Environmental Health Commons^™

Seasonal Temperature Changes In Three Midwestern Wastewater Streams And The Effects On Fish Assemblages And Physiology, Ryan William Sparks

Masters Theses

Midwestern United States undergo extreme temperature and precipitation fluctuations throughout the year, which leads to changing habitats within Illinois river systems. Wastewater treatment facilities have long been used to treat sewage and reduce the organic products in sewage before releasing it into aquatic environments. Wastewater treatment facilities must maintain optimal conditions, especially temperature, for reproduction and growth of facilitated bacteria that break down organic materials in wastewater. The objectives for this study were to determine the thermal effects of wastewater treatment facilities on receiving waters; and secondly, to investigate the influence of these wastewater facilities on fish abundance and assemblages. …

Knowledge, Attitude And Practices (Kap) Towards Diet And Health Among International Students In Dublin: A Cross-Sectional Study, Xiyao Liu, Haoyue Chen, Qianling Zhou, Huifeng Zhang, Phensiri Asawasirisap, John Kearney

Articles

International students may have difficulties in dietary acculturation. This study aimed to evaluate the knowledge, attitude and practices (KAP) of diet and health during the acculturation of international students. A cross-sectional survey was conducted among a convenience sample of 473 international students in Dublin. Knowledge, attitude and practices towards diet and health were evaluated by a questionnaire with open- and closed-ended questions. It was found that 45.3% of participants had a broad concept of a healthy diet, while few knew its specific contents. Furthermore, 75.3% of participants could explain the term functional food, and among them, 62.1% knew the appropriate …

Ailing In Place: Environmental Inequities And Health Disparities In Appalachia, Michele Morrone

Ohio University Press Open Access Books

In Ailing in Place, Michele Morrone explores the relationship between environmental conditions in Appalachia and health outcomes that are too often ascribed to individual choices only. She applies quantitative data to observations from environmental health professionals to frame the ways in which the environment, as a social determinant of health, leads to health disparities in Appalachian communities. These examples—these stories of place—trace the impacts of water quality, waste disposal, and natural resource extraction on the health and quality of life of Appalachian people.

Public health is inextricably linked to place. Environmental conditions such as contaminated water, unsafe food, and polluted …

What The Covid-19 Crisis Is Telling Humanity, David Wiebers, Valery Feigin

Animal Sentience

The planet is in a global health emergency exacting enormous medical and economic tolls. It is imperative for us as a society and species to focus and reflect deeply upon what this and other related human health crises are telling us about our role in these increasingly frequent events and about what we can do to prevent them in the future.

Cause: It is human behavior that is responsible for the vast majority of zoonotic diseases that jump the species barrier from animals to humans: (1) hunting, capture, and sale of wild animals for human consumption, particularly in live-animal markets; …

New Approach To Health And The Environment To Avoid Future Pandemics, Serge Morand

Animal Sentience

This commentary expands Wiebers & Feigin’s target article by pinpointing how declining wildlife, expanding livestock and globalisation contribute to the increase in epidemics of zoonotic diseases, the COVID-19 crisis and future health crises. Epidemics and the emergence of zoonoses are manifestations of dysfunctional links with animals, both wild and domestic, requiring a new approach to health and the environment.

Pulmonary Immune Responses To Respirable Elongate Mineral Particles Of Asbestiform And Non-Asbestiform Morphologies, Timur Khaliullin

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Inhalation exposure to asbestiform elongate mineral particles (EMPs) may cause pulmonary fibrosis, lung and pleural cancer. At the same time, epidemiological evidence for non-asbestiform EMP pathogenicity is scarce, with little if any risk of cancer, but consistent findings of pneumoconiosis and increased mortality. Globally, conditions caused by asbestos exposures contribute most to the occupational cancer burden and are responsible for the increasing mortality for occupational respiratory diseases. Immunological components of the fiber-induced lesions are extremely understudied, partly due to the lack of comparable test articles. In this study I utilized respirable preparations of asbestiform and non-asbestiform riebeckite and tremolite to …

Phytoremediation Potential Of Four Heavy Metals In Soil By Chromolaena Odorata (L.) King & Robinson At The Phytotoxicity Screening Benchmarks, Gloria O. Omoregie, Beckley Ikhajiagbe, Geoffery O. Anoliefo

Tanzania Journal of Science

The remediative capacity of Chromolaena odorata with respect to heavy metal induced growth-stress was investigated. This was with a view to providing information on the adaptive mechanisms adopted by the test plant during the phytoremediation of selected heavy metals such as copper, manganese, zinc and cadmium. Stems of C. odorata were planted in soils polluted with  Mn, Zn, Cd, and Cu at the ecological screening benchmark (ESB) of 50 mg/kg (Mn and Zn), 4 mg/kg (Cd) and 100 mg/kg (Cu) of metal per kilogram of soil, in varying concentrations of 0 ESB (control), 1 ESB, 3 ESB and 5 ESB. …

There Must Be Something In The Water: Understanding Pfas Contamination Of Groundwater As A National Security Issue, Kylie N. Ford

Student Theses 2015-Present

This report addresses the widespread pollution of domestic groundwater resources with Perfluoroalkyl and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS) caused by firefighting activities performed at military installations across the United States. Two former military bases in Southeastern Pennsylvania are used as a single case study: the Naval Air Development Center (NADC) in Warminster and the Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base (NASJRB) in Horsham. Chapter 1 gives a history of domestic military bases from the perspective of the infrastructure buildup and downsizing that occurred over the 20th Century, along with the environmental degradation revealed during brownfield redevelopment. The chapter then gives specifics about …

Screening The Cultivable Cave Microbial Mats For The Production Of Antimicrobial Compounds And Antibiotic Resistance, Jerneja Ambrožič Avguštin, Patricia Petrič, Lejla Pašić

International Journal of Speleology

The current work extends the phenotypic characterization of a bacterial culture collection obtained from white, yellow, grey or pink microbial cave wall colonies that are common in the caves of Slovenian Karst. We have determined antibiotic resistance to 22 natural and synthetic antibiotics in 69 isolates from the microbial mats. Thirty-eight isolates (52%) were resistant to 1-5 antibiotics; another 27 isolates (37%) were resistant to 6-10 antibiotics; and 7 isolates (0.1%) were resistant to 11-17 antibiotics. We screened for production of antimicrobial compounds by growing cave isolates on five different media and overlaying individual cultures with ten Gram-positive and Gram …

Cytotoxicity And Mutagenicity Of Disinfection Byproduct Mixtures Formulated Using Free Chlorine And Monochloramine, Yonas Ghebremedhin

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Bioassays have been used extensively to assess various toxicity endpoints of drinking water disinfection byproducts (DBPs), but an emphasis on single compounds prevails. In this research, DBP mixtures were assessed using a cytotoxicity test with Chinese Hamster Ovary (CHO) cells and an Ames fluctuation test with Salmonella typhimurium TA-98 and TA-100 with and without S9 rat liver homogenate. Seven whole mixture DBP concentrates were formulated using reconstituted natural organic matter (NOM) extracts from the Upper Mississippi River using scaled disinfectant dosing protocols with free chlorine and monochloramine in the presence and absence of added bromide. DBPs were identified by gas …

The Effects Of Ship Wakes In The Venice Lagoon And Implications For The Sustainability Of Shipping In Coastal Waters, Gian Marco Scarpa, Luca Zaggia, Giorgia Manfe, Giuliano Lorenzetti, Kevin E. Parnell, Tarmo Soomere, John Rapaglia, Emanuela Molinaroli

Biology Faculty Publications

We analyse the impact of ship traffic in the vicinity of navigation channels in a wide shallow waterbody. The crucial hydrodynamic driver in this situation is the depression (Bernoulli) wake that may be transferred into a long-living solitary wave of depression over the shoals. The analysis considers navigation channels in the Venice Lagoon using a new large dataset of approximately 600 measured wake events associated to specific ships whose data are provided by the AIS system. Since the development of the modern industrial port and the opening of the Malamocco–Marghera channel in the late 1960s, growing pressure on the lagoon …

The Role Of Omega-3 Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids In Blood Pressure Regulation And Secondhand Smoke-Induced Vascular Dysfunction, Emily Anna Wheeler

Biomedical Sciences ETDs

Omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (n-3 PUFAs) may lower cardiovascular disease risk by reducing blood pressure (BP). We hypothesized that fat-1 transgenic mice, which convert n-6 PUFAs to n-3 PUFAs, would have improved vascular function in BP regulation and following secondhand smoke (SHS) exposure, compared to wild type (WT) mice.

BP was recorded in mice fed an n-6 PUFA, or standard chow diet. On the n-6 PUFA diet fat-1 mice had a lower mean arterial pressure and a greater decrease in diastolic BP when treated with an ACE inhibitor, compared to WT mice. No differences were observed on the chow diet. …

Sustainable Solutions, Fall/Winter 2020, Issue 41

Sustain Magazine

No abstract provided.

Effect Of Biosurfactant And Biochar On Ecosystem Functions And Oil Remediation In Crude Oil Contaminated Wetland Soils, Zhuo Wei

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Decontamination of oil spill from coastal wetland soils requires a delicate approach. Remediation strategies using biochar, biosurfactant, and nutrient additions have been proposed. However, there is little information on application of these with combination for treatment of crude oil-contaminated wetland soil. Therefore, incubation studies were carried out to investigate the impact of biochar and rhamnolipid (RL) biosurfactant along with nitrogen (N) application on petroleum hydrocarbon degradation in a Louisiana coastal saline marsh and their impacts on greenhouse gas (GHG) emission. Additionally, the toxicity of crude oil as well as remediation materials on coastal wetland ecosystem were assessed at three levels: …

Qualitative Approach To Comparative Exposure In Alternatives Assessment, William Greggs, Thomas Burns, Peter Egeghy, Michelle R. Embry, Peter Fantke, Bonnie Gaborek, Lauren Heine, Olivier Jolliet, Carolyn Lee, Derek Muir, Kathy Plotzke, Joseph Rinkevich, Neha Sunger, Jennifer Y. Tanir, Margaret Whittaker

Public Health Sciences Faculty Publications

Most alternatives assessments (AAs) published to date are largely hazard-based rankings, thereby ignoring potential differences in human and/or ecosystem exposures; as such, they may not represent a fully informed consideration of the advantages and disadvantages of possible alternatives. Building on the 2014 US National Academy of Sciences recommendations to improve AA decisions by including comparative exposure assessment into AAs, the Health and Environmental Sciences Institute's (HESI) Sustainable Chemical Alternatives Technical Committee, which comprises scientists from academia, industry, government, and nonprofit organizations, developed a qualitative comparative exposure approach. Conducting such a comparison can screen for alternatives that are expected to have …

Drinking Water Quality And Human Dimensions Of Cholera Patients To Inform Evidence-Based Prevention Investment In Karonga District, Malawi., Prince Kaponda, Suresh Muthukrishnan, Rory Barber, Rochelle H. Holm

Faculty and Staff Scholarship

Cholera remains a problem in sub-Saharan Africa, especially in Malawi. Our aim was to investigate drinking water source quality compared with water treatment, risk perception and cholera knowledge for patients who had reported to a health center for treatment in the 2017-2018 outbreak in Karonga District, Malawi. The study analyzed 120 drinking water samples linked to 236 cholera patients. Nearly 82% of the samples met the national criteria for thermotolerant coliforms of 50 cfu/100 ml, while 50% met the more stringent World Health Organization criteria of 0 cfu/100 ml. In terms of the human dimensions, 68% of survey respondents reported …

Chlorophyll A And Primary Productivity Dynamics In Kentucky Lake Mainstem And Embayment Habitats., Morgan Franklin

Scholars Week

Chlorophyll α (Chl α) has been used as a proxy for phytoplankton biomass, while primary productivity (PP), the rate at which carbon is fixed into phytoplankton cells, is an indicator of how quickly carbon is turned over within the phytoplankton community. The purpose of this research was to examine the spatial distribution of and the relationship between Chl α and PP seasonally in the main channel of Kentucky Lake reservoir and two embayments of contrasting land use. Correlation coefficients (r) for Chl α versus PP were 0.45 in Ledbetter embayment, 0.55 in Panther embayment, and 0.57 in the main …

Gut Dna Virome Diversity And Its Association With Host Bacteria Regulate Inflammatory Phenotype And Neuronal Immunotoxicity In Experimental Gulf War Illness, Ratanesh K. Seth, Rabia Maqsood, Ayan Mondal, Dipro Bose, Diana Kimono, Larinda A. Holland, Patricia Janulewicz Lloyd, Nancy Klimas, Ronnie Horner, Kimberly Sullivan, Efrem S. Lim, Saurabh Chatterjee

Faculty Publications

Gulf War illness (GWI) is characterized by the persistence of inflammatory bowel disease, chronic fatigue, neuroinflammation, headache, cognitive impairment, and other medically unexplained conditions. Results using a murine model show that enteric viral populations especially bacteriophages were altered in GWI. The increased viral richness and alpha diversity correlated positively with gut bacterial dysbiosis and proinflammatory cytokines. Altered virome signature in GWI mice also had a concomitant weakening of intestinal epithelial tight junctions with a significant increase in Claudin-2 protein expression and decrease in ZO1 and Occludin mRNA expression. The altered virome signature in GWI, decreased tight junction protein level was …

Changes In Pm2.5 Peat Combustion Source Profiles With Atmospheric Aging In An Oxidation Flow Reactor, Judith C. Chow, Junji Cao, Lung-Wen Anthony Chen, Xiaoliang Wang, Qiyuan Wang, Jie Tian, Steven Sai Hang Ho, Adam C. Watts, Tessa B. Carlson, Steven D. Kohl, John G. Watson

Environmental & Global Health Faculty Research

Smoke from laboratory chamber burning of peat fuels from Russia, Siberia, the USA (Alaska and Florida), and Malaysia representing boreal, temperate, subtropical, and tropical regions was sampled before and after passing through a potential-aerosol-mass oxidation flow reactor (PAM-OFR) to simulate intermediately aged (∼2 d) and well-aged (∼7 d) source profiles. Species abundances in PM2.5 between aged and fresh profiles varied by several orders of magnitude with two distinguishable clusters, centered around 0.1 % for reactive and ionic species and centered around 10 % for carbon. Organic carbon (OC) accounted for 58 %–85 % of PM2.5 mass in fresh profiles with …

Dysbiosis-Associated Enteric Glial Cell Immune-Activation And Redox Imbalance Modulate Tight Junction Protein Expression In Gulf War Illness Pathology, Diana Kimono, Sutapa Sarkar, Muayad Albadrani, Ratanesh K. Seth, Dipro Bose, Ayan Mondal, Yuxi Li, Amar N. Kar, Mitzi Nagarkatti, Prakash Nagarkatti, Kimberly Sullivan, Patricia Janulewicz, Stephen Lasley, Ronnie Horner, Nancy Klimas, Saurabh Chatterjee

Faculty Publications

About 14% of veterans who suffer from Gulf war illness (GWI) complain of some form of gastrointestinal disorder but with no significant markers of clinical pathology. Our previous studies have shown that exposure to GW chemicals resulted in altered microbiome which was associated with damage associated molecular pattern (DAMP) release followed by neuro and gastrointestinal inflammation with loss of gut barrier integrity. Enteric glial cells (EGC) are emerging as important regulators of the gastrointestinal tract and have been observed to change to a reactive phenotype in several functional gastrointestinal disorders such as IBS and IBD. This study is aimed at …