Environmental Health Commons^™

Wastewater-Based Estimation Of Substances Discharged At The Rest Areas Along The State Highways In Kentucky, Katherine E. Gray, Eugene Shin, Tyler Whitt, Andrew Windhorst, Houston Hampton, Chris Delcher, Bikram Subedi

Posters-at-the-Capitol

The availability of licit and illicit stimulants and its adverse consequences on public health has emerged as a major drug threat to communities in the United States. Despite several drug-involved traffic incidents along the interstate highways, this report represents the first comprehensive and quantitative report of drugs discharged at the rest areas along the interstate highways. In this National Institute of Justice-funded study, the amount of several discharged drugs focusing on stimulants but also including opioids and prescription antipsychotics are being measured in raw wastewater collected from five rest areas and a truck servicing facility using a state-of-the-art mass …

Trace Elements In Nails And Anemia In Children Living Along The Interoceanic Highway, Madre De Dios, Peru / Narrative Competence And Cognitive Mapping As A Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy In The Education Of Emergent Bilinguals, Tia Marks

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Anthropogenic changes in the Peruvian Amazon, including deforestation, highway development, agriculture, and artisanal and small-scale gold mining (ASGM), have increased community concern about potential exposures toxic trace elements (TTE) including arsenic (As), cadmium (Cd), mercury (Hg), and lead (Pb). Such exposures can lead to detrimental health effects in children, such as developmental delays and anemia. The overarching goal of my dissertation was to understand exposure to both toxic and essential (manganese (Mn), selenium (Se), and zinc (Zn)) trace elements, anemia prevalence, and the associations between hemoglobin (Hb) levels and trace elements. To do this, I leveraged existing data from a …

It Permeated Everything: A Lived Experience Of Slow Violence And Toxicological Disaster, Tara Jo Holmberg

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

Impacts of disasters on individuals are dependent on numerous factors: local to international political dynamics, socioeconomics, geography, educational background, and outside support among others. Currently, much of disaster research focuses on those of natural origin, acute and large-scale environmental events, emergency management, and the ability of individuals, communities, and societies to prepare for, and recover from, likely known disasters in their region. However, there is a lack of data about individual experiences through ‘invisible’ anthropogenic disasters, especially those that fall under the umbrella of slow environmental violence (Davies, 2019; Rice, 2016). Through critical phenomenological autoethnography, I examine an individual experience …

Longitudinal Patterns Of Microplastic Abundance And Potential For Food Web Uptake In The Yakima River, Janell Shah

All Master's Theses

Microplastic (MP) pollutes environments worldwide, but the ecological consequences remain largely unknown. While MP research has historically focused on marine environments, recent work has increasingly investigated rivers as transporters of MP from terrestrial sources to the ocean. Some studies have documented instances of MP consumption in a river food web, but few have investigated multiple consumers at different points along a river continuum. This study enumerated the MP abundance in the water column, biofilm, and four macroinvertebrate families from different functional feeding groups across nine sites spanning 344 kilometers from the headwaters to the mouth of the Yakima River in …

Biofabrication Of Magnetic Nanoparticles And Their Use As Carriers For Pectinase And Xylanase, Shady S. Hassan, Brendan Duffy, Gwilym A. Williams, Amit Jaiswal

Articles

In this study, superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (MNPs) were synthesized via exposure of fungal cell filtrate from Aspergillus flavus to aqueous iron ions. The extracellular synthesis of MNPs was monitored by UV–Vis spectrophotometry and showed an absorption peak at 310 nm. The morphology of MNPs was found to be flake-like, as confirmed by Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscopy (FESEM), while the average crystallite size was ∼16 nm, as determined by X-ray diffraction (XRD). Energy dispersive X-ray (EDX) analysis was performed to confirm the presence of elemental Fe in the sample. Pectinase and xylanase were covalently immobilized on MNPs with efficiencies …

Preliminary Results Of Measurements Of Potentially Cancerogenic 1,4-Dioxane In Surface Water Of Twin Lakes Preserve, Wantagh, Ny, Lijo Jose Varghese

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

1,4-dioxane is a volatile organic compound categorized by the United States Environmental Protection agency (EPA, 2017) as a possible human carcinogen potent to cause tumors in humans. Even though this compound poses significant environmental danger when it contaminates water sources, it is surprisingly less studied, and how it behaves in surface water is less understood. The biggest 1,4-dioxane plume in the United States is located in Long Island region of New York. The purpose of this study was to investigate the presence of 1,4-dioxane in surface water and document the influence of existing 1,4-dioxane plume to Twin Lakes Preserve. To …

Connecting Communities To Coastal Resilience: Enhancing Sustainability Through Public Participation In Salt Marsh Management And Restoration In Suffolk County, Ny, Jennifer L. Mcgivern

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Coastal resiliency is becoming significantly more critical to the livelihood of coastal communities as the frequency and intensity of storm events increases and is exacerbated by rising sea levels due to climate change. In October 2012 Superstorm Sandy impacted the New York-New Jersey area costing over $70 billion in storm damages and 147 lives lost, as storm surges surpassed record highs for the region. Protruding more than 100 miles into the Atlantic Ocean with over 1,000 miles of shoreline, Long Island is particularly vulnerable to the increasingly ferocious and numerous storms as well as the rising sea levels that climate …

Do Environmental Toxins Predict Violent Crimes?, Tyler Stahl

Symposium of Student Scholars

Do chemical pollutants that persistent in the environment and bioaccumulate in the body affect human health and behavior? Could these Persistent, Bioaccumulative, and Toxic (PBT) chemicals play a role in the cause of violent crimes due to deterioration of mental and cognitive functions? In the past, Mercury, a PBT chemical, has been shown in salmon to be associated with aggression. Could similar aggression occur in humans exposed to mercury through a toxic spill? Two sources of data are utilized in this analysis. The Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Annual Toxic Release Inventory publishes data on toxic releases into the environment and …

Sustainability And The Post-Covid Normal, Tuck Lye Koh, Michael P. Liwanag, Hong Minh Le

Perspectives@SMU

Governance and flexibility will be key to addressing challenges climate change and the next pandemic will bring

Addressing Uncertainties Of Polychlorinated Biphenyls In Schools, Alice Fan

Master's Projects and Capstones

Despite the potential neurological health deficits resulting from polychlorinated biphenyls, there is a lack of inhalation studies and regulations to protect students and teachers who are widely exposed to PCBs in older (1950 to 1979) schools. To estimate the extent of PCB detections in Los Angeles County schools, I applied a mathematical model to estimate the range of PCB detections in schools built between 1950 and 1984. I estimate the range of 17-34% PCB detections of open schools within Los Angeles County. Next, I reviewed exposure tools provided by the US EPA to bridge the uncertainty gaps between ingestion and …

Comparative Analysis Of Azo Dye Restriction In The International Textile Industry, Kayla Demark

Apparel Merchandising and Product Development Undergraduate Honors Theses

Azo dyes are the most used type of dye in the textile industry. Some of these dyes have the potential to be extremely toxic to both human health and the environment. While regulations of these dyes vary across the world, it is suggested that not enough is being done to protect consumers and the environment from potentially harmful azo dyes (Rawat et al., 2016). It is the responsibility of apparel companies to ensure that their products that contain azo dyes are safe for consumers.

The purpose of this study was to understand how azo dyes and their by-products are restricted …

Evaluating Urban Parks Accessibility And Equity: A Case Study Of Hartford, Ct And New Haven, Ct, Natalie Roach, Mara Tu

Honors Scholar Theses

Public parks provide cities with environmental benefits, positive health effects, recreational opportunities, community building, educational spaces, and public amenities. However, certain populations have been systematically denied their fair share of these benefits because of unjust practices in the creation and maintenance of urban parks. With a lens of environmental justice, the goal of this research was to assess park quality and accessibility of two Connecticut cities, Hartford and New Haven, by gathering publicly available information as well as using GIS tools.

The Trust for Public Land (TPL) has an existing ParkScore rating system that evaluates the quality of a city’s …

Food Insecurity And Risky Sexual Behaviors Among College Students, Bertille Octavie Mavegam Tango Assoumou M

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Food insecurity and sexually transmitted infections (STIs) are growing public health problems in the United States. Young people in general, and particularly college students, exhibit high prevalence of food insecurity, STIs, and risky sexual behaviors (RSB). Food insecurity and STIs among college students can have short- and long-term impacts on their academic success and their lives. Several studies have reported an association between food insecurity and some risky sexual behaviors among specific populations including HIV-infected people and homeless people. However, little is known about the relationship between food insecurity and RSB among college students. Given the high prevalence of food …

Evaluating A Commercially Available In-Duct Bipolar Ionization Device For Pollutant Removal And Potential Byproduct Formation, Yicheng Zeng, Prashik Manwatkar, Aurelie Laguerre, Marina Beke, Insung Kang, Akram S. Ali, Delphine K. Farmer, Elliott T. Gall, Mohammad Heidarinejad, Brent Stephens

Mechanical and Materials Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

We conducted a series of experiments to evaluate the gas and particle removal effectiveness and potential for byproduct formation resulting from the operation of a commercially available in-duct bipolar ionization device. Laboratory tests were conducted with the ionizer installed in a small air handler serving a large semi-furnished chamber. Chamber experiments were conducted under (i) normal operating conditions to characterize the impact of the ionizer on concentrations of particles (0.01–10 μm), ozone (O3), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), volatile organic compounds (VOCs), and aldehydes, and (ii) particle injection and decay conditions to characterize the impact of the ionizer operation on particle loss …

How A Low-Cost Method For Cumulative Water-Sampling Shows Need For Improvement Of Legal Public-Contact Standards In The United States, Samuel C. Kessler

Grawemeyer Colloquium Papers

Across the world, it is estimated that 4.5 billion people live near water sources “impaired” for use or contact. Standards for human-interaction are established by international organizations such as the WHO, and legislative bodies from national to local levels with jurisdiction over the quality of our waterways to ensure public & environmental health. Standards are often assessed from “grab-samples” taken from a waterbody at a certain time, with a minimum number analyzed. Water-quality standards in the United States are enforced under the Clean Water Act (CWA) via the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), applying to “waters of the United States” (WOTUS). …

The Effects Of Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals On Plants, Christian Mathew Pridemore

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

Endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) are a diverse group of chemicals which can have a detrimental effect on human health, affecting any physiological body system sensitive to hormonal changes. Human exposure to EDCs is inevitable due to their prevalence in modern living; EDCs are integral compounds found in everyday items with which humans interact and ingest. These, along with other indirect avenues leading to EDC exposure, pose a threat to both human health and to the health of wildlife and agricultural environments. Studies on the effects of EDCs on plants can be substantially informative and necessary for progress towards solving the …

Long Term Nutrient And Chlorophyll A Dynamics Across Long Island Sound And Impacts On Dissolved Oxygen Conditions Within The Western Sound (1991-2019), Sherry Perreira

Dissertations and Theses

Nitrogen overload, eutrophication, and hypoxia have been challenging and persistent water quality problems in Long Island Sound (LIS) over the past decades with major impacts on commercial industries, ecology, and recreational activities in the region. Recognizing these problems, the EPA enforced three phases of the Clean Water Act (CWA) to reduce nitrogen loads in an effort to improve this important estuary. This study examines how nitrogen (NH₃, NO_x & TDN), chlorophyll a (CHLA), and dissolved oxygen (DO) concentrations changed in LIS over the past 30 years, in response to water quality regulations as well as changes in …

Great East Lake 2021 Water Quality Highlight Report, Amanda Mcquaid, Robert Craycraft

UNH Cooperative Extension

A Water Quality Highlight Report by UNH CE Lakes Lay Monitoring Program for Great East Lake (Wakefield, NH; Acton , ME) for sampling efforts in 2021.

Utilization Of Paenibacillus Polymyxa In The Recovery Of Lithium Bearing Minerals, Diana Bullen

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

In the global transition to green energy in the transportation and power production sectors, lithium has emerged as a viable solution, and crucial component, for the effective storage of renewable resources. To avoid further degradation of the land due to mining for virgin material, methods focused on recovering lithium must be developed. This research project seeks to explore a new way to recover lithium by using the bacterium Paenibacillus polymyxa. The bacteria were grown and then applied to the lithium bearing mineral spodumene. Settling velocity profiles were constructed for different treatments of spodumene. It was found that the spodumene …

A Temporal Record Of Microplastic Pollution In Mediterranean Seagrass Soils, Martin Dahl, Sanne Bergman, Mats Björk, Elena Diaz-Almela, Maria Granberg, Martin Gullström, Carmen Leiva-Dueñas, Kerstin Magnusson, Candela Marco-Méndez, Nerea Piñeiro-Juncal, Miguel Ángel Mateo

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

© 2021 Elsevier Ltd Plastic pollution is emerging as a potential threat to the marine environment. In the current study, we selected seagrass meadows, known to efficiently trap organic and inorganic particles, to investigate the concentrations and dynamics of microplastics in their soil. We assessed microplastic contamination and accumulation in 210Pb dated soil cores collected in Posidonia oceanica meadows at three locations along the Spanish Mediterranean coast, with two sites located in the Almería region (Agua Amarga and Roquetas) and one at Cabrera Island (Santa Maria). Almería is known for its intense agricultural industry with 30 000 ha of plastic-covered …

Balch Pond 2021 Water Quality Highlight Report, Amanda Mcquaid, Robert Craycraft

UNH Cooperative Extension

A Water Quality Highlight Report by UNH CE Lakes Lay Monitoring Program for Balch Pond (Wakefield, NH; Acton and Newfield, ME) for sampling efforts up to 2021.

Belleau Lake 2021 Water Quality Highlight Report, Amanda Mcquaid, Robert Craycraft

UNH Cooperative Extension

A Water Quality Highlight Report by UNH CE Lakes Lay Monitoring Program for Belleau Lake in Wakefield, NH for 2021.

Connectivity: Insights From The U.S. Long Term Ecological Research Network, David M. Iwaniec, Michael Gooseff, Katharine N. Suding, David Samuel Johnson, Daniel C. Reed, Debra P. C. Peters, Byron Adams, John E. Barrett, Brandon T. Bestelmeyer, Max C. N. Castorani, Elizabeth M. Cook, Melissa J. Davidson, Peter M. Groffman, Niall P. Hanan, Laura F. Huenneke, Pieter T. J. Johnson, Diane M. Mcknight, Robert J. Miller, Gregory S. Okin, Daniel L. Preston, Andrew Rassweiler, Chris Ray, Osvaldo E. Sala, Robert L. Schooley, Timothy Seastedt, Marko J. Spasojevic, Enrique R. Vivoni

Advanced Science Research Center

Ecosystems across the United States are changing in complex and surprising ways. Ongoing demand for critical ecosystem services requires an understanding of the populations and communities in these ecosystems in the future. This paper represents a synthesis effort of the U.S. National Science Foundation-funded Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) network addressing the core research area of “populations and communities.” The objective of this effort was to show the importance of long-term data collection and experiments for addressing the hardest questions in scientific ecology that have significant implications for environmental policy and management. Each LTER site developed at least one compelling case …

Applying A Novel Systems Approach To Address Systemic Environmental Injustices: Constructing Soil For Limiting The Legacy Of Lead (Pb), Sara Perl Egendorf, Peter M. Groffman, Zhongqi Cheng, Michael Menser, Jan Mun, Howard Mielke

Advanced Science Research Center

The knowledge of unsustainable human and Earth system interactions is widespread, especially in light of systemic environmental injustices. Systems science has enabled complex and rigorous understandings of human and Earth system dynamics, particularly relating to pollution of Earth’s land, water, air, and organisms. Given that many of these systems are not functioning sustainably or optimally, how might this field enable both rigorous understanding of the issues and experiments aimed at alternative outcomes? Here, we put forth a novel, multiscale systems science approach with three steps: (1) understanding the systemic issues at hand, (2) identifying systemic interventions, and (3) applying experiments …

Pharmaceuticals And Personal Care Products In Pacific Northwest Coastal Ecosystems: Spatial Variation, Organism Effects, And Consumer Perspectives, Amy Lynne Ehrhart

Dissertations and Theses

Anthropogenic pollution poses a threat to marine organisms and ecosystems worldwide. Common chemical pollutants that enter the marine environment include legacy contaminants, which are well known and heavily regulated or banned pollutants, and emerging contaminants, which are more recently recognized as pollutants and often lack regulatory limits for their use and discharge. Wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) effluent is a major source of various contaminants of concern, particularly pharmaceutical and personal care products (PPCPs) that are not fully removed during treatment. PPCPs exist at low concentrations in the environment and may have unknown and subtle effects on marine life. Data gaps …

Eelgrass (Zostera Marina) Population Decline In Morro Bay, Ca: A Meta-Analysis Of Herbicide Application In San Luis Obispo County And Morro Bay Watershed, Tyler King Sinnott

Master's Theses

The endemic eelgrass (Zostera marina) community of Morro Bay Estuary, located on the central coast of California, has experienced an estimated decline of 95% in occupied area (reduction of 344 acres to 20 acres) from 2008 to 2017 for reasons that are not yet definitively clear. One possible driver of degradation that has yet to be investigated is the role of herbicides from agricultural fields in the watershed that feeds into the estuary. Thus, the primary research goal of this project was to better understand temporal and spatial trends of herbicide use within the context of San Luis …

Using Cold War-Era Satellite Imagery To Inform Historic Land Cover Classification, Nicholas Hamp-Adams

The Journal of Purdue Undergraduate Research

No abstract provided.

Determinants Of The Carbon Footprint Of German Swimmers 2020., Ann-Marie Muehlbauer

Master's Theses

The current climate situation is placing our planet and future generations at risk, which demonstrates the urgency to combat climate change and conduct research to support this effort. Calculating the carbon footprint of active sport participation represents an important opportunity to conduct additional research. This study examined the environmental attitudes and practices of swim club members in Germany. The study had three goals: First, to calculate the total and partial carbon footprint of German swimmers; second, to understand how sport organizations induce participants to engage in pro-environmental behavior; and third, to analyze various factors associated with carbon footprint, such as …

Statement Of World Aquatic Scientific Societies On The Need To Take Urgent Action Against Human-Caused Climate Change, Based On Scientific Evidence [Dear Colleague Letter], Scott A. Bonar, Brian R. Murphy, Leanne H. Roulson, Jesse T. Trushenski, Douglas J. Austen, Michael Edward Douglas

United States Fish and Wildlife Service: Publications

Dear Colleague Letter from the American Fisheries Society to fellow scientific societies, July 25, 2020, about the urgent need for responsive collective action to mitigate impending radical climate change. Includes the Statement of World Aquatic Scientific Societies on the Need to Take Urgent Action Against Human-Caused Climate Change, Based on Scientific Evidence, emphasizing the importance of aquatic ecosystems. Includes extensive citations and notes.

"Water is the most important natural resource on Earth as it is vital for life. Aquatic ecosystems, freshwater or marine, provide multiple benefits to human society, such as provisioning of oxygen, food, drinking water, genetic resources; regulation …

An Assessment Of Disinfection-Related Water Chemistry At Public Pools And Spas In Louisville, Kentucky, Thomas Gerding, Tim Wilder, Jason W. Marion

EKU Faculty and Staff Scholarship

The growth in the number of pools to more than 7.4 million in the U.S. has been accompanied by a rise in recreational water illnesses (RWIs). Effective pool management, though, can mitigate RWI risks. Inadequate management presumably occurs more frequently where training is less formalized and/or pool operation is a minor aspect of the job of the responsible pool manager(s). During summer 2018, weekly evaluations were performed at public venues in Louisville, Kentucky. Disinfectant levels and other items were monitored and compared with venue-specific (pool or spa) criteria. Among 1,312 venue surveys, 1,173 (89.4%) met criteria and 139 (10.6%) did …