A Horizon Scan to Support Chemical Pollution-Related Policymaking for Sustainable and Climate-Resilient Economies.

While chemicals are vital to modern society through materials, agriculture, textiles, new technology, medicines, and consumer goods, their use is not without risks. Unfortunately, our resources seem inadequate to address the breadth of chemical challenges to the environment and human health. Therefore, it is important we use our intelligence and knowledge wisely to prepare for what lies ahead.

Proportional contributions to organic chemical mixture effects in groundwater and surface water.

Semi-quantitative GC-MS and LC-MS measurements of organic chemicals in groundwater and surface waters were used to assess the overall magnitude and contribution of the most important substances to calculated mixture hazard. Here we use GC-MS and LC-MS measurements taken from two separate national monitoring programs for groundwater and surface water in England, in combination with chronic species sensitivity distribution (SSD) HC50 values published by Posthuma et al. (2019, Environ.

Worst-case ranking of organic chemicals detected in groundwaters and surface waters in England.

The Environment Agency has been using Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS) and Accurate-mass Quadrupole Time-of-Flight (Q-TOF) / Liquid Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (LC-MS) target screen analysis to semi-quantitatively measure organic substances in groundwater and surface water since 2009 for GC-MS and 2014 for LC-MS. Here we use this data to generate a worst-case "risk" ranking of the detected substances. Three sets of hazard values relating to effects on aquatic organisms, namely Water Framework Directive EQSs, NORMAN Network PNECs (hereafter NORMAN PNEC) and chronic Species Sensitivity Distribution (SSD) HC50s from Posthuma et al.

Insights into growth kinetics and roles of enzymes of Krebs' cycle and sulfur oxidation during exochemolithoheterotrophic growth of Achromobacter aegrifaciens NCCB 38021 on succinate with thiosulfate as the auxiliary electron donor.

Achromobacter aegrifaciens NCCB 38021 was grown heterotrophically on succinate versus exochemolithoheterotrophically on succinate with thiosulfate as auxiliary electron donor. In batch culture, no significant differences in specific molar growth yield or specific growth rate were found for the two growth conditions, but in continuous culture in the succinate-limited chemostat, the maximum specific growth yield coefficient increased by 23.3% with thiosulfate present, consistent with previous studies of endo- and exochemolithoheterotrophs and thermodynamic predictions.

Biocide Resistance and Transmission of Clostridium difficile Spores Spiked onto Clinical Surfaces from an American Health Care Facility.

is the primary cause of antibiotic-associated diarrhea globally. In unfavorable environments, the organism produces highly resistant spores which can survive microbicidal insult. Our previous research determined the ability of spores to adhere to clinical surfaces, finding that spores had markedly different hydrophobic properties and adherence abilities.