Environmental Health and Protection Commons^™

Exposition Aux Bioaérosols Dans Les Centres De Traitement Des Eaux Usées : Application D’Approches Moléculaires Et Risque Viral, Caroline Duchaine, Marc Veillette, Vanessa Dion Dupont, Hamza Mbareche, Évelyne Brisebois, Jacques Lavoie, Yves Beaudet

Rapports de recherche scientifique

Le traitement des eaux usées comporte plusieurs étapes susceptibles de générer des bioaérosols auxquels des travailleurs peuvent être exposés. Bien que la littérature à ce sujet soit relativement abondante, les connaissances relatives au risque, à l’exposition et à la fréquence de certaines maladies chez cette population demeurent mal documentées. L’environnement des centres de traitement des eaux usées est complexe à plusieurs égards. En effet, les différents sites de traitement représentent des risques variables en ce qui a trait à la nature et à la concentration des bioaérosols, ainsi qu’au type de travail effectué. La majorité des études s’intéressant à cette …

A Survey Of Single-Use Plastic Foodware Ordinances Of The San Francisco Bay Region, Christopher Slafter

Master's Projects and Capstones

Municipal jurisdictions in the San Francisco Bay Region (SFBR) are passing comprehensive single-use plastic (SUP) foodware ordinances in response to growing public pressure, and a California mandate to achieve zero waste. SUP foodware items have become an issue of concern because they are readily available in the restaurant industry, and are regularly among the top-ten pollutants collected during beach cleanups. SUP foodware items pose a danger to marine wildlife and contribute to rising carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions. Policy makers in the SFBR are creating local ordinances that regulate the distribution and use of a variety of SUP foodware …

The Rockaway Project - Townes, Diara Jepris D. Townes

Capstones

The Rockaway Project is a story-driven website that provides information on the government response to Superstorm Sandy recovery on the Rockaway peninsula in Queens, New York. Dozens of climate resiliency projects have been delayed or remain unfinished, despite millions of dollars in funding and six years of promises. The website hosts audio, visual and digital content, gathered through interviews and data collection.

Link to capstone project: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fAq2BeR4bS0&t=1s

Plastic Fast, Maureen E. Schlangen

Roesch Library Staff Publications

In the era of Silent Spring, the first Earth Days and the “Keep America Beautiful” campaigns in the 1970s, littering was just the tip of the pollution iceberg. It still is. The bigger problems are demand and production. A June 2018 article in National Geographic found that worldwide, we produce almost 500 million tons of plastic every year — and about 40 percent is tossed after one use. According to the nonprofit Plastic Oceans, more than 8 million tons of plastic go into the oceans each year; production of plastic water bottles alone has grown from 3.8 billion in 1996 …

Employing Earth Observations And Artificial Intelligence To Address Key Global Environmental Challenges In Service Of The Sdgs, Wenzhao Li

Computational and Data Sciences (PhD) Dissertations

Earth Observation (EO) data provides the capability to integrate data from multiple sources and helps to produce more relevant, frequent, and accurate information about complex processes. EO, empowered by methodologies from Artificial Intelligence (AI), supports various aspects of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This dissertation presents author’s major studies using EO to fill in knowledge gaps and develop methodologies and cloud-based applications in selected SDGs, including SDG 6 (Clean Water and Sanitation), SDG 11 (Sustainable Cities and Communities), SDG 14 (Life below Water) and SDG 15 (Life on Land). For SDG 6, the study focuses on spatiotemporal water recharge …

A Transfer Students Guide To Becoming A Pca, Zack J. Krueger

Agricultural Education and Communication

A transfer students guide to becoming a PCA through the AGED department as opposed to AEPS. Agricultural science majors. Classes shown and listed cooperate with the California Department of Pesticide Regulations required course list necessary to take the Pest Control Advisers exam.

2020 Comprehensive Conservation And Management Plan: Climate Change Vulnerability Assessment, Ivy Mlsna

PREP Reports & Publications

The Piscataqua Region Estuaries Partnership (PREP), one of 28 National Estuary Programs supported by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), is updating their Comprehensive Conservation and Management Plan (CCMP) for the 2020-2030 timeframe. A broad, risk-based, qualitative, planning-level climate change vulnerability assessment was conducted concurrent with this update, as directed by the Funding Guidance for this program.

Small Ruminant Health Intervention Calendar In Ethiopia, Mesfin Mekonnen, Ayalew Assefa, Tesfalem Nane, Firdawok Ayele, Asrat Arke, Belay Elias, Barbara Wieland

Daugherty Water for Food Global Institute: Faculty Publications

Contents

1 Background................................................................................................... 3
2 Developing the health intervention calendar............................................................ 4
The treatment calendar ......................................................... 4 Applying the calendar..................................................................... 5 4 References................................................................... 8

Biochar As A Means Of Water Purification In Haiti, Caolan Keenan

Honors Projects

Our research set out to determine if biochar, a compound made by burning organic plant matter in a low oxygen environment, would be a suitable means of removing E. coli populations from contaminated water collected from the Grand River in Allendale, MI using simple materials to construct a filter that could be constructed and used in Haiti. Previous research has shown biochar to be effective at trapping bacteria and other contaminants in the porous surface and by binding other non organic contaminants. We constructed multiple iterations of these filters using gravel, sand, and biochar and ran three live tests with …

Effects Of Environmentally Relevant Concentrations Of Microplastic Fibers On Pacific Mole Crab (Emerita Analoga) Mortality And Reproduction, Dorothy Horn, Elise F. Granek, Clare Steele

Environmental Science and Management Faculty Publications and Presentations

Microplastics are ubiquitous in marine systems; however, knowledge of the effects of these particles on marine fauna is limited. Ocean-borne plastic debris accumulates in littoral ecosystems worldwide, and invertebrate infauna inhabiting these systems can ingest small plastic particles and fibers, mistaking them for food. We examined the effect of microplastic fibers on physiological and reproductive outcomes in a nearshore organism by exposing Pacific mole crabs (Emerita analoga) to environmentally relevant concentrations of microsized polypropylene rope fibers. We compared adult gravid female crab mortality, reproductive success, and embryonic developmental rates between microfiber-exposed and control crabs. Pacific mole crabs exposed to polypropylene …

Long-Term Aerosol Trends And Variability Over Central Saudi Arabia Using Optical Characteristics From Solar Village Aeronet Measurements, Mohammed Al Otaibi, Ashraf Farahat, Bassam Tawabini, M. Hafidz Omar, Emad Ramadan, Abdelgadir Abuelgasim, Ramesh Singh

Mathematics, Physics, and Computer Science Faculty Articles and Research

Natural and anthropogenic aerosols over the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) play a major role in affecting the regional radiation budget. The long-term variability of these aerosols’ physical and optical parameters, including aerosol optical depth (AOD) and Ångström exponent (α), were measured at a location near central KSA using the Solar Village (SV) AERONET (Aerosol Robotic Network) station during the period December 1999–January 2013. The AERONET measurements show an overall increase in AOD on an annual basis. This upward trend is mainly attributed to a prolonged increase in the monthly/seasonal mean AOD during March–June and during August– September. In contrast, …

Microplastic Concentrations In Two Oregon Bivalve Species: Spatial, Temporal, And Species Variability, Britta Baechler, Elise F. Granek, Matthew V. Hunter, Kathleen E. Conn

Environmental Science and Management Faculty Publications and Presentations

Microplastics are an ecological stressor with implications for ecosystem and human health when present in seafood. We quantified microplastic types, concentrations, anatomical burdens, geographic distribution, and temporal differences in Pacific oysters (Crassostrea gigas) and Pacific razor clams (Siliqua patula) from 15 Oregon coast, U.S.A. sites. Microplastics were present in organisms from all sites. On average, whole oysters and razor clams contained 10.95 ± 0.77 and 8.84 ± 0.45 microplastic pieces per individual, or 0.35 ± 0.04 pieces g⁻¹ tissue and 0.16 ± 0.02 pieces g⁻¹ tissue, respectively. Contamination was quantified but not subtracted. Over …

Amélioration De La Justesse Des Modèles D’Hygiène Du Travail Utilisés Pour Estimer Des Expositions Professionnelles À Des Vapeurs De Solvants, Spéro Abattan, Stéphane Hallé, Daniel Drolet, Ali Bahloul, Patrick Eddy Ryan, Wejden Chouchene, Carlos Castro Ruiz, Jérôme Lavoué, Maximilien Debia

Rapports de recherche scientifique

Chaque année, des travailleurs québécois subissent des effets sur leur santé après avoir été exposés à des substances chimiques, notamment à des solvants. La modélisation des expositions professionnelles occupe une place importante dans la prévention des risques. Cette recherche vise à étudier différents aspects de la modélisation pour estimer des expositions professionnelles à des vapeurs de solvants dans le but d’en améliorer la justesse de prédiction. Le travail de recherche a été effectué en deux volets. Grâce à la mise en œuvre de tests à petite échelle (volet I) et à échelle humaine (volet II), les travaux présentés dans cette …

Sustainable Solutions, Fall/Winter 2020, Issue 41

Sustain Magazine

No abstract provided.

Weaponizing Radioactive Medical Waste - The Looming Threat, Shreekumar Menon, Vagish Kumar L.S.

International Journal of Nuclear Security

Across the globe, use of radioactive substances for medical treatment, by hospitals has resulted in generation of toxic wastes on a large scale. Disposal of these wastes are being entrusted to waste disposal vendors. Environmental concerns, pressures, restrictions and high labor costs, compel these vendors to dump these wastes in third world countries, where enforcement and awareness are substantially low. Unrestricted access to these waste dumps is an open invitation to terror organizations to extract toxic substances and fabricate crude dirty bombs to threaten public safety, and cause low-level contamination of sensitive installations. It is therefore imperative to create an …

Effect Of Foliar Spray Application Of Zinc Oxide Nanoparticles On Quantitative, Nutritional, And Physiological Parameters Of Foxtail Millet (Setaria Italica L.) Under Field Conditions, Marek Kolenčík, Dávid Ernst, Matej Komár, Martin Šebesta, Martin Urík, Edmund Dobročka, Ivan Černý, Ramakanth Illa, Raghavendra Kanike, Qian Yu, Huan Feng, Denisa Orlová, Gabriela Kratošová

Department of Earth and Environmental Studies Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

It has been shown that the foliar application of inorganic nano-materials on cereal plants during their growth cycle enhances the rate of plant productivity by providing a micro-nutrient source. We therefore studied the effects of foliarly applied ZnO nanoparticles (ZnO NPs) on Setaria italica L. foxtail millet’s quantitative, nutritional, and physiological parameters. Scanning electron microscopy showed that the ZnO NPs have an average particle size under 20 nm and dominant spherically shaped morphology. Energy dispersive X-ray spectrometry then confirmed ZnO NP homogeneity, and X-ray diffraction verified their high crystalline and wurtzite-structure symmetry. Although plant height, thousand grain weight, and grain …

Microplastic Occurrence And Effects In Commercially Harvested North American Finfish And Shellfish: Current Knowledge And Future Directions, Britta Baechler, Cheyenne Stienbarger, Dorothy Horn, Jincy Joseph, Allison Taylor, Elise F. Granek, Susanne Brander

Environmental Science and Management Faculty Publications and Presentations

Commercial fisheries yield essential foods, sustain cultural practices, and provide widespread employment around the globe. Commercially harvested species face a myriad of anthropogenic threats including degraded habitats, changing climate, overharvest, and pollution. Microplastics are pollutants of increasing concern, which are pervasive in the environment and can harbor or adsorb pollutants from surrounding waters. Aquatic organisms, including commercial species, encounter and ingest microplastics, but there is a paucity of data about those caught and cultured in North America. Additional research is needed to determine prevalence, physiological effects, and population-level implications of microplastics in commercial species from Canada, the United States, and …

Near Real-Time Determination Of The Prevalence Of Cannabinoids, Cathinones, And Synthetic Opioids, Catherine O'Rourke, Bikram Subedi

Scholars Week

Unregulated new psychoactive substances (NPS) in “pure” or “preparation” forms are designed to mimic the effects of controlled substances, and are introduced and reintroduced in the market as a cheap substitute of established regulated drugs in quick succession to loophole the law enforcement efforts on combating drugs. For example, carfentanil, a synthetic opioid activates the opioid receptors similar to morphine but it is astoundingly potent compared to a typical drug of abuse (100 times more potent than fentanyl and 10,000 times more powerful than morphine). Based on the cost- and time-intensive forensic analysis, National Drug Early Warning System reported the …

Are There Health Hazards Coming From The Rollout Of 5g?, David O. Carpenter

Campus Conversations in Standish

No abstract provided.

Studying The Glacial Melt Of Mount Baker Using Remote Sensing (1999 - 2019), Cole Fletcher

Scholars Week

With rising temperatures glaciers around the globe are beginning to melt. Melting of large glaciers should be concerning as they can raise the present sea-level which could potentially put near sea-level urban areas underwater. We must observe the rate at which glaciers are retreating. Mountain glaciers are a good resource to observe as they do give a clear visual of how fast glaciers are retreating. This project hopes to give a good visual representation and quantitative measurement of how much glacial melt is occurring at Mt Baker in Washington, United States, in the last 20 years. This project will use …

Sundaas Story: A Mixed-Methods Study Of Household Sanitation Provisioning In Urban Informal Housing In India, Sarita Vijay Panchang

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The aims of this research were to examine sanitation insecurity in urban informal housing through the lens of the built environment, social disparities, and health implications. While the Millennium Development Goals for halving the global proportion of people without access to safe drinking water were met ahead of schedule, progress fell short for sanitation, creating new objectives for the Sustainable Development Goals to be met in 2030. Much research in the Global South is dedicated to community-level sanitation promotion, but often presumes a rural rather than urban setting. Urban informal housing settings constitute a unique challenge due to the range …

Gaps In Protection Of Important Ocean Areas: A Spatial Meta-Analysis Of Ten Global Mapping Initiatives, Natasha J. Gownaris, Christine M. Santora, John B. Davis, Ellen K. Pikitch

Environmental Studies Faculty Publications

To safeguard biodiversity effectively, marine protected areas (MPAs) should be sited using the best available science. There are numerous ongoing United Nations and non-governmental initiatives to map globally important marine areas. The criteria used by these initiatives vary, resulting in contradictions in the areas identified as important. Our analysis is the first to overlay these initiatives, quantify consensus, and conduct gap analyses at the global scale. We found that 55% of the ocean has been identified as important by one or more initiatives, and that individual areas have been identified by as many as seven overlapping initiatives. Using our overlay …

From The Human To The Planetary: Speculative Futures Of Care, Miriam Ticktin

Publications and Research

This is largely a theoretical, speculative essay that takes on the question of what ‘care’ looks like at a moment when climate change is increasingly taking center stage in public and political discussions. Starting with two new practices, namely, humanitarian care for nonhumans and One Health collaborations, I seek to determine what forms of political care can incorporate the well-being of future generations and future iterations of the earth. After an exploration of One Health as an approach to planetary care, I ask what its parts enable us to think, despite its limitations; I focus on the new human-nonhuman assemblages …

The Effects Of Combinations Of Limited Ration And Diazinon Exposure On Acetylcholinesterase Activity, Growth And Reproduction In Oryzias Latipes, The Japanese Medaka, Kevin Flynn, Rodney Johnson, Doug Lothenbach, Joe Swintek, Frank Whiteman, Matthew Etterson

United States Environmental Protection Agency: Publications

Environmental contamination can negatively impact fish populations. In addition to acute toxicity leading to death, toxicants can reduce fish growth and lower reproduction. The potential for adverse population level effects of environmental contaminants are estimated to conduct risk assessments from laboratory toxicity tests that most often measure apical endpoints related to growth, survival and reproduction. The relationships between these effect endpoints are being evaluated to predict shifts in fish population demography better after exposure to environmental toxicants. Environmental contaminants can also affect fish populations indirectly by reducing prey biomass. However, estimating the magnitude of the combined effects of prey reduction …

Assessing Environmentally Sensitive Land To Desertification Using Medalus Method In Mongolia, Eun Jung Lee, Dongfan Piao, Cholho Song, Jiwon Kim, Chul-Hee Lim, Eunji Kim, Jooyeon Moon, Menas Kafatos, Munkhnsan Lamchin, Seong Woo Jeon, Woo-Kyun Lee

Mathematics, Physics, and Computer Science Faculty Articles and Research

Desertification is a global phenomenon caused by various processes, including climate change, vegetation processes, and human activities. The need to combat desertification is increasing in many countries. A reasonable assessment of the vulnerability or sensitivity of land cover to desertification at national scales is crucial to formulate appropriate strategies or policies for combating it. The main purpose of this work was to quantitatively assess the sensitivity of land cover to desertification in Mongolia using the MEDALUS approach. The MEDALUS method is a widely known technique for assessing desertification in the Mediterranean area. In this study, the method was adjusted to …

The Psychological Impacts Of Being Environmentally Active, Allie White

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

There are many psychological impacts that come with being environmentally active. The impacts that people tend to focus more on recently are the negative impacts, such as eco-anxiety or activist burnout. Much less attention is given to the potential positive impacts associated with being environmentally active. Thus, this research aims to look at whether there are positive psychological impacts of being environmentally active, and if there are, what specifically about being environmentally active creates those positive impacts. This is important because, if there are positive impacts of being environmentally active, they could be used to motivate people to become more …

E-Waste Shouldn’T Be Waste: A Study On The Practices, Perceptions, And Policies On E-Waste In Urban Arusha, Tanzania, Melanie Mckenzie

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

This study examines the e-waste stream in urban Arusha, answer the questions of where electronics go, how people usually dispose of them, if people are aware of the impacts of e-waste, and what next steps are necessary. The study took place in November 2019 in urban Arusha, Tanzania. Through snowball and convenience sampling in 4 quotas (community members, electricians, business members, and a policy maker), the study finds that there is no place for the proper disposal of e-waste in Arusha. Many electronics are disposed of improperly by being put into the landfill or burned. Most participants were unaware of …

Changes In The Greenland Ice Sheet Of The Southeastern Maniitsoq Coast From 1994-2004 And 2009-2019, Alyssa J. Kaewwilai, Charlie E. Reisman

Student Publications

Remote sensing mechanisms through the use of technology like the Landsat 5-7 Land Manager satellites are commonly used in conjunction with multispectral methods such as unsupervised classification to record and analyze changes in snow and ice over time in areas such as the Greenland Ice Sheet (GrIS). Unsupervised classification is a method of identifying, grouping, and labeling features in an image according to their spectral values and is therefore a good method of classifying snow and ice in areas such as Greenland. The goal of unsupervised classifications is to assign pixels into potentially meaningful subsurface classes based on similarities of …

Clearcutting In Appalachia: Impacts On Stream Water Quality In An Appalachian Watershed, Alyssa J. Kaewwilai, Hannah R. Peterson, Abigail F. Rec

Student Publications

Clearcutting forests has the potential to impact the water quality of high water headwater streams. In this study, we measured the effect of forest clearcut events on parameters of stream water quality within Michaux State Forest. The watershed of two streams included 2.1% and 11.6% of the total catchment in clearcuts, while the other 4 watersheds had no clearcuts. We measured pH, electrical conductivity, total suspended solids, and nitrate (ppm) and phosphate (ppm) concentrations from six different tributary streams. Mann-Whitney U tests maintain no statistical difference observed between pH (U= 4.00, p= 1.00), temperature (U=1.00, p=0.165), electrical conductivity (U=2.00, p=0.355), …

Barriers And Opportunities To Electric Vehicle Development In Nepal, Allyson Krupa

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

As the global carbon dioxide level reaches its highest point in human history (407.4 parts per million), energy systems must transition from fossil fuel to renewable-powered sources. Since the transportation sector contributes nearly one-third of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, electric mobility offers a significant opportunity to reduce GHG emissions. Globally, there has been a rise in demand for electric vehicles. In Nepal, a clean energy transition within the context of rising urbanization and air pollution is imperative for quality of life, socio-economic development, and broadly climate change mitigation/adaptation. Furthermore, Nepal’s vast hydropower potential may increase energy independence and provide …