May a comprehensive mineralogical study of a jackstone calculus and some other human bladder stones unveil health and environmental implications?

This paper represents the first result of an active collaboration between the University of Sannio and the San Pio Hospital (Benevento, Italy), started in the 2018, that aims to a detailed mineralogical investigation of urinary stones of patients from Campania region. Herein, selected human bladder stones have been deeply characterized for clinical purposes and environmental biomonitoring, focusing on the importance to evaluate the concentration and distribution of undesired trace elements by means of microscopic techniques in the place of conventional wet chemical analyses. A rare bladder stone with a sea-urchin appearance, known as jackstone calculus, were also investigated (along with bladder stones made of uric acid and brushite) by means a comprehensive analytical approach, including Synchrotron X-ray Diffraction and Simultaneous Thermal Analyses. Main clinical assumptions were inferred according to the morpho-constitutional classification of bladder stones and information about patient's medical history and lifestyle. In most of the analyzed uroliths, undesired trace elements such as copper, cadmium, lead, chromium, mercury and arsenic have been detected and generally attributable to environmental pollution or contaminated food. Simultaneous occurrence of selenium and mercury should denote a methylmercury detoxification process, probably leading to the formation of a very rare HgSe compound known as tiemannite.

Fungal diversity in lake and sea beaches of Italy: Relevance to human health.

Fungal diseases correlated to beach sand or water have not yet been demonstrated due to the lack of epidemiological studies. This study aims to illustrate the fungal population in beach sands of the two largest Italian lakes and in sands and waters of Mediterranean coasts of Southern Italy to contribute to the identification and assessment of causes of microbiological pollution that might impair bathers health. A great difference was observed between the two lakes, where the total of colony-forming units (CFU) ranged from 33.3 to 1049.9 CFU/g. For coastal sands, the total CFU ranged from 216.7 to 538.8 CFU/g, and for coastal waters the total ranged from 185 to 368.7 CFU/ml. The survey revealed the prevalence of opportunistic pathogenic moulds, mainly Aspergillus spp. (A. niger and A. fumigatus) and Penicillium spp., both in freshwater and costal bathing sites. Dermatophytes and yeasts were not detected in the freshwater sands while they were found at low load in coastal waters (3.3 CFU/ml) and sands (1.7 CFU/g). Differences were observed between urban and non-urban coastal beaches with regard to isolation of dermatophytes only from one urban beach. The present study reports a great diversity of fungi in sand and water of bathing beaches confirming that the Mediterranean region has a greater variety of fungal species.

The devitrification of artificial fibers: a multimethodic approach to quantify the temperature-time onset of cancerogenic crystalline phases.

A variety of artificial fibers extensively employed as lining in high-temperature apparatus may undergo a devitrification process that leads to significant changes in the chemical-physical properties of the materials. Among them, the crystallization of carcinogenic minerals, such as cristobalite, has already been documented for alumino-silicate ceramic fibers. Five fibrous samples with different compositions were treated over a wide range of temperatures (20-1500°C) and times (24-336 h) to investigate the rate and the crystalline phases that are formed as well their onset temperatures. The new phases were characterized by using a multimethodic approach: phase transformations were monitored together with thermal analysis and the new phases were investigated by using X-ray powder diffraction analysis. The crystalline:amorphous ratio was monitored by Rietveld refinement of X-ray diffraction data. Scanning electron microscopy was used to study the effect of heat treatments on the morphology of fibers, and the nanostructures were investigated by transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The results show that the main crystalline phases are cristobalite, diopside, mullite, and zirconia. The onset of cristobalite was observed at temperature lower than that thermodynamically expected. The TEM analysis showed that protostructures were present in the material vitrified from sol-gel-derived products, which can act as crystallization nuclei. The study shows that the devitrification leads to health hazard due to the formation of inhalable powder of cancerogenic crystalline phases.