The occurrence and distribution of microplastic contamination in Qara-sou river, Iran: incidence, quantification, and qualification.

In the current study to investigate the characte - rization of Microplastic - released into the Qara-Sou river, Kermanshah, Iran, 12 sampling sites were surveyed along a 100 km stretch of the river. The maximum and minimum numbers of MPs were about 10,000 and 45,000 items per m3. The average concentration of MPs in the Qara-sou river was 23,666 ± 12147 items per m3. The dominant size and shape of MPs ranged from 0.025 to 1 mm (~44%) and fiber shapes (~78%). In addition, SEM-EDS analyses confirmed the presence of carbon-dominant peaks with O, Ca, Fe, Al, and Si. FTIR spectra have identified some MPs in the PVC, PU, PS, PE, and nylon polymer categories. A high level of MPs was discharged into the Qara-sou river, which should be attracting the attention of the community and decision-makers to reduce damage to the environment and human health.

Site selection and environmental risks assessment of medical solid waste landfill for the City of Kermanshah-Iran.

In this study, an integration of multi-criteria evaluation, geographic information system, and remote sensing techniques were used for site selection of medical waste landfills in Kermanshah, Iran. Also, an environmental risk assessment for the selected site has been conducted in order to minimize the possible hazardous. The GIS and remote sensing were used for acquiring and preparing layers and maps and the multi-criteria evaluation was used for setting aim, criteria selection, criteria weighting, and final decision making. The results showed that only 1.2% of the study area is scored high-suitable, while 90% of the area is considered unsuitable that makes this region critical for preservation. After further assessment and field visits, a suitable site was selected for landfilling. Environmental risk assessment showed that the selected site poses a low-level of risks to the environment and surrounding areas and this is because various environmental and health aspects have been considered in the site selection process.

Occurrence and characterization of microplastic content in the digestive system of riverine fishes.

In the present study, the occurrence and characterization of microplastics (MPs) content in the fishes of the river was studied. Therefore, six sampling stations were considered for fishing. Then, the entire stomach of fishes was investigated by visual stereomicroscope, FTIR, SEM, and EDX to analyze the content of the samples, by MPs type, shape, color, and size. The most frequency of MPs was observed in Ghazanchi (Siii) and Kermanshah (Siv) stations which were close to urban and industrial areas. Most types of detected MPs included polystyrene, polyethylene, and nylon with the highest frequency observed in Luciobarbus caspius and Alburnus chalcoides fishes. Overall, the frequency of detected MPs in the caught fishes was 93.8%. Indeed, MPs with a size of 0.025-1 mm (25-1000 µm) were the most frequency of MPs in fishes. The frequency of MPs shapes was fiber (85.12%), fragment (12.32%), foam (0.77%), film (1.21%), and microbead (0.56%), respectively. The highest and lowest percentage of MPs belonged to black and green with an abundance of 63% and 2%, respectively. The result implies that lots of riverine fishes are polluted with MPs, those which can move into the food chain.

An updated min-review on environmental route of the SARS-CoV-2 transmission.

The risk of newly emerging diseases is constantly present in a world where changes occur significantly in climatic, commercial, and ecological conditions, in addition to the development of biomedical investigations in new situations. An epidemic respiratory disease instigated by a new coronavirus was initially identified in and has resulted in the current global dissemination. This viral strain and its related disease has been termed "SARS-CoV-2" and "coronavirus disease 2019" (abbreviated "COVID-19" or "2019-nCoV"), respectively, which is transmitted simply between individuals. The World Health Organization (WHO) announced the COVID-19 outburst as a pandemic on March 11, which necessitates a cooperative endeavour globally for mitigating the spread of COVID-19. The absence of previous, and minimum present-day information, particularly concerning the path of contagion have precluded the control of this disease. The present article, therefore, describes the SARS-CoV-2 paths of contagion such as drinking water, solid waste, sewer water, ambient air, and the rest of emerging likely paths.

The hybrid system successfully to consisting of activated sludge and biofilter process from hospital wastewater: Ecotoxicological study.

This article aimed to demonstrate solution hospital wastewater due to more consumption of antibiotics, public concern has been significantly increased for usage, fates and occurrences of these emerging compounds in the environments and biota. Therefore, it does need more discoveries about occurrences and new treatment methods. Since the conventional treatment methods are low efficient on antibiotics, integration and combination of biological systems together or with an additional process has been shown that provided a better result. However, here, the potential of a full scale combined treating system with activated sludge-scoria biofilter (ASSB) was investigated for removal of ceftriaxone (CEF) and amoxicillin (AMX). To determine the potential biodegradability of proposed system, the solid-water distribution coefficient (Kd) was calculated. Overally, 118 samples were collected from three points; wastewater entering, exiting the activated sludge, and exiting the biofilter. To determine the amount of CEF and AMX antibiotics, the samples were analyzed using HPLC-UV. The results showed that the activated sludge system were able to eliminate the AMX and CEF antibiotics about 70.36 and 84.49%, respectively. In compare to activated sludge, the average mean of ASSB system for the removal efficiency were 87.53% (for AMX) and 93.17% (for CEF), respectively. As a result, it can be found that the efficiency of the combined activated sludge-biofilter system in removing of the low levels of antibiotics was more than individual activated system. The result of Kd revealed that AMX (with a Kd about 0.172) has lower tendency to biomass rather than CEF (with a Kd about 0.512). The ecological toxicity assessment guaranteed there is no risk for fish and daphnia when the activated sludge and also ASSB effluents to be discharged into the environment even without any diluting.

A review of microplastic pollution in commercial fish for human consumption.

Today microplastics (MPs) have received worldwide attention as an emerging environmental pollution which is one of the four major global environmental threat and health hazard to human as well. Unfortunately, MPs have been founded in the all environments and media include air, water resources, sediments, and soil. It should not be forgotten MPs have also been detected in food and processing products like tuna. MPs can be ingested by marine organisms such as zooplankton, fish and birds. Accumulation and distribution of MPs by commercially important aquatic organisms is expected to lead to greater exposure risk for human populations with possible adverse effects over time. The aim of this work was to review the published literature regarding the contamination of commercial fish muscle for human consumption. Furthermore, a short revision of the environmental contamination and human health effects by MPs are included. We also estimated human daily intake considering the worldwide contamination of commercial fish muscle ranged from 0.016 items/g muscle of fish to 6.06 items/g muscle of fish. MPs have been found in 56.5% of the commercial fish samples analysed here. As fish is used in human food table across the word, they constitute a long-term exposure route for all humans and raise the concern about the potential public health risk.

Advanced oxidation processes for the removal of phthalate esters (PAEs) in aqueous matrices: a review.

Over the past few decades, phthalate esters (PAEs) used as additives to improve the persistence and flexibility of polymeric materials. They are also used in cosmetics, insect repellents, and propellants, and their continuous input into drinking waters has constituted a serious risk to human health and the environment. DBPs are compounds classified as hazardous substances and have teratogenic properties. Due to the high bioaccumulation of DBP, they have toxic properties in different organisms, making it very important to remove PAEs before discharging them into environments. In this study a systematic review was designed to evaluate Advanced oxidation processes (AOPs) studies which have successfully treated contaminated water with PAEs. Among AOPs, particularly photocatalytic, UV/H2O2 photolysis, sonolysis, and ozone-based processes were more tried to degrade PAEs in aqueous solutions. Additionally, a more detail of each AOPs was explained. Findings showed that all advanced oxidation processes, especially combined AOPs have good results in the degradation of PAEs in water.

A systematic review on photo-Fenton process as an efficient advanced oxidation for degradation of amoxicillin in aqueous environments.

Amoxicillin (AMX) is one of the antibiotics in the penicillin category that is used in various fields. Considering the harmful effects of its remains, it is necessary to survey the ways to remove this compound. Advanced oxidation process (AOPs), specially photo-Fenton has been used for the removal of AMX. This study has been conducted based on PubMed, Google Scholar, DOAJ, Web of Science, and Scopus databases during the years 2008-2019. Some factors such as the aquatic solution, light source characteristics, iron, and H2O2 concentration, AMX degradation percentage, removal of total organic carbon percentage, and AMX concentration have been surveyed to optimize the process. Studies showed that the photo-Fenton process is highly dependent on pH, and in most studies, the highest efficiency has been observed in acidic pH values. Using a more energy light source can be effective in reducing the use of catalysts and oxidizers. The combined methods of AOPs such as photo-Fenton, electro-Fenton, and photo-electro-Fenton have higher efficiency in increasing mineralization than the photon process. The use of synthetic wastewater has a higher efficiency in the degradation of AMX than in real wastewater in the photo-Fenton process, which can be due to the absence of the interfering agents in synthetic environments.

The prevalence of aflatoxin M1 (AFM1) in conventional and industrial dairy products (yogurt, cheese, kashk and dough) of Iran: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

Aflatoxin is a toxic metabolite produced mainly by Aspergillus spp. which may occur in dairy products because of biotransformation. In this work, a systematic and meta-analysis approach has been considered on the topic of aflatoxin M1 (AFM1) content in dairy Iranian products. Based on the literature review, AFM1 was the most common aflatoxin contamination in dairy product. Additionally, studies revealed that higher levels of AFM1 were produced during cold seasons includes winter and autumn. Although, immunochemical technique (ELISA) was the frequent and rapid test, thin-layer chromatography (TLC) and chromatographic methods (HPLC) were commonly used as confirmative techniques to determine the level of aflatoxin. Meta-analyzing of the results showed that AFM1 can be found in the dairy products with overall prevalence percentage of 63.53 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 56.28-70.78) and 54.05 (95% CI: 43.09-65.02) based on the sample type and production process, respectively. The higher prevalence percentage of AFM1 of 73.96 (95% CI: 60.27-87.66) and 69.91 (95% CI: 62.00-78.83) was found in yoghurt and industrial production type of samples, respectively. In general, 17.8% of cheese, 14% of yogurt, 12.63% of kashk, and 2.1% of doogh contained AFM1 in concentrations exceeding the permitted level of standards. Totally, results showed that 88.89% of dairy products were contaminated by AFM1 exceeding from standard limits.

Improving the purification of aqueous solutions by controlling the production of reactive oxygen species in non-thermal plasma; a systematic review.

Treatment with non-thermal plasma is a reliable technology to oxidize chemical impurities that exist in polluted water, wastewater, and leachate, those degradation-resistant and cannot be removed by conventional treatment methods. In this study, the effective factors affecting in the formation ofreactive oxygen species in non-thermal plasma treatment process, as a new advanced oxidation process method explianed. In this manner, all associated manuscripts existed in the main databases including Google Scholar, Science Direct, PubMed, and Open Access Journal Directory from 1990 until 2022 were explored. The utilized keywords were involved non-thermal plasma, Cold plasma, Measurement, •OH, O3 and UV. Overall, 8,813 articles were gathered and based on the relevance titles and abstracts, 18 paper were selected for further reviewing. In several studies, plasma techniques have been used to treat water, wastewater and leachate, but few studies have evaluated the factors influencing the production of ROS species by non-thermal plasma. The non-thermal plasma destroys pollutants by reactive free radicals spices (hydroxyl, hydrogen atoms, etc.) a combination effect of strong electric fields, energetically charged particles, and ultrasound. Some factors such as water vapor, hydraulic retention time, inter-electrode spacing, discharge power density, and aeration of the effluent as well as use of catalyst have direct effect on the reactive oxygen species formation. If these factors controlled within the best ranges, it will promote the oxidizing radical production and system performance. Also, high-energy electrons and oxidizing species produced in the cold plasma system can well degrade most of pollution in water and wastewater.

A comprehensive review on human health effects of chromium: insights on induced toxicity.

The growing use of heavy metals in most industrial activities has led to it being considered as the most important environmental pollutant that may cause harm and toxicity to animals and humans. Chromium has been found in the environment in different oxidation states such as Cr0, Cr(III), and Cr(VI) and is released from a variety of anthropogenic and natural activities. At among, trivalent and hexavalent chromium are the most stable forms. Considerably, Cr(VI) is frequently more toxic than Cr(III) because of its particular solubility and high mobility. Chronic exposure and bioaccumulation of chromium, as a heavy metal, can cause toxicity and numerous pathophysiological defects, including allergic reactions, anemia, burns, and sores especially in the stomach and small intestine, damage to sperm along with the male reproductive system, and affect various biological systems. Chromium pollution can have severe consequences for water and the soil environment. This article reviews the toxicological effects of Cr(VI) and Cr(III) and their mechanisms of toxicity and carcinogenicity.

Water and wastewater as potential sources of SARS-CoV-2 transmission: a systematic review.

An important group of viruses are Coronaviruses that affect the health of people worldwide, in particular the acute respiratory syndrome. The present work has addressed the updated literature on the topic of coronaviruses transmission through water and wastewater as well as identified gaps in research to inform future studies. In total, 198 articles were selected, then after screening, 48 eligible studies were fully reviewed. Accordingly, the studies showed that the coronavirus has been isolated and identified from water as well as wastewater. The results of researches show that the presence of SARS-Co-2 virus in municipal wastewater is possible due to the excretion of the virus in human feces. In addition, the SARS-Co-2 virus was isolated from contaminated water and rivers, but there is insufficient evidence for virus transmission by water and wastewater. Water and wastewater treatment methods are able to reduce the pollution load caused by this virus in water sources. Water disinfection has an effective role in removing it from water and wastewater sources. Due to the short period of time in the global pandemic and the small number of studies in this field, further studies are needed to make a definite statement about the transferability of virus in water and wastewater.

Correction to: Systematic review and metal analysis on three important fungal group (dermatophytes, yeasts and saprophytes) isolated from Iranian swimming pools.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1007/s40201-021-00670-5.].

Occurrence and exposure analysis of microplastic in the gut and muscle tissue of riverine fish in Kermanshah province of Iran.

This study aimed to determine the presence of MPs in the gut and muscle tissue of riverine fish collected from the Qarasu River, Kermanshah, Iran. The results highlighted that MPs were found in the gut and muscle of all fish species at an average abundance of 8.12 ± 4.26 P/individual and 0.85 ± 0.38 P/g muscles, respectively. High amounts of MPs were found in the range of 1-25 µm in terms of size distribution. The properties of MPs extracted indicated that PE, PP, PS, and PA in the monotype of fiber and fragment were the most abundant plastic types and shapes found. Additionally, EAI was calculated for MPs found in the muscle. So, 174.43 and 127.19 P/kg/bw/year (1.28 and 0.93 g/kg/bw/year), were intake by two groups of adults and children, respectively. These findings highlight the contamination of fish as a common source of marine food in home consumption and the probability of entrance into the human diet.

Systematic review and metal analysis on three important fungal group (dermatophytes, yeasts and saprophytes) isolated from Iranian swimming pools.

The swimming pool particularly has been considered in tropical area and warm seasons in order to recreational actives and also different exercises. Therefore, poor management and unhealthy behavior of swimmers could be a cause of fungal diseases transmission among swimmers. The present study has addressed the literatures on the topic of fungal contamination of indoor/outdoor swimming pools in Iran. Based on the literature review, most common fungal contaminations were on the list of sporophytes fungus. The majority of the reported and isolated fungal were Aspergillus spp.(50 %), Rhizopus spp., Cladosporium spp.kand Penicillium spp. In addition, E. flucosom and T. mentagrophytes were the most abundant dermatophytes. Meta-analyzing of the results showed that dermatophytes, yeasts and saprophytes can be found in the swimming pool samples with a percent of 2.78 %, 14.29 and 73.73 %, respectively. High heterogeneity rate between studies was found for all types of fungal categories by I2, and a p-value < 0.0001. The results of outdoor pools (hot spring pools) showed Aspergillus spp. as a predominating species and other types such as A. fumigatusm, A.feltus and A.niger with penicillium spp. as the most abundant funguses in the next order pool type. It can be concluded that the swimming pools (both indoor and outdoor) are considerable reservoir of human diseases caused by fungi, especially a potential source of dermatophyte infection.

Molecular Mechanism of Aniline Induced Spleen Toxicity and Neuron Toxicity in Experimental Rat Exposure: A Review.

Aniline exposure leads to neuron and spleen toxicity specifically and makes diverse neurological effects and sarcoma that is defined by splenomegaly, hyperplasia, and fibrosis and tumors formation at the end. However, the molecular mechanism(s) of aniline-induced spleen toxicity is not understood well, previous studies have represented that aniline exposure results in iron overload and initiation of oxidative/nitrosative disorder stress and oxidative damage to proteins, lipids and DNA subsequently, in the spleen. Elevated expression of cyclins, cyclin-dependent kinases (CDKs) and phosphorylation of pRB protein along with increases in A, B and CDK1 as a cell cycle regulatory proteins cyclins, and reduce in CDK inhibitors (p21 and p27) could be critical in cell cycle regulation, which contributes to tumorigenic response after aniline exposure. Aniline-induced splenic toxicity is correlated to oxidative DNA damage and initiation of DNA glycosylases expression (OGG1, NEIL1/2, NTH1, APE1 and PNK) for removal of oxidative DNA lesions in rat. Oxidative stress causes transcriptional up-regulation of fibrogenic/inflammatory factors (cytokines, IL- 1, IL-6 and TNF-α) via induction of nuclear factor-kappa B, AP-1 and redox-sensitive transcription factors, in aniline treated-rats. The upstream signalling events as phosphorylation of IκB kinases (IKKα and IKKß) and mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPKs) could potentially be the causes of activation of NF-κB and AP-1. All of these events could initiate a fibrogenic and/or tumorigenic response in the spleen. The spleen toxicity of aniline is studied more and the different mechanisms are suggested. This review summarizes those events following aniline exposure that induce spleen toxicity and neurotoxicity.

Simultaneous wastewater treatment and biogas production using integrated anaerobic baffled reactor granular activated carbon from baker's yeast wastewater.

In this study, simultaneous degradation of organic matter and color removal from food processing industries wastewater using an integrated anaerobic baffled reactor granular activated carbon (IABRGAC) was investigated. Theretofore, effective parameters such as hydraulic retention time (HRT) and granular activated carbon (GAC) filling ratio were studied. The bioreactor was operated at 3, 4 and 5 d of HRT and GAC filling ratio of 20%, 35% and 50%. To analyze and optimize the independent operating variables, response surface methodology was applied. Operating condition was optimized for HRT (4 d) and GAC filling ratio (50%). Better COD (94.6%) and BOD (93.7%) removal efficiency occurred with loading COD of 15,000 mg/L, with diminished wastewater color around 54% and turbidity to 54 NTU. In addition, methane production, methane yielding rate (Ym) and specific methanogenic activity (SMA) test in an integrated system were investigated. The system IABRGAC was able to generate a volumetric rate about 0.31 and 0.44 L/g CODremoved d at the experimental condition. The Ym was between 0.31 and 0.44 L/g CODremoved.d and SMA was between 0.13 and 0.38 g COD/g volatile suspended solid. Based on results it can be concluded that the IABRGAC to be a successful pretreatment for highstrength wastewater before discharging the final effluent to sewerage and aerobic treating processes.

Application of high rate integrated anaerobic-aerobic/biogranular activated carbon sequencing batch reactor (IAnA-BioGACSBR) for treating strong municipal landfill leachate.

The aim of the present study is to evaluate the application of high rate integrated anaerobic-aerobic/biogranular activated carbon sequencing batch reactor (IAnA-BioGACSBR) to treat raw strong leachate from open dumping of municipal solid waste. The influence of two important and effective independent variables, COD concentrations and volumetric filling rate with GAC, onto the leachate treatment were investigated. Three responses such as TKN, BOD and COD were considered for evaluating the interaction of parameters. The results showed that maximum BOD5 removal of 98.9% in anaerobic zone and 99% in aerobic zone was obtained at the highest values of COD (~30000 mg/L) and filling ratio (~50%). The highest values of COD removal efficiency were found to be 98.54% and 98%, at COD rate of 10000 mg/L and GAC of 35%, respectively. The highest removal values of TKN was 77.2% and 78.9% in anaerobic and aerobic zone, respectively. Under optimal conditions, compared with the SBR and the GAC-SBR performances, results reveal that the application of the GAC-SBR has shown better effluent characteristics. Based on the results, it can be asserted that the application of the high rate IAnA-BioGACSBR for the treatment of biodegradable landfill leachate was more effective.

Photocatalytic degradation of Aniline from aqueous solutions under sunlight illumination using immobilized Cr:ZnO nanoparticles.

The present study aimed at synthesizing chromium doped zinc oxide nanoparticles (Cr:ZnO NPs) under mild hydrothermal conditions (temperature ~100 °C, p = autogenous and time ~12 hr). Chromium oxide and n-butylamine were used as dopant and surface modifier, respectively. The characteristics of the synthesized nanoparticles were determined through conducting specialized experiments including powder XRD, FTIR, SEM, EDX, and UV-VIS spectroscopy. Then, the Cr:ZnO NPs were immobilized on a sandblasted glass through thermal method. The photocatalytic degradation of aniline was conducted in a continuous reactor with a volume of 1.5 liters. Before and after photocatalytic degradation, the immobilized Cr:ZnO NPs were characterized for SEM and EDX to determine the degree of stability of immobilized nanoparticles as well as the influence of the current applied on them. The photodegradation operational parameters investigated were aniline initial concentration (150, 200, and 250 mg/L), pH (5, 7, 6, and 12), and reaction time (2, 4, and 6 hours) under sunlight illumination. The characterization results indicated high purity of the Cr:ZnO NPs and no change in morphology or composition even after the immobilization and photo-oxidation process. Finally, it was found that the optimum conditions for 93% removal of aniline under sunlight illumination was about 6 hours retention time at pH 9.