inorganic and organic compounds, primarily as a result of human activities. While inorganic pollutants occur as natural elements in the Earth’s crust and atmosphere, human activities such as industry, mining, motorized traffic, agriculture, logging, and military actions promote their release and concentration in the environment, leading to toxicity (Nriagu 1979). Organic pollutants in the envir...

1 Abstract A generic proecological traffic control model for the urban street canyon is proposed by development of advanced continuum field hydrodynamical control model of the street canyon. The model of optimal control of street canyon dynamics is also investigated. The mathematical physics' approach (Eulerian approach) to vehicular movement, to pollutants' emission, and to pollutants' dynamic...

1 Department of Analytical and Organic Chemistry, Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Campus Sescelades, Marcel⋅ĺı Domingo, s/n, 43007 Tarragona, Spain 2 State Key Laboratory of Environmental Chemistry and Ecotoxicology, Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China 3 Biodiversity & Aquatic Ecology Laboratory, Bharathiar University, Coimbatore, India 4Dep...

Introduction In 1985, the Great Lakes Water Quality Board identified persistent toxic pollutants as the principal issue confronting the Great Lakes, and developed a list of eleven “Critical Pollutants” deserving an early focus by remedial action programs. This newsletter continues the examination of recent medical literature on selected persistent organic pollutants from this list, including DD...

Thousands of pollutants enter daily into environment and exert various kinds of stress on organisms and ecosystems. Risk assessment of these pollutants to organisms and ecosystems is challenging because of diversities in chemical nature and mode of toxicity of the pollutants as well as variation in sensitivities of the organisms exposed to the pollutants. Even low, relatively innocuous concentr...

While it has long been known that female fertility is impaired by oestrogen exposure, it is unclear whether environmental pollutants with weak oestrogenic effects are sufficiently potent and prevalent to have biological effects in humans. Male fertility, or sperm concentration at least, appears to have deteriorated, and there is substantial spatial variation at both national and global level, a...

Some of the highest exposures to air pollutants in developing countries occur inside homes where solid biofuel, particularly wood fuel, is used for daily cooking. A relatively high proportion of the world population living in these countries is exposed to increased levels of indoor air pollutants produced by inefficiently burning stoves. Inhalation of these pollutants may have serious consequen...

Although the toxicity of metal contaminated soils has been assessed with various bioassays, more information is needed about the biochemical responses, which may help to elucidate the mechanisms involved in metal toxicity. We previously reported that the earthworm, Eisenia fetida, accumulates cadmium in its seminal vesicles. The bio-accumulative ability of earthworms is well known, and thus the...

Microbial reactions play key roles in biocatalysis and biodegradation. The recent genome sequencing of environmentally relevant bacteria has revealed previously unsuspected metabolic potential that could be exploited for useful purposes. For example, oxygenases and other biodegradative enzymes are benign catalysts that can be used for the production of industrially useful compounds. In conjunct...