, and the mean carcinogenic (
) values of As, Cr and Ni for children and adults all suggested an acceptable carcinogenic risk to human beings. In addition, children exposed to these heavy metals faced more serious non-carcinogenic and carcinogenic health threats compared to adults. The results could provide valuable information for demanding the better control of heavy metal pollution and mitigation of the adverse effects on residents by environmental regulators in national urban regions.
Few prior studies have investigated the income gradient in child mental health from a socio-environmental perspective. In an age when child mental health problems in a rapidly changing social ...environment have become a worldwide issue, an understanding of the socio-environmental mechanisms of the income disparities in child mental health outcomes is imperative and cost-effective.
By conducting structural equation analyses with Chinese nationally representative survey data, this study explored the family income gradient in child depression and its potential socio-environmental pathways at the neighborhood, family and school levels, differentiating left-behind and not-left-behind children.
We found a robust family income gradient in depressive symptoms. Neighborhood cohesion mitigated the income gradient in depressive symptoms by playing a suppression role. School social capital acted as a mediator. Neighborhood trust, neighborhood safety and family social capital played no significant impact. The mitigating and mediating roles of social capital components were significant among only the not-left-behind children.
To reduce income-related inequalities in child mental health in the long run, integrating policies that directly reduce poverty with policies that improve distal socio-environments is necessary.
Tidal flat is an important supplementary land resource. However, increasing tidal flat reclamation in China has resulted in severe environmental issues. Using single-metal pollution index and ...multi-metal Nemerow pollution index, this study aimed to evaluate the risks of heavy metal pollution among different tidal flat use types, including fish farm, farmland, pastoral land, industrial land, forest and unutilized land. The results indicated that, concentrations of all elements were higher than geochemical values; Cd posed the highest risk, followed by As and Ni. Fish farm created the highest risk, followed by farmland. Every one year increase in fish farming led to increases in sediment concentrations of Cu, Cr, Ni, Pb, Zn and As by 0.73, 1.25, 0.68, 0.41, 1.22 and 0.20 mg.kg−1, respectively. Tidal flat reclamation in Jiangsu Province creates the risk of heavy metal pollution, and specific attention should be paid to the fodders and additives used in fish farming.
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•Jiangsu tidal flats were in mild to moderate heavy metal risk.•Cd had the highest risk, followed by As and Ni.•Fish farm posed the highest risk, followed by farmland and forest.•Heavy metal concentration in sediments of fishponds was enhanced with breeding years.
Previous research linking social capital to child nutritional status primarily constitutes cross-sectional studies. To investigate whether a longitudinal relationship exists, by conducting ...fixed-effects analyses with 16,977 repeatedly measured observations of 6193 children from the 2012, 2014, 2016, and 2018 China Family Panel Studies, this study explored the longitudinal effects of neighborhood participation, bonding trust, and bridging trust on the BMI-for-age z-score (BAZ) and BMI categories of school-aged children, differentiating between urban and rural residence. We found an increasing average BAZ, a decreasing prevalence of underweight, an increasing prevalence of overweight/obesity, and a reducing urban/rural gap in nutritional status. The levels of social capital components descended faster in the urban area. Bonding trust was predictive of a lower BAZ, a higher likelihood of being underweight, and a lower likelihood of being overweight/obese. Bridging trust was predictive of a higher BAZ. The longitudinal effects of bonding trust were significant among only the rural children. Our findings indicate that neighborhood social capital may impose causal impacts on the nutritional status of children. To effectively improve child nutritional status, a more empathetic governmental approach that promotes a more supportive distal social environment is needed.
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