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Since the global phase-out of leaded petrol, reports have suggested that lead exposure remains substantial or is increasing in some low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs). However, few studies have attempted to systematically assess blood lead levels over the full range of LMICs. This study is aimed to describe values for blood lead level in LMICs.In this systematic review, PubMed was searched for studies published between Jan 1, 2010, and Oct 31, 2019, that reported blood lead levels in the 137

Who is the course aimed at?Nature offers many solutions to reduce the impacts of disasters and climate change, such as protecting forests on steep slopes, maintaining sand dunes along coastline and wetlands to buffer excess rainwater. In this course, find out how people around the world are building resilience to disasters and climate change impacts through Nature-based Solutions.This course will help you understand how to apply these Nature-based Solutions that restore or protect natural or modified ecosystems and biodiversity and

UN Environment Programme and Open Universiteit have created a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) on Marine Litter as a key activity of the Global Partnership on Marine Litter (you can join the GPML). It is also part of the Clean Seas Campaign. The course starts on October 26, 2020. It is free for all students and available in 10 different languages. You can still enroll until November 15. Register here!Marine litter is a global problem that affects every ocean of

We present a list of Chemicals of Concern (CoCs) in plastic toys. We started from available studies reporting chemical composition of toys to group plastic materials, as well as to gather mass fractions and function of chemicals in these materials. Chemical emissions from plastic toys and subsequent human exposures were then estimated using a series of models and a coupled near-field and far-field exposure assessment framework. Comparing human doses with reference doses shows high Hazard Quotients of up to 387

Environmental contamination with pharmaceuticals is widespread, inducing risks to both human health and the environment. This paper explores potential societal solutions to human and veterinary pharmaceuticals in the aquatic environment. To this end, we adopt transition research’s multi-level perspective framework, which allows us to understand the dynamics underlying pharmaceutical emissions and to recognize social and technical factors triggering change. The authors' qualitative analysis is based on data collected through literature research and interviews with actors from pharmaceutical industry, the health

Endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs) substantially cost society as a result of increases in disease and disability but—unlike other toxicant classes such as carcinogens—have yet to be codified into regulations as a hazard category.This Series paper examines economic, regulatory, and policy approaches to limit human EDC exposures and describes potential improvements. In the EU, general principles for EDCs call for minimisation of human exposure, identification as substances of very high concern, and ban on use in pesticides. In the USA, screening and

AbstractThe world faces an increasing need to phase out harmful chemicals and design sustainable alternatives across various consumer products and industrial applications. Alternatives assessment is an emerging field focusing on identifying viable solutions to substitute harmful chemicals. However, current methods fail to consider trade-offs from human and ecosystem exposures, and from impacts associated with chemical supply chains and product life cycles. To close this gap, we propose a life cycle based alternatives assessment (LCAA) framework for consistently integrating quantitative exposure

Microplastic contamination of the marine environment is widespread, but the extent to which the marine food web is contaminated is not yet known. The aims of this study were to go beyond visual identification techniques and develop and apply a simple seafood sample cleanup, extraction, and quantitative analysis method using pyrolysis gas chromatography mass spectrometry to improve the detection of plastic contamination.This method allows the identification and quantification of polystyrene, polyethylene, polyvinyl chloride, polypropylene, and poly (methyl methacrylate) in the