The very first experience of biological analysis of water in Saint-Petersburg

The biological method of water quality analysis, for the first time, was applied in Russia during the examination of Neva Bay of the Gulf of Finland in the Baltic Sea by Wislouch S.M. Neva River was a source of drinking water in St. Petersburg and, at the same time, a discharge for all city drains. As a result, it became hazardous to health, being a source of various diseases, especially cholera. From August 1911 to September 1912 pollution studies of the Bay were made to solve the question - where to send the treated waste water of the future sewage system of St. Petersburg. In total, 37 trips were made during this time, 510 samples were taken, including 375 plankton samples and 35 benthic samples. Wysłouch S. M. gave an overview of objects collected at 265 stations located in the area of Neva Bay - from estuary of Bolshaya Neva to Kronstadt, along the southern coast of the Bay and partially along the Northern coast. He brought a list of algae, including 97 species: Algae Cyanophyceae (writing all taxa retained on original source) – 17 species, Flagellata – 19 species, Peridineae – 1, One – 30, Conjugatae – 2, Diatomaceae – 28 species, Fungi (1), Bacteria (17), Protozoa (28), Rotatoria (17). Taking into account the algae and other organisms saprobity indices, areas with different degrees of contamination were identified. All the data was put on map of the Gulf. The most heavily polluted area was the Sea channel, and the area between the Lisij Nos and Kronstadt was the cleanest.

Association between air pollution and lung development in schoolchildren in China

BackgroundChina has been facing nationwide air pollution at unprecedented high levels primarily from fossil–fuel combustion in the past decade. However, few studies have been conducted on the adverse effect of severe air pollution on lung development in school-age children.MethodsUsing wellness check and air pollution data from 2014 to 2017, we conducted a retrospective analysis of lung development in 21 616 school-age children from Shijiazhuang and Qingdao from North China with severe vs mild air pollution. Linear mixed effects model was performed to assess the effect of air pollution on forced vital capacity (FVC) growth.ResultsExposure to severe air pollution was associated with a dramatic reduction in annual FVC growth rate (−71.3 mL, p< 0.001). In addition, every 10 μg/m3 increase in annual PM2.5 level was associated with a reduction of annual FVC growth by 12.2 mL ( p< 0.001). Sex discrepancy (boys vs girls) in FVC growth was greater in Qingdao (35.4 mL/year, 95% CI: 26.0 to 44.7) than in Shijiazhuang (19.8 mL/year, 95% CI: 9.3 to 30.3) (p for interaction=0.063). Exposure to indoor coal- or wood-burning stove heating (−79.4 mL, p< 0.001) and secondhand smoke at home (−59.3 mL, p= 0.003) were inversely associated with FVC growth.ConclusionOur study raised serious alarm over the threat of severe air pollution to lung development in school-age children. Sex discrepancy in lung development was reduced dramatically in heavily polluted area.

Technical Note: On the effect of water-soluble compounds removal on EC quantification by TOT analysis in urban aerosol samples

In this work, three different thermal protocols were tested on untreated and water-washed aerosol samples to study the influence of soluble organic and inorganic compounds on EC measurements. Moreover, analyses on the water soluble extracts were carried out. The aim was to find out the most suitable protocol to analyse samples collected in a heavily polluted area. Indeed, the tests were performed on real samples collected at an urban background station in the Po Valley, which is one of the main pollution hot-spots in Europe. The main differences among the tested protocols were the maximum temperature of the He step (i.e. 870 °C, 650 °C, and 580 °C) and the duration of the plateaus during the heating procedure. Our measurements evidenced the presence of a significant amount of weakly light-absorbing carbonaceous aerosol evolving during the highest temperature step in He (i.e. 870 °C), which makes lower temperature protocols not suitable for EC determination in samples collected in heavily polluted areas like Milan.