Anthropogenic chemical pollution has the potential to pose one of the largest environmental threats to humanity, but global understanding of the issue remains fragmented. This article presents a comprehensive perspective of the threat of chemical pollution to humanity, emphasising male fertility, cognitive health and food security. There are serious gaps in our understanding of the scale of the threat and the risks posed by the dispersal, mixture and recombination of chemicals in the wider environment. Although some pollution control measures exist they are often not being adopted at the rate needed to avoid chronic and acute effects on human health now and in coming decades. There is an urgent need for enhanced global awareness and scientific scrutiny of the overall scale of risk posed by chemical usage, dispersal and disposal.

This study aimed to develop a novel framework for risk assessment of nitrate groundwater contamination by integrating chemical and statistical analysis for an arid region. A standard method was applied for assessing the vulnerability of groundwater to nitrate pollution in Lenjanat plain, Iran. Nitrate concentration were collected from 102 wells of the plain and used to provide pollution occurrence and probability maps. Three machine learning models including boosted regression trees (BRT), multivariate discriminant analysis (MDA), and support vector machine (SVM) were used for the probability of groundwater pollution occurrence. Afterwards, an ensemble modeling approach was applied for production of the groundwater pollution occurrence probability map. Validation of the models was carried out using area under the receiver operating characteristic curve method (AUC); values above 80% were selected to contribute in ensembling process. Results indicated that accuracy for the three models ranged from 0.81 to 0.87, therefore all models were considered for ensemble modeling process. The resultant groundwater pollution risk (produced by vulnerability, pollution, and probability maps) indicated that the central regions of the plain have high and very high risk of nitrate pollution further confirmed by the exiting landuse map. The findings may provide very helpful information in decision making for groundwater pollution risk management especially in semi-arid regions.

Human exposure to lead (Pb) is a growing global public health concern. Elevated blood lead is thought to cause the mental retardation of >0.6 million children globally each year, and has recently been attributed to ~18% of all-cause mortality in the US. Due to the severe health risk, the international community, led by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the World Health Organization (WHO), is actively supporting the global phase-out of lead-based paint by 2020. However, there are many significant hurdles on the way to achieving this goal. In light of the importance of the lead-based paint issue, and the urgency of achieving the 2020 phase-out goal, this review provides critical insights from the existing scientific literature on lead-based paint, and offers a comprehensive perspective on the overall issue. The global production and international trade of lead-based paints across Asia, Africa, Latin America, and Europe are critically discussed - revealing that lead-based paints are still widely used in many low and middle-income developing countries, and that the production and trade of lead-based paint is still wide-spread globally. In India, as well as many south-east Asian, African, Latin American and European countries, lead concentrations in paints often exceed 10,000 mg/kg. This will certainly pose a serious global threat to public health from surfaces painted with these products for many decades to come. The sources and pathways of exposure are further described to shed light on the associated health risk and socioeconomic costs. Finally, the review offers an overview of the potential intervention and abatement strategies for lead-based paints. In particular, it was found that there is a general lack of consensus on the definition of lead based paint; and, strengthening regulatory oversight, public awareness, and industry acceptance are vital in combating the global issue of lead based paint.

Summary: Improved strategies for oil‐spill remediation will follow a better understanding of the nature, activities and regulating parameters of petroleum hydrocarbon‐degrading microbial communities in temperate marine environments. The addition of crude oil to estuarine water resulted in an immediate change in bacterial community structure, increased abundance of hydrocarbon‐degrading microorganisms and a rapid rate of oil degradation, suggesting the presence of a pre‐adapted oil‐degrading microbial community and sufficient supply of nutrients. Relatively rapid degradation was found at 4°C, the lowest temperature tested; and it was temperature rather than nutrient addition that most influenced the community structure. A detailed phylogenetic analysis of oil‐degrading microcosms showed that known hydrocarbonoclastic organisms like Thalassolituus and Cycloclasticus , as well as proposed oil degraders like Roseobacter , were present at both 4°C and 20°C, demonstrating the thermo‐versatility of such organisms. Clones related to Oleispira antarctica (98% 16S rRNA similarity), a psychrophilic alkane degrader, were dominant in the 4°C oil‐degrading community, whereas other clones constituting a different clade and showing 94% similarity 16S rRNA with O. antarctica were found in situ. These findings demonstrate the potential for intrinsic bioremediation throughout the course of the year in temperate estuarine waters, and highlight the importance of both versatile psychrotolerant and specialized psychrophilic hydrocarbon‐degrading microbes in effecting this process at low temperatures.