Dioxin risk assessment: mechanisms of action and possible toxicity in human health.

Dioxin-like compounds (DLCs) have been classified by the World Health Organization (WHO) as one of the most persistent toxic chemical substances in the environment, and they are associated with several occupational activities and industrial accidents around the world. Since the end of the 1970s, these toxic chemicals have been banned because of their human toxicity potential, long half-life, wide dispersion, and they bioaccumulate in the food web. This review serves as a primer for environmental health professionals to provide guidance on short-term risk assessment of dioxin and to identify key findings for health and exposure assessment based on policies of different agencies. It also presents possible health effects of dioxins, mechanisms of action, toxic equivalency factors (TEFs), and dose-response characterization. Key studies related to toxicity values of dioxin-like compounds and their possible human health risk were identified through PubMed and supplemented with relevant studies characterized by reviewing the reference lists in the review articles and primary literature. Existing data decreases the scope of analyses and models in relevant studies to a manageable size by focusing on the set of important studies related to the perspective of developing toxicity values of DLCs.

Integrated ecological risk assessment of dioxin compounds.

Current ecological risk assessment (ERA) schemes focus mainly on bioaccumulation and toxicity of pollutants in individual organisms. Ecological models are tools mainly used to assess ecological risks of pollutants to ecosystems, communities, and populations. Their main advantage is the relatively direct integration of the species sensitivity to organic pollutants, the fate and mechanism of action in the environment of toxicants, and life-history features of the individual organism of concern. To promote scientific consensus on ERA schemes, this review is intended to provide a guideline on short-term ERA involving dioxin chemicals and to identify key findings for exposure assessment based on policies of different agencies. It also presents possible adverse effects of dioxins on ecosystems, toxicity equivalence methodology, environmental fate and transport modeling, and development of stressor-response profiles for dioxin-like chemicals.

Nanoparticle flotation collectors--the influence of particle softness.

The ability of polymeric nanoparticles to promote glass bead and pentlandite (Pn, nickel sulfide mineral) attachment to air bubbles in flotation was measured as a function of the nanoparticle glass transition temperature using six types of nanoparticles based on styrene/N-butylacrylate copolymers. Nanoparticle size, surface charge density, and hydrophobicity were approximately constant over the series. The ability of the nanoparticles to promote air bubble attachment and perform as flotation collectors was significantly greater for softer nanoparticles. We propose that softer nanoparticles were more firmly attached to the glass beads or mineral surface because the softer particles had a greater glass/polymer contact areas and thus stronger overall adhesion. The diameters of the contact areas between polymeric nanoparticles and glass surfaces were estimated with the Young-Laplace equation for soft, liquidlike particles, whereas JKR adhesion theory was applied to the harder polystyrene particles. The diameters of the contact areas were estimated to be more than an order of magnitude greater for the soft particles compared to harder polystyrene particles.

Comprehensive study of tartrazine/cationic surfactant interaction.

Interaction of a food dye, tartrazine, with some cationic conventional and gemini surfactants, tetradecyltrimethylammonium bromide (TTAB), N,N'-ditetradecyl-N,N,N',N'-tetramethyl-N,N'-butanediyl-diammonium dibromide (14,4,14), and N,N'-didodecyl-N,N,N',N'-tetramethyl-N,N'-butanediyl-diammonium dibromide (12,4,12), were first investigated comprehensively employing conductometry, tensiometry, and UV-visible spectroscopy. Tartrazine was found to behave in the same manner as aromatic counterions. The formation of ion pairs reflected as a considerable increase of the surfactant efficiency in tensiometry plots and their stoichiometry were determined by Job's method of continuous variations. For the tartrazine/TTAB system, nonionic DS(3), ionic DS(2-), and/or DS(2)(-) ion pairs, their small premicelles, and tartrazine-rich micelles were constituted as well as dye-containing TTAB-rich micelles. Insoluble J-aggregates of DS(-) ion pairs and cylindrical surfactant-rich micelles were also formed in tartrazine/gemini surfactant systems and recognized by transmission electron microscopy. The zeta potential and the size of the aggregates were determined using dynamic light scattering and confirmed the suggested models for the processes happening in each system. Cyclic voltammetry was applied successfully to track all of these species using tartrazine's own reduction peak current for the first time.