Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in multimedia environment of Heshan coal district, Guangxi: distribution, source diagnosis and health risk assessment.

Mining activities are among the major culprits of the wide occurrences of soil and water pollution by PAHs in coal district, which have resulted in ecological fragilities and health risk for local residents. Sixteen PAHs in multimedia environment from the Heshan coal district of Guangxi, South China, were measured, aiming to investigate the contamination level, distribution and possible sources and to estimate the potential health risks of PAHs. The average concentrations of 16 PAHs in the coal, coal gangue, soil, surface water and groundwater were 5114.

Oxygen isotope signature of UV degradation of glyphosate and phosphonoacetate: tracing sources and cycling of phosphonates.

The degradation of phosphonates in the natural environment constitutes a major route by which orthophosphate (Pi) is regenerated from organic phosphorus and recently implicated in marine methane production, with ramifications to environmental pollution issues and global climate change concerns. This work explores the application of stable oxygen isotope analysis in elucidating the CP bond cleavage mechanism(s) of phosphonates by UV photo-oxidation and for tracing their sources in the environment. The two model phosphonates used, glyphosate and phosphonoacetic acid were effectively degraded after exposure to UV irradiation.

A comparative cytotoxicity study of isomeric alkylphthalates to metabolically variant bacteria.

This work investigated the toxicity of two isomeric alkylphthalates, i.e., di-n-octyl phthalate (DOP) and di-2-ethylhexyl phthalate (DEHP) to two model bacteria, Escherichia coli (E.