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A special issue of International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health (ISSN 1660-4601). This special issue belongs to the section "Environmental Science and Engineering".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (1 May 2023) | Viewed by 9143

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Dr. Yan Li

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Guest Editor

Collaborative Innovation Center of Sustainable Forestry, College of Forestry, Nanjing Forestry University, Nanjing, China
Interests: hazardous materials; soil; sediment; dust; heavy metals; polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

With the acceleration of global industrialization, various pollutants are accumulating in the environment. Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and heavy metals are typical organic and inorganic pollutants that are produced in the process of social and economic development. They have carcinogenic, teratogenic, and gene mutation effects on the human body, among others. These pollutants are widely distributed in the environment and pose a serious threat to ecological security and human health. The accurate ecological and health risk assessment of pollutants in the environment is an important basis for the prevention and control of environmental pollution. Risk assessment methods and models are important means to master the risk status of pollutants. In particular, new technologies, such as 3GIS and language programming, can quickly and accurately identify risk levels and risk areas as well as provide important technical support for environmental pollution control.

This scope of this Special Issue will serve as a forum for papers covering the following concepts:

Spatial analysis of regional contaminants (heavy metals, PAHs, microplastics, etc.), including but not limited to spatial prediction methods, risk zoning, etc.
Studies on the migration, transformation, prediction, and impact mechanism of contaminants between different environmental media.
Risk assessments of hazardous materials, including risk assessment, the formulation of assessment standards, risk assessments of combined pollution of different hazardous materials, etc.

Prof. Dr. Yan Li
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

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Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2500 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

environmental pollution
risk assessment
source apportionment
sediment
heavy metals
polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons
risk zoning

Published Papers (5 papers)

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Research

18 pages, 17498 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Assessment of Soil Heavy Metal Pollution and Health Risks in Different Functional Areas on the Northern Slope of the Eastern Tianshan Mountains in Xinjiang, NW China

by Halidan Asaiduli, Abdugheni Abliz, Abudukeyimu Abulizi, Xiaoli Sun and Panqing Ye

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2023, 20(6), 4843; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20064843 - 09 Mar 2023

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1460

Abstract

In typical semi-arid areas, the timely and effective monitoring and evaluation of soil heavy metal pollution are of critical importance to prevent soil deterioration and achieve the sustainable use of soil resources. To further understand the degree of soil heavy metal pollution in different functional areas, we studied the soil heavy metal pollution on the northern slope of the eastern Tianshan Mountains in Xinjiang. We collected 104 surface soil samples from typical commercial (A), industrial (B), and agricultural (C) areas with different land-use patterns. The contents of Zn, Cu, Cr, Pb, As, and Hg in the soil of different functional areas were evaluated using the geo-accumulation index, the single-factor pollution index, and potential ecological risk. The results showed that the contents of Pb, As, and Hg in soils of different functional areas exceeded 4.47, 8.03, and 1.5 times the background values of Xinjiang soil, respectively. The average contents of Zn, Cu, and Cr were lower than the background values of Xinjiang soil. Except for As in different functional areas, the contents of the other elements in the different functional areas reached the level of soil environmental quality standards in China (GB15618-2018). The geo-accumulation index of heavy metals in different functional areas was in the order of Area C > Area A > Area B, indicating that Area C was the most polluted. The results of the single-factor pollution index showed that the pollution levels of Pb, As, and Hg were higher, and the pollution levels of Cr, Cu, and Zn were lower. The results of the potential ecological risk index showed that the northwest of Area A was higher, the southeast of Area B was more polluted, and the central and eastern parts of Area C were more polluted. From the perspective of spatial distribution, the spatial distribution characteristics of Zn and Cr elements in different functional areas are consistent, but the spatial distribution characteristics of Cu, Pb, As, and Hg in different functional areas are quite different. The high values of these four elements are mainly distributed in residential areas, factories, and metal smelters. It is necessary to divide the functional areas based on different land-use patterns, and the prevention of soil single-element and heavy metal pollution in different functional areas is reasonable for land resources and provides a scientific basis for the effective planning of quality assurance. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Risk Analysis Method and Model of Pollutants)

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13 pages, 2231 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Analysis of VOCs Emitted from Small Laundry Facilities: Contributions to Ozone and Secondary Aerosol Formation and Human Risk Assessment

by Da-Mee Eun, Yun-Sung Han, Soo-Hyun Park, Hwa-Seong Yoo, Yen Thi-Hoang Le, Sangmin Jeong, Ki-Joon Jeon and Jong-Sang Youn

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2022, 19(22), 15130; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph192215130 - 16 Nov 2022

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1596

Abstract

Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) emitted to the atmosphere form ozone and secondary organic aerosols (SOA) by photochemical reactions. As they contain numerous harmful compounds such as carcinogens, it is necessary to analyze them from a health perspective. Given the petroleum-based organic solvents used during the drying process, large amounts of VOCs are emitted from small laundry facilities. In this study, a laundry facility located in a residential area was selected, while VOCs data emitted during the drying process were collected and analyzed using a thermal desorption-gas chromatography/mass spectrometer (TD-GC/MS). We compared the results of the solvent composition, human risk assessment, contribution of photochemical ozone creation potential (POCP), and secondary organic aerosol formation potential (SOAP) to evaluate the chemical species. Alkane-based compounds; the main components of petroleum organic solvents, were dominant. The differences in evaporation with respect to the boiling point were also discerned. The POCP contribution exhibited the same trend as the emission concentration ratios for nonane (41%), decane (34%), and undecane (14%). However, the SOAP contribution accounted for o-xylene (28%), decane (27%), undecane (25%), and nonane (9%), thus confirming the high contribution of o-xylene to SOA formation. The risk assessment showed that acrylonitrile, carbon tetrachloride, nitrobenzene, bromodichloromethane, and chloromethane among carcinogenic compounds, and bromomethane, chlorobenzene, o-xylene, and hexachloro-1, 3-butadiene were found to be hazardous, thereby excessing the standard value. Overall these results facilitate the selection and control of highly reactive and harmful VOCs emitted from the dry-cleaning process. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Risk Analysis Method and Model of Pollutants)

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17 pages, 9821 KiB

Open AccessFeature PaperArticle

A Study of the Plan and Performance Evaluation Method of an 8-m³ Chamber Using Ventilation Experiments and Numerical Analyses

by Seonghyun Park, Seongwoo Park and Janghoo Seo

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2022, 19(20), 13556; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph192013556 - 19 Oct 2022

Viewed by 1149

Abstract

With increases in the time spent on indoor activities, the interests and technological demands regarding indoor air quality (IAQ) have also increased. Indoor air pollution is often caused by furniture or construction materials and chemical substances, such as volatile organic compounds (VOCs). As a way to remove such pollutants, efforts have been made to promote the management of indoor air quality through emission experiments. To conduct an experiment, such as the pollutant emission experiment involving substances harmful to the human body, a chamber to control various factors should be developed. By using such chambers, experimental variables can be minimized, quantitative analyses may be conducted, and the basic theory may be discussed. When the chamber is installed, it is not easy to change the existing installed conditions. Therefore, it is necessary to review feasibility with an accurate design. However, there is limited research on both how to quantitatively design the chamber and evaluate it. Therefore, this study investigates suitable chamber design methods and performance through ventilation performance evaluation to discuss potential development methods. In the chamber design step, a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analysis was performed to estimate the ventilation efficiency according to the inlet and outlet positions to develop an 8-m³ chamber. Next, a ventilation experiment was performed using the tracer gas method for the performance evaluation, while the chamber interior airflow was simulated based on the CFD analysis. In a ventilation experiment using a tracer gas, the variation in gas density leads to concentration imbalance; as a result of concentration imbalance at each point, errors may occur in ventilation efficiency depending on the measurement point, causing the accuracy of the performance evaluation to fall. An attempt was made to resolve this problem by performing the ventilation experiment with a ceiling fan. The result indicated that the performance evaluation could be conducted without altering ventilation efficiency, coinciding with the CFD analysis result. Furthermore, when the concentration field was examined according to time in the CFD analysis, uniform concentration of chamber interior air allowed the ventilation efficiency to be calculated irrespective of the measurement point. Based on the findings, this study suggests a quantitative method of performance evaluation with an experiment in an 8-m³ chamber and a concurrent CFD analysis. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Risk Analysis Method and Model of Pollutants)

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16 pages, 3632 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Soil Quality Assessment in Farmland of a Rapidly Industrializing Area in the Yangtze Delta, China

by Xiangling Zhang, Yan Li, Genmei Wang, Huanchao Zhang, Ruisi Yu, Ning Li, Jiexiang Zheng and Ye Yu

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2022, 19(19), 12912; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph191912912 - 09 Oct 2022

Cited by 4 | Viewed by 1776

Abstract

The comprehensive quality assessment of farmland soil is critical for agricultural production and soil ecological protection. Currently, there is no systematic method for conducting a comprehensive quality assessment of farmland soil; subsequently, as the most developed economic area in China, the comprehensive quality assessment of farmland soil in the Yangtze River Delta is lacking. We chose the farmland soil of Suzhou city as the research object. The soil fertility index (SFI) and soil environment index (SEI) were calculated with the membership function and Nemerow index. Finally, the comprehensive assessment of soil quality was achieved with the TOPSIS model. The results showed that the average values of soil pH, SOM, TN, AHN, AP, and AK were 6.44 (slightly acidic), 28.17 g/kg (medium), 1.63 g/kg (rich), 118.16 mg/kg (medium), 38.31 mg/kg (rich), and 160.63 mg/kg (rich), respectively. For the concentrations of heavy metals, including Cr, Ni, Cu, Zn, Cd, and Pb, in 122 soil samples, the percentages exceeding the background values of Jiangsu province were 5.74%, 8.20%, 8.20%, 10.66%, 86.07%, and 84.43%, respectively. Cd and Pb were the main heavy metal pollutants on farmlands. The soil samples with SFI values below the medium level (SFI < 0.6) accounted for 44.26%, and samples with SEI values below the medium level (SEI < 0.6) accounted for 13.12%. The values of the soil quality index (SQI) ranged from 0.171 to 0.996, with an average SQI value of 0.586 (very poor—V), and approximately half of the farmland soil quality in Suzhou city needed to be further improved. In a word, this study provides a theoretical basis and scientific support for the quality assessment and rational utilization of farmland soil. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Risk Analysis Method and Model of Pollutants)

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16 pages, 5163 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Water-Quality Assessment and Pollution-Risk Early-Warning System Based on Web Crawler Technology and LSTM

by Guoliang Guan, Yonggui Wang, Ling Yang, Jinzhao Yue, Qiang Li, Jianyun Lin and Qiang Liu

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2022, 19(18), 11818; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph191811818 - 19 Sep 2022

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 2424

Abstract

The openly released and measured data from automatic hydrological and water quality stations in China provide strong data support for water environmental protection management and scientific research. However, current public data on hydrology and water quality only provide real-time data through data tables in a shared page. To excavate the supporting effect of these data on water environmental protection, this paper designs a water-quality-prediction and pollution-risk early-warning system. In this system, crawler technology was used for data collection from public real-time data. Additionally, a modified long short-term memory (LSTM) was adopted to predict the water quality and provide an early warning for pollution risks. According to geographic information technology, this system can show the process of spatial and temporal variations of hydrology and water quality in China. At the same time, the current and future water quality of important monitoring sites can be quickly evaluated and predicted, together with the pollution-risk early warning. The data collected and the water-quality-prediction technique in the system can be shared and used for supporting hydrology and in water quality research and management. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Risk Analysis Method and Model of Pollutants)

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