scholarly journals Assessment of Nanopollution in Water Environments from Commercial Products

Nanomaterials ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (10) ◽  
pp. 2537
Author(s):  
Raisibe Florence Lehutso ◽  
Melusi Thwala
Keyword(s):  
Risk Assessment ◽  
Water Resources ◽  
Aqueous Media ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Engineered Nanomaterials ◽  
Assessment Data ◽  
Initial Amount ◽  
Commercial Products ◽  
Coating Agents ◽  
Total Concentrations

The use of nano-enabled products (NEPs) can release engineered nanomaterials (ENMs) into water resources, and the increasing commercialisation of NEPs raises the environmental exposure potential. The current study investigated the release of ENMs and their characteristics from six commercial products (sunscreens, body creams, sanitiser, and socks) containing nTiO2, nAg, and nZnO. ENMs were released in aqueous media from all investigated NEPs and were associated with ions (Ag+ and Zn2+) and coating agents (Si and Al). NEPs generally released elongated (7–9 × 66–70 nm) and angular (21–80 × 25–79 nm) nTiO2, near-spherical (12–49 nm) and angular nAg (21–76 × 29–77 nm), and angular nZnO (32–36 × 32–40 nm). NEPs released varying ENMs’ total concentrations (ca 0.4–95%) of total Ti, Ag, Ag+, Zn, and Zn2+ relative to the initial amount of ENMs added in NEPs, influenced by the nature of the product and recipient water quality. The findings confirmed the use of the examined NEPs as sources of nanopollution in water resources, and the physicochemical properties of the nanopollutants were determined. Exposure assessment data from real-life sources are highly valuable for enriching the robust environmental risk assessment of nanotechnology.

Contamination Lab of Turin (CLabTo)

2019 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Eleonora FIORE ◽  
Giuliano SANSONE ◽  
Chiara Lorenza REMONDINO ◽  
Paolo Marco TAMBORRINI
Keyword(s):  
University Students ◽  
Single Case ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Learning By Doing ◽  
Assessment Data ◽  
Entrepreneurial Skills ◽  
Fields Of Study ◽  
Education Levels ◽  
Positive Effect

Interest in offering Entrepreneurship Education (EE) to all kinds of university students is increasing. Therefore, universities are increasing the number of entrepreneurship courses intended for students from different fields of study and with different education levels. Through a single case study of the Contamination Lab of Turin (CLabTo), we suggest how EE may be taught to all kinds of university students. We have combined design methods with EE to create a practical-oriented entrepreneurship course which allows students to work in transdisciplinary teams through a learning-by-doing approach on real-life projects. Professors from different departments have been included to create a multidisciplinary environment. We have drawn on programme assessment data, including pre- and post-surveys. Overall, we have found a positive effect of the programme on the students’ entrepreneurial skills. However, when the data was broken down according to the students’ fields of study and education levels, mixed results emerged.

Occupational Risk Assessment of Engineered Nanomaterials: Limits, Challenges and Opportunities

2016 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 55-78 ◽  
Author(s):  
Veruscka Leso ◽  
Luca Fontana ◽  
Maria Mauriello ◽  
Ivo Iavicoli
Keyword(s):  
Risk Assessment ◽  
Occupational Risk ◽  
Engineered Nanomaterials ◽  
Challenges And Opportunities

scholarly journals Risk Assessment Framework to Avoid Serial Failure for New Technical Solutions Applied to the Construction of a CLT Structure Resilient to Climate

Buildings ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (6) ◽  
pp. 247
Author(s):  
Charlotte Svensson Tengberg ◽  
Carl-Eric Hagentoft
Keyword(s):  
Risk Assessment ◽  
Success Factors ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Qualitative Assessment ◽  
Technical Solution ◽  
Functional Requirements ◽  
Assessment Framework ◽  
Construction Period ◽  
Design Build ◽  
Technical Solutions

Design-build contractors are challenged with the task of minimizing failure risks when introducing new technical solutions or adapting technical solutions to new conditions, e.g., climate change. They seem to have a disproportional trust in suppliers and their reference cases and might not have adequate resources or methodologies for sufficient evaluation. This creates the potential for serial failures to spread in the construction industry. To mitigate this, it was suggested that a predefined risk assessment framework should be introduced with the aim of providing a prequalification and requirements for the use of the technical solution. The objectives of this paper are to develop a comprehensive risk assessment framework and to explore the framework’s potential to adequately support the design-build contractor’s decisions. The framework uses qualitative assessment, relying on expert workshops and quantitative assessments, with a focus on simulation and probabilities. Tollgates are used to communicate risk assessments to the contractor. The framework is applied to a real-life case study of construction with a CLT-structure for a Swedish design-build contractor, where exposure to precipitation during construction is a key issue. In conclusion, the chosen framework was successful in a design-build contractor context, structuring the process and identifying difficulties in achieving the functional requirements concerning moisture. Three success factors were: documentation and communication, expert involvement, and the use of tollgates. Recommendations to the design-build contractor on construction of CLT structure are to keep construction period short and to use full weather protection on site.

scholarly journals Cumulative Risks from Stressor Exposures and Personal Risk Factors in the Workplace: Examples from a Scoping Review

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (11) ◽  
pp. 5850
Author(s):  
Mary A. Fox ◽  
Richard Todd Niemeier ◽  
Naomi Hudson ◽  
Miriam R. Siegel ◽  
Gary Scott Dotson
Keyword(s):  
Risk Factors ◽  
Risk Assessment ◽  
Scoping Review ◽  
Multiple Stressors ◽  
Cumulative Risk ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Personal Factors ◽  
Exposure Limits ◽  
Personal Risk ◽  
Personal Risk Factors

Protecting worker and public health involves an understanding of multiple determinants, including exposures to biological, chemical, or physical agents or stressors in combination with other determinants including type of employment, health status, and individual behaviors. This has been illustrated during the COVID-19 pandemic by increased exposure and health risks for essential workers and those with pre-existing conditions, and mask-wearing behavior. Health risk assessment practices for environmental and occupational health typically do not incorporate multiple stressors in combination with personal risk factors. While conceptual developments in cumulative risk assessment to inform a more holistic approach to these real-life conditions have progressed, gaps remain, and practical methods and applications are rare. This scoping review characterizes existing evidence of combined stressor exposures and personal factors and risk to foster methods for occupational cumulative risk assessment. The review found examples from many workplaces, such as manufacturing, offices, and health care; exposures to chemical, physical, and psychosocial stressors combined with modifiable and unmodifiable determinants of health; and outcomes including respiratory function and disease, cancers, cardio-metabolic diseases, and hearing loss, as well as increased fertility, menstrual dysfunction and worsened mental health. To protect workers, workplace exposures and modifiable and unmodifiable characteristics should be considered in risk assessment and management. Data on combination exposures can improve assessments and risk estimates and inform protective exposure limits and management strategies.

scholarly journals Risk Assessment of Future Climate and Land Use/Land Cover Change Impacts on Water Resources

Hydrology ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 38
Author(s):  
Nick Martin
Keyword(s):  
Risk Assessment ◽  
Land Use ◽  
Water Resources ◽  
Land Cover ◽  
Water Balance ◽  
Water Availability ◽  
Reference Conditions ◽  
Weather Generator ◽  
Future Climate ◽  
Lulc Change

Climate and land use and land cover (LULC) changes will impact watershed-scale water resources. These systemic alterations will have interacting influences on water availability. A probabilistic risk assessment (PRA) framework for water resource impact analysis from future systemic change is described and implemented to examine combined climate and LULC change impacts from 2011–2100 for a study site in west-central Texas. Internally, the PRA framework provides probabilistic simulation of reference and future conditions using weather generator and water balance models in series—one weather generator and water balance model for reference and one of each for future conditions. To quantify future conditions uncertainty, framework results are the magnitude of change in water availability, from the comparison of simulated reference and future conditions, and likelihoods for each change. Inherent advantages of the framework formulation for analyzing future risk are the explicit incorporation of reference conditions to avoid additional scenario-based analysis of reference conditions and climate change emissions scenarios. In the case study application, an increase in impervious area from economic development is the LULC change; it generates a 1.1 times increase in average water availability, relative to future climate trends, from increased runoff and decreased transpiration.

Risk assessment of pesticides in agriculture farms Jiroft city and effect of drinking water resources using Arc-GIS software

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-15
Author(s):  
Farzad Fanaei ◽  
Mahsa Tahergorabi ◽  
Mohammad Malakootian ◽  
Majid Kermani ◽  
Reza Faryabi ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Risk Assessment ◽  
Drinking Water ◽  
Water Resources ◽  
Drinking Water Resources ◽  
Arc Gis ◽  
Gis Software

Uptake and depuration of carbon- and boron nitride-based nanomaterials in the protozoa Tetrahymena thermophila

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Monika Mortimer ◽  
Timnit Kefela ◽  
Anne Trinh ◽  
Patricia Holden
Keyword(s):  
Risk Assessment ◽  
Boron Nitride ◽  
Tetrahymena Thermophila ◽  
Engineered Nanomaterials ◽  
Environmental Contaminant ◽  
Contaminants Of Emerging Concern

Quantifying bioaccumulation is important in environmental contaminant risk assessment. Engineered nanomaterials (ENMs) are contaminants of emerging concern (CECs) that can enter organisms and bioaccumulate, but more understanding is needed regarding...

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