Tuesday, July 26, 2022

Wood heating pollutes the air in mountain areas more than previously assumed

Study in Slovenian part of the Dinaric Alps sheds detailed light on fine dust distribution in a relief depression with a lot of wood burning in winter

Peer-Reviewed Publication

LEIBNIZ INSTITUTE FOR TROPOSPHERIC RESEARCH (TROPOS)

mobile measurements in Retje 

IMAGE: MOBILE MEASUREMENTS - DURING THE RUN IN THE VILLAGE OF RETJE, DINARIC ALPS, SLOVENIA. view more 

CREDIT: KRISTINA GLOJEK, UNIVERSITY OF NOVA GORICA

Ajdovščina/ Leipzig. Around 30 million people in Europe live in mountain valleys. A large part of this population is more affected by air pollution than previously assumed. This is the conclusion of a Slovenian-German research team from measurements in the Northern Dinaric Alps. Due to temperature inversions in winter, pollutants are trapped in the valleys to such an extent that soot and fine dust could reach alarming levels even in small villages, as they otherwise occur mainly in the centres of congested metropolises, write researchers from the Universities of Ljubljana, Molise and Nova Gorica and the Leibniz Institute for Tropospheric Research (TROPOS) in the scientific journal Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics (ACP). With mobile measurements using an instrumented backpack by TROPOS, it had become possible to examine the pollutant distribution in more detail.

Wood combustion is responsible for more than half of the small particulate matter (PM2.5) in Europe, which is dangerous to health. According to the European Environment Agency (EEA), wood combustion is now the largest source of this pollutant. The promotion of wood as a "carbon dioxide-neutral" fuel, the rising costs of fossil fuels and several financial crises have led to significantly increasing use of wood as an alternative source. People are more likely to burn wood for household heating in small heating systems.

Air quality studies have so far mostly focused on cities. However, in the EU, the UK and the four EFTA countries Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland, over a quarter of the population live in rural areas. To study the impact of wood burning on the air quality in such villages, the researchers took a closer look at a karst hollow in Slovenia. The hollow in the municipality of Loški Potok around the village of Retje is representative of many mountainous and hilly rural areas in Central and South-Eastern Europe with wood heating systems. The study area is located in a shallow karst depression with a topography that favors the formation of temperature inversions and cold air pools typical in many valleys and relief depressions in winter. In addition to two fixed measuring stations at the bottom of the hollow in the village and on a hill, mobile measurements with instruments aboard a backpack, in particular, provided crucial details on the distribution of air pollutants in space. With this backpack, the team walked the six-kilometre route through the valley three times a day in December 2017 and January 2018  – in the morning, at midday and in the evening. In 107 measurement tours, 642 kilometres were covered on foot.

In addition to particulate matter, the team also examined one of its components: black carbon - colloquially also simply called "soot”.. Black cabon is produced by incomplete combustion of carbon-containing materials such as fossil fuels or wood. Among other things, carcinogenic substances adhere to the tiny soot particles. Black carbon is, therefore, considered a highly problematic component of particulate matter in terms of health. While the fixed measuring stations provided hourly concentrations of black carbon (eBC) of 1 to 40 micrograms per cubic metre and particulate matter concentrations (PM10) of 10 to 205 micrograms per cubic metre, the mobile measurements provided black carbon and PM2.5, but with levels more representative of the actual concentrations many people in the hollow were exposed to. These high levels of pollutants can be attributed to one effect that frequently occurs in the mountains in winter which proved to be particularly problematic: in the morning, the sun warms the upper parts of the relief depression faster than the lower parts - due to the morning fog that forms in the relief depression sheltered from the wind and prevents warming near the ground. The resulting temperature inversion acts like a lid on a pot: the exhaust gases and particles cannot escape upwards and concentrate at the bottom. In this study, several temperature inversion events occurred, during which the pedestrian level pollutant concentrations of soot (eBC) reached an average of 4.5 micrograms per cubic metre and of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) 48 micrograms per cubic metre, which is comparable to the centres of large metropolises where there is heavy traffic. These values are much larger than the European Union's annual limit (20 micrograms per cubic metre) and the World Health Organisation's (WHO) recommendations for the daily limit (15 micrograms per cubic metre). As measured by the EU Air Quality Index for fine particulate matter (PM10 and PM2.5), air quality was very poor during such temperature inversions. Overall, air quality was only moderate during the entire study period (December and January).

"During temperature inversions, pollutant levels in the hollow were highest in the early evening, reaching up to 22 micrograms per cubic metre for black carbon and 560 micrograms per cubic metre for particulate matter. This is the result of domestic wood burning, which increases when people come home after work, and the stable air layer at the bottom of the hollow. However, with some wind, both black carbon and particulate matter levels in the basin dropped to less than 1 and 12 micrograms per cubic metre, respectively, which is about four times lower than during a temperature inversion and in line with European regional background levels," reports Dr. Kristina Glojek who studied for her PhD at the University of Ljubljana. During morning and afternoon temperature inversions, in the village of Retje, people living on the lower part of the south-facing slopes were most exposed to the high concentrations of particulate matter, while in the early evening hours, when the inversion is limited to the bottom of the hollow, people there breathe in the highest levels of pollutants.

Such weather conditions are typical for hilly and mountainous regions. During the study, temperature inversions occurred on more than 70 per cent of all winter nights and mornings. "These very stable conditions prevent effective mixing of the air in the relief depression, which leads to increased pollutant levels. Therefore, during temperature inversions, particulate matter concentrations in the sink rise to levels comparable to those in larger European city centres and above the EU daily limit value (PM10 = 50 micrograms per cubic metre) as well as above the annual limit value and the WHO daily guideline values (PM2.5 = 20 and 15 micrograms per cubic metre, respectively)," emphasises Prof. Mira Pöhlker from TROPOS.

From the researchers' point of view, the example of the small relief depression in Slovenia points to a problem that is not limited to this region alone: "The pollutant concentrations measured during the temperature inversions in the rather sparsely populated small relief hollow are worrying, as similar conditions can be expected in numerous hilly and mountainous regions throughout Europe, where about 20 percent of the total population live, 30 percent of whom live in rural relief hollows comparable to the Retje site," emphasises Prof. Griša Močnik from the University of Nova Gorica.

In the view of the Slovenian-German research team, the results of this study highlight the importance of high-resolution measurements of air quality also in rural areas to monitor and aim to reduce the residential wood-burning pollution and its consequent health effects, especially in mountainous areas with limited atmospheric self-purification capacity. Therefore, they specifically propose:

1. to study pilot sites at smaller spatial scales that could help decision-makers to take effective action at the local level;

2. raising public awareness of the problem of air pollution from wood burning, including knowledge of the negative effects on health, energy efficiency, the economic costs of ineffective burning, the optimal use and regular maintenance of heating appliances, and the use of quality fuels (e.g. dry wood);

3. informing residents when weather conditions cause pollutants to concentrate in the valley and burning wood is not recommended;

4. identifying local major polluters as they may be the main cause of deterioration of local air quality;

5. to encourage retrofitting of existing stoves, centralizing combustion in district heating systems, improving energy retrofitting of buildings, and changing fuel if there is a better alternative are possible options to reduce pollution from wood burning.

It is also important to strongly involve the local population in the measures to reduce pollution emissions. Furthermore, everyone should be aware that there is not one universal solution to this complex problem. Rather, measures are needed at several levels, taking into account geographical and cultural specificities. Tilo Arnhold

  

CAPTION

View of the Retje hollow from Tabor Hill.

CREDIT

Miha Markelj, NILU

CAPTION

Inside of the TROPOS backpack.

CREDIT

Kristina Glojek, University of Nova Gorica


CAPTION

Wood smoke.

CREDIT

Kristina Glojek, University of Nova Gorica

Links:

Ultrafine aerosol particles, soot and air quality: TROPOS Long-term studies for particulate air quality
https://www.tropos.de/en/institute/departments/experimental-aerosol-and-cloud-microphysics/tropospheric-aerosols-workgroup/ultrafine-particles-and-air-quality

Study links insulin resistance, advanced cell aging with childhood poverty

Research with Black youths in one of the poorest regions in the U.S.

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT URBANA-CHAMPAIGN, NEWS BUREAU

barton-allen-220715-fz-001-m 

IMAGE: BLACK ADOLESCENTS WHO LIVED IN POVERTY AS CHILDREN AND WERE PESSIMISTIC ABOUT THEIR FUTURE HAD ACCELERATED IMMUNE CELL AGING AND GREATER LEVELS OF INSULIN RESISTANCE IN THEIR MID- TO LATE TWENTIES, ACCORDING TO A STUDY BY ALLEN W. BARTON, A PROFESSOR OF HUMAN DEVELOPMENT AND FAMILY STUDIES AT THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS URBANA-CHAMPAIGN. view more 

CREDIT: PHOTO BY FRED ZWICKY

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Black adolescents who lived in poverty and were less optimistic about the future showed accelerated aging in their immune cells and were more likely to have elevated insulin resistance at ages 25-29, researchers found.

Allen W. Barton, a professor of human development and family studies at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign is the first author of the study, which tracked the health of 342 African Americans for 20 years, from adolescence to their mid- to late twenties. The researchers’ goal was to explore links between the individuals’ childhood social environment and insulin resistance, a precursor to diabetes where cells don’t respond well to insulin or use blood glucose for energy.

The participants lived in rural Georgia, a region with one of the highest poverty rates and shortest life expectancies in the U.S.

“Once we found some compelling evidence that family poverty during childhood was associated with participants’ insulin resistance in their late 20s, we looked at immune cell aging as a possible mediator, something that transmits the effect,” Barton said. “And we found support for that. Immune cell aging was a pathway, a mechanism through which poverty was associated with insulin resistance.”

Published in the journal Child Development, the findings support the hypothesis that chronic diseases such as diabetes and metabolic syndrome that occur at significantly higher rates among Black adults and low-income populations may partially originate with experiences much earlier in life – even during childhood – and that such disadvantages can influence individuals’ cognition and physiology.

“Understanding these health disparities associated with race and socioeconomic status really requires a developmental perspective, but prospective research with these populations is sparse,” Barton said.

“In addition to focusing on contemporaneous stressors – such as their socioeconomic status in adulthood, where they currently live and their access to health care – prospective studies like this that follow participants into adulthood are important to explore developmental pathways originating in childhood to see associations between individuals’ early social environment and their subsequent health outcomes as adults,” he said.

Recent research cited in the current study also indicates that Type 2 diabetes and other diseases are affecting certain populations – especially Blacks – at much younger ages.

Data used in the new study were drawn from the Strong African American Families Healthy Adult Project, also called SHAPE, that enrolled 667 Black fifth-grade students and their caregivers. SHAPE began collecting data in 2001.

Young adults in the sample provided at least one blood sample at age 20 and again between the ages of 25-29. From these samples, researchers assessed participants’ biological age using DNA methylation and compared this age with their chronological age. Participants’ blood samples also were used to quantify their levels of insulin resistance at ages 25, 27 and 29.

At six time points, beginning when the children were 11 and continuing through age 18, the caregivers completed questionnaires about their family’s need-to-income ratios, which were used to calculate their poverty status and the number of years they lived below the federal poverty level.

Three times from the ages of 16-18, the youths completed the Perceived Life Chances Scale, a 10-item inventory that asked them whether they believed they would go to college or obtain a job that paid well, and how likely that was.

In their initial analyses, the researchers found that living in poverty between ages 11-18 was associated with insulin resistance at ages 25-29. The longer participants lived in poverty during adolescence, the higher their risk of insulin resistance and diabetes in adulthood, the researchers found. This risk was calculated using a Homeostatic Model of Insulin Resistance, or HOMA, score. Each additional year of poverty was associated with a greater than one-point higher HOMA score.

When the children reached age 19-20, the researchers examined DNA methylation in a subset of participants. DNA methylation is a natural process associated with aging that can affect gene function.

When the researchers also considered whether the teens believed they could reach their goals as adults, they found that more years spent living in poverty was associated with fewer perceived life chances. The team found associations between youths’ perceived life chances and premature immune cell aging at 20 years old, which was then linked to insulin resistance, Barton said.

“We don’t know what may have happened to them prior to age 11, so perhaps there were things put in place that we just can’t assess yet,” Barton said about the study’s limitations.

The researchers continue to follow the sample individuals and are exploring the role of resilience in participants’ health outcomes as they age, he said.

“It’s a tremendous data set and can begin to answer some important public health questions, shed light on some of these racial disparities and help find ways to mitigate them,” Barton said.

Co-authors of the study include research scientist Tianyi Yu and Gene H. Brody, the founder and co-director of the Center for Family Research, both at the University of Georgia; psychology professors Edith Chen and Gregory E. Miller, who co-direct the Foundations of Health Research Center at Northwestern University; and Qiujie Gong, a predoctoral fellow at the U. of I.

Rice improves catalyst that destroys ‘forever chemicals’ with sunlight

Chemical engineers fine-tune design of PFOA-destroying nanoparticles

Peer-Reviewed Publication

RICE UNIVERSITY

BN-TiO2 photocatalytic destruction of PFOA 

IMAGE: ILLUSTRATION SHOWING HOW A COMPOSITE MATERIAL CONTAINING SHEETS OF BORON NITRIDE (LATTICE OF BLUE AND SILVER BALLS) AND NANOPARTICLES OF TITANIUM DIOXIDE (GRAY SPHERES) USES LONG-WAVE ULTRAVIOLET ENERGY IN SUNLIGHT TO PHOTOCATALYSE THE BREAKDOWN OF PFOA INTO CARBON DIOXIDE, FLUORINE AND MINERALS. view more 

CREDIT: IMAGE COURTESY OF M.S. WONG/RICE UNIVERSITY

HOUSTON – (July 25, 2022) – Rice University chemical engineers have improved their design for a light-powered catalyst that rapidly breaks down PFOA, one of the world’s most problematic “forever chemical” pollutants.

Michael Wong and his students made the surprising discovery in 2020 that boron nitride, a commercially available powder that’s commonly used in cosmetics, could destroy 99% of PFOA, or perfluorooctanoic acid, in water samples within just a few hours when it was exposed to ultraviolet light with a wavelength of 254 nanometers.

“That was great because PFOA is an increasingly problematic pollutant that’s really hard to destroy,” said Wong, corresponding author of a study about the redesigned catalyst in Chemical Engineering Journal. “But it was also less than ideal because the boron nitride was activated by short-wave UV, and the atmosphere filters out almost all of the short-wave UV from sunlight. We wanted to push as much as possible boron nitride’s ability to access energy from other wavelengths of sunlight.”

Long-wave UV, or UV-A, has wavelengths ranging from about 315-400 nanometers. It’s what causes suntans and sunburns, and it’s plentiful in sunlight that reaches Earth. Boron nitride is a semiconductor, and it isn’t activated by UV-A. Titanium dioxide, a common ingredient in sunscreen, is a semiconductor that is activated by UV-A, and it had even been shown to catalyze the breakdown of PFOA, albeit very slowly, when exposed to UV-A.

So Wong and study co-lead authors Bo Wang, Lijie Duan and Kimberly Heck decided to create a composite of boron nitride and titanium dioxide that married the best features of the individual catalysts. In their new study, they showed the UV-A powered composites destroyed PFOA about 15 times faster than plain titanium dioxide photocatalysts.

By analyzing photocurrent response measurements and other data, Wong’s team learned how its semiconductor composite harvested UV-A energy to break apart PFOA molecules in water. In outdoor experiments using plastic water bottles under natural sunlight, they found the boron nitride-titanium dioxide composites could degrade about 99% of PFOA in deionized water in less than three hours. In salty water, that process took about nine hours.

Mounting evidence suggests PFOA is harmful to human health. Some U.S. states have set limits on PFOA contamination in drinking water, and in March 2021 the Environmental Protection Agency announced plans to develop federal standards.

Growing regulatory pressure to set PFOA standards has water treatment plants looking for new and cost-efficient ways of removing PFOA from water, Wong said.

PFOA is one of the most prevalent PFAS (perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances), a family of compounds developed in the 20th century to make coatings for waterproof clothing, food packaging and other products. PFAS have been dubbed forever chemicals because they aren’t easily degraded and tend to linger in the environment. Wong said his team is assessing how well its composite photocatalyst works for breaking down other PFAS.

He said the boron nitride and composite catalyst technologies have already attracted attention from several industrial partners in the Rice-based Nanosystems Engineering Research Center for Nanotechnology-Enabled Water Treatment (NEWT), which is funded by the National Science Foundation to develop off-grid water treatment systems.

The research was supported by the National Science Foundation (EEC-1449500), the National Major Science and Technology Program for Water Pollution Control and Treatment of China (2017ZX07401004), the Scientific Research Institutes of China (2019-YSKY-009) and the China Scholarship Council.

-30-

Peer-reviewed paper:

“Titanium oxide improves boron nitride photocatalytic degradation of perfluorooctanoic acid” | Chemical Engineering Journal | DOI: 10.1016/j.cej.2022.137735

Lijie Duan, Bo Wang, Kimberly Heck, Chelsea Clark, Jinshan Wei, Minghao Wang, Jordin Metz, Gang Wu, Ah-Lim Tsai, Sujin Guo, Jacob Arredondo, Aditya Mohite, Thomas Senftle, Paul Westerhoff, Pedro Alvarez, Xianghua Wen, Yonghui Song and Michael Wong

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cej.2022.137735

Image download:

https://news-network.rice.edu/news/files/2022/07/0725_PFOA-fig-lg.jpg
CAPTION: Illustration showing how a composite material containing sheets of boron nitride (lattice of blue and silver balls) and nanoparticles of titanium dioxide (gray spheres) uses long-wave ultraviolet energy in sunlight to photocatalyse the breakdown of PFOA into carbon dioxide, fluorine and minerals. (Image courtesy of M.S. Wong/Rice University)

https://news-network.rice.edu/news/files/2022/07/0725_PFOA-mw-lg.jpg
CAPTION: Michael Wong (Photo by Jeff Fitlow/Rice University)

https://news-network.rice.edu/news/files/2022/07/0725_PFOA_molecule-lg.jpg
CAPTION: Molecular structure of perfluorooctanoic acid, or PFOA, one of the world’s most prevalent “forever chemical” pollutants. (Image courtesy of Rice University)

Related stories and links:

Rice engineers WERC hard for the money - April 16, 2021
news.rice.edu/news/2021/rice-engineers-werc-hard-money

NSF renews Rice-based NEWT Center for water treatment - Oct. 15, 2020
news.rice.edu/news/2020/nsf-renews-rice-based-newt-center-water-treatment

Boron nitride destroys PFAS 'forever' chemicals PFOA, GenX - July 7, 2020
news.rice.edu/news/2020/boron-nitride-destroys-pfas-forever-chemicals-pfoa-genx

Fluorocarbon bonds are no match for light-powered nanocatalyst - June 22, 2020
news.rice.edu/news/2020/fluorocarbon-bonds-are-no-match-light-powered-nanocatalyst

This release can be found online at news.rice.edu.

Follow Rice News and Media Relations via Twitter @RiceUNews.

Located on a 300-acre forested campus in Houston, Rice University is consistently ranked among the nation’s top 20 universities by U.S. News & World Report. Rice has highly respected schools of Architecture, Business, Continuing Studies, Engineering, Humanities, Music, Natural Sciences and Social Sciences and is home to the Baker Institute for Public Policy. With 4,240 undergraduates and 3,972 graduate students, Rice’s undergraduate student-to-faculty ratio is just under 6-to-1. Its residential college system builds close-knit communities and lifelong friendships, just one reason why Rice is ranked No. 1 for lots of race/class interaction and No. 1 for quality of life by the Princeton Review. Rice is also rated as a best value among private universities by Kiplinger’s Personal Finance.

Researchers look to find why the Dutch are still holding to the traditional image of Black Pete despite the criticism

Peer-Reviewed Publication

THE POLISH ASSOCIATION OF SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY

Sinterklaas & Black Pete 

IMAGE: SINTERKLAAS & BLACK PETE view more 

CREDIT: WERNER WILLEMSEN

Analogous to Santa Klaus in the West, every December, the saint Sinterklaas brings gifts to the good children in the Netherlands. However, the latter is not assisted by a Christmas elf, but by what appears as a ‘devilish’ helper, called Black Pete. 

Even though Pete’s face is said to be black due to the soot he picks as he jumps down the chimneys, in the Netherlands, there has been growing concern that the figure is largely racist. Black people in the Netherlands - mainly of Caribbean descent - have often reported being insulted by being called ‘Black Pete’.

Apart from the character’s stereotypical looks (e.g., black or brown face paint, red lips, golden hoop earrings, and afro wigs), he also plays a subservient role as Sinterklaas’ helper, whose task is to make sure that the presents are in order and delivered. 

As Black people in the country are continuously calling for Black Pete to have his image changed, the ethnic Dutch population remains convinced that the character is an innocent part of the culture and the lore. 

Now, researchers at the Leiden University: Daudi van Veen, Rosanneke A. G. Emmen and Judi Mesman, report on their study on whether it is a tradition or social hierarchy that the ethnic Dutch wish to preserve. Their scientific paper was published in the peer-reviewed, open-access scholarly journal Social Psychological Bulletin.

In their study, the researchers used data from an earlier Dutch survey meant to assess various items, including national identification, self-esteem, preference for social hierarchy, self-stereotypes referring to the Dutch, and feelings for Dutch caricatures. 

Interestingly, the research concluded that national identification, but not preference for social dominance, was what could significantly be associated with positive attitudes towards the Sinterklaas festivities. In the meantime, it was both national identification and preference for social hierarchy that could be correlated with positive attitudes towards Black Pete.

“These findings suggest that among ethnic Dutch people, acceptance of the unequal treatment of minority groups is related to resistance to changing the appearance of Black Pete,” conclude the authors of the present study.

  

CAPTION

Black lives matter and Black Pete demonstration (Leeuwarden, Netherlands)

CREDIT

Arnold Bartels

Research article: 

van Veen, D., Emmen, R. A. G., & Mesman, J. (2022). National Identification, Social Dominance Orientation, and Attitudes Towards Black Pete in the Netherlands: Person- and Variable-Centered Analyses. Social Psychological Bulletin, 17, 1-19. https://doi.org/10.32872/spb.7853

Changes in Tokyo’s power usage after nuclear power plant closures


Peer-Reviewed Publication

HIROSHIMA UNIVERSITY

Tokyo landscape 

IMAGE: TOKYO’S LANDSCAPE FROM THE SKY TREE TOWER view more 

CREDIT: AYYOOB SHARIFI/HIROSHIMA UNIVERSITY

Since 2003, three of the nuclear power plants that supplied Tokyo, Japan with its electricity shut down. Researchers suspected that this would have implications for the city’s consumption-based CO2 emissions as electricity was supplied through other means. To understand the long-term implications of this change to Tokyo’s power grid, researchers from Hiroshima University studied how CO2 emissions in Tokyo have changed since the power plant closures.

The findings were published in Urban Climate on June 28. 

“In this study, we analyzed the changes in the carbon mitigation responsibility of Tokyo after the electricity supply shock caused by nuclear power plant accidents to examine how dependence on electricity supply affects CO2 emissions. In other words, we examined if the suspension of the nuclear power plant has impacted Tokyo’s carbon dioxide emissions,” said corresponding author Ayyoob Sharifi, a professor at the IDEC Institute at Hiroshima University. 

The three nuclear power plants that supplied Tokyo with its power were shut down due to inspection in 2003, the Niigata Chuetsu-Oki Earthquake in 2007, and the Great East Japan Earthquake in 2011. Since the power plant closures, electricity generated by nuclear power has been reduced by one-third. Understanding the difference in CO2 emissions before and after the nuclear power plant closures could help researchers understand Tokyo’s carbon mitigation responsibility going forward and meet the targets of the Paris climate agreement.

Tokyo is an important city to study when it comes to global carbon mitigation efforts. Like many large cities, the city has shifted from an industrial city to a service city. In a service city, many of the goods and services that the city consumes are produced outside of the city instead of within. Every year, the population of Tokyo increases and, along with it, the demand for goods and services increases. 

“We found out that there was no significant change in Tokyo’s consumption-based emissions. Also, due to the shift from nuclear to thermal power plants, the CO2 emissions embodied in electricity imported from outside the city has increased. We argue that since local governments in Japan report their emission data based on the electricity imported from outside the city boundaries, their reported data (on their climate change mitigation responsibility) are underestimated,” said co-author Masaru Ichihashi, a professor at the IDEC Institute at Hiroshima University. This increase in CO2 emissions from the creation, storage, and transportation of electricity from outside the city was directly related to the change from nuclear power to thermal power. 

“Proper emission accounting should also consider other emissions, including those associated with other services and imported goods and products. Since Tokyo’s consumption structure has remained steady over the past few decades, we assume that Tokyo’s emission responsibility will not change unless there is a major switch to more low-carbon and sustainable consumption and production patterns in the city,” said co-author Shinji Kaneko, a professor at the IDEC Institute at Hiroshima University. This would include finding a more sustainable way to produce electricity for the city  

Looking ahead, researchers will continue to monitor how Tokyo’s CO2 emissions change over time.

“We would also like to examine how local initiatives such as waste recycling and renewable energy generation are developed and implemented in the city and how successful they are in facilitating the transition towards the low-carbon economy and meeting the ambitious climate change mitigation targets of the city (aligned with the targets of the Paris Climate Agreement),” said lead author Kae Murakami of the City of Hiroshima.

###

About Hiroshima University

Since its foundation in 1949, Hiroshima University has striven to become one of the most prominent and comprehensive universities in Japan for the promotion and development of scholarship and education. Consisting of 12 schools for undergraduate level and 4 graduate schools, ranging from natural sciences to humanities and social sciences, the university has grown into one of the most distinguished comprehensive research universities in Japan. English website: https://www.hiroshima-u.ac.jp/en

In fine print: Study sheds light on mechanisms driving 1,2-dichloropropane-induced cancer in the printing industry

Study finds that when exposed to 1,2-dichloropropane, cells show altered gene expression that induces cellular cascades promoting cancer

Peer-Reviewed Publication

TOKYO UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE

Study Sheds Light on Mechanisms Driving 1,2-Dichloropropane-Induced Cancer in the Printing Industry 

IMAGE: STUDY FINDS THAT WHEN EXPOSED TO 1,2-DICHLOROPROPANE, CELLS SHOW ALTERED GENE EXPRESSION THAT INDUCES CELLULAR CASCADES PROMOTING CANCER. view more 

CREDIT: TOKYO UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE, JAPAN

1,2-Dichloropropane (1,2-DCP) is a solvent widely used in the printing industry. It rose to prominence when it was linked to the development of cholangiocarcinoma, or bile duct cancer, in the employees of an offset printing firm in Osaka in 2013. Thereafter, the International Agency for the Research on Cancer reclassified 1,2-DCP as being carcinogenic to humans, and many studies have since focused on occupational cholangiocarcinoma on exposure to 1,2-DCP.

Common cholangiocarcinoma develops in the cholangiocytes (or epithelial cells) of the bile duct and liver. On the other hand, occupational cholangiocarcinoma has markedly different features, such as the presence of non-characteristic precancerous lesions and inflammatory changes in the surrounding non-cancerous tissue. Research suggests that while 1,2-DCP primarily targets cholangiocytes, it indirectly damages their DNA in the presence of inflammatory cells called macrophages. However, the exact mechanism of 1,2-DCP-induced cholangiocarcinoma remains a mystery.

To solve this problem, in a new study, a group of researchers led by Professor Gaku Ichihara from Tokyo University of Science (TUS), identified the gene expression profiles of cholangiocytes co-cultured with macrophages and exposed to 1,2-DCP. Prof. Ichihara says, “Our findings identified the upregulation of genes tied to DNA repair and the cell cycle in cholangiocytes and macrophages, respectively. This suggests that the DNA damage, cell proliferation, and ultimately neoplasia occurring in the bile ducts is likely driven by the altered cell function induced by the abnormal gene expression.”

In the study, published in the journal Scientific Reports (published online on 02 July 2022), Prof. Ichihara, together with his colleagues Shigeyuki Shichino and Kouji Matsushimia at TUS, Kazuo Kinoshita from Shizuoka Graduate University of Public Health, and Sahoko Ichihara from Jichi Medical University School of Medicine, co-cultured cholangiocytes and macrophages that were exposed to varying concentrations of 1,2-DCP for 24 hours. The concentrations selected mirrored the occupational exposure of workers in a poorly ventilated environment.

Prof. Ichihara’s previous work had shown that in the presence of macrophages, 1,2-DCP induced the expression of activation-induced cytidine deaminase, which is a DNA-mutating enzyme, along with excess DNA damage and reactive oxygen species production in cholangiocytes. To delve deeper, the team used transcriptomics to study the gene expression patterns in the cells and identify the intracellular mechanisms driving carcinoma formation.

The data revealed that in the presence of 1,2-DCP, co-cultured cholangiocytes showed higher expression of base excision repair genes, whereas macrophages revealed upregulation of cell cycle genes. “The upregulation of DNA repair genes suggests an increase in DNA damage as 1,2-DCP concentration increases. Furthermore, macrophages could proliferate at a given site following 1,2-DCP exposure. Since they play an important role in the regulation of inflammatory responses by releasing cytokines and signaling molecules, their overstimulation could result in the persistent production of these compounds which ultimately influence various pathological states and cancer,” explains Prof. Ichihara.

The implications of the study are far-reaching in the fields of environmental toxicology and occupational cancer prevention. The team’s findings show that it is possible to pinpoint how potential carcinogens promote cancer without directly damaging DNA. Prof. Ichihara and his team are confident they can build on their findings and design further studies to fully understand the cross talk between cholangiocytes and macrophages and elucidate the mechanisms behind the erroneous DNA damage repair in cholangiocytes.

***

Reference                                    

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-15295-3

 

About The Tokyo University of Science

Tokyo University of Science (TUS) is a well-known and respected university, and the largest science-specialized private research university in Japan, with four campuses in central Tokyo and its suburbs and in Hokkaido. Established in 1881, the university has continually contributed to Japan's development in science through inculcating the love for science in researchers, technicians, and educators.

With a mission of “Creating science and technology for the harmonious development of nature, human beings, and society", TUS has undertaken a wide range of research from basic to applied science. TUS has embraced a multidisciplinary approach to research and undertaken intensive study in some of today's most vital fields. TUS is a meritocracy where the best in science is recognized and nurtured. It is the only private university in Japan that has produced a Nobel Prize winner and the only private university in Asia to produce Nobel Prize winners within the natural sciences field.

Website: https://www.tus.ac.jp/en/mediarelations/

 

About Professor Gaku Ichihara from Tokyo University of Science

Dr. Gaku Ichihara is a Professor in the Department of Occupational and Environmental Health, Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences at the Tokyo University of Science. He completed his doctoral studies in 1993 at Nagoya University. He joined Tokyo University of Science in 2014 where his research focuses on preventing environment-induced disorders in humans. The Ichihara lab investigates the mechanisms of toxicity using human studies, experimental studies, and in vitro systems. Prof. Ichihara is a member of the committee overseeing occupational exposure limits at the Japan Society for Occupational Health, and has worked with the WHO International Agency for Research on Cancer.

 

Funding information

Funding for this study was provided through a Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (17H06396).

Effect of environmental contaminants on the health of pet cats

Exposure to persistent organic pollutants in pet cats lowers blood thyroid hormone levels and causes chronic oxidative stress.

Peer-Reviewed Publication

EHIME UNIVERSITY

Outline in this study 

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CREDIT: EHIME UNIVERCITY

Companion animals are in close contact with human surroundings, and there is growing concern  about the effects of harmful substances on the health of pet cats. This study investigated the potential health effects of organohalogen compounds (OHCs) on thyroid hormone (TH) homeostasis and metabolomics in pet cats in Japan. There was a significant negative correlation between concentrations of several contaminants, such as polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs), hydroxylated PCBs (OH-PCBs), hydroxylated PBDEs (OH-PBDEs), and total THs (L-thyroxine, 3,5,3'-triiodo-L-thyronine, and 3,3',5'-triiodo-L-thyronine) in cat serum samples. These results suggested that exposure to OHCs causes a decrease in serum TH levels in pet cats.

In this metabolomics study, each exposure level of parent compounds (PCBs and PBDEs) and their hydroxylated compounds (OH-PCBs and OH-PBDEs) were associated with their unique primary metabolic pathways, suggesting that parent and phenolic compounds exhibit different mechanisms of action and biological effects. The OPLS-DA revealed that concentrations of 13 metabolites had 4 negative or 9 positive correlations with PCB concentrations in pet cat serum samples. The concentrations of 16 metabolites exhibited 5 negative or 11 positive correlations with total OH-PCBs concentrations. In contrast, of the 16 metabolite concentrations, 2 had negative and 14 had positive correlations with PBDEs concentrations in pet cat serum samples. Of the concentrations of 12 metabolites, 2 exhibited negative and 10 exhibited positive correlations with OH-PBDEs concentrations. PCBs were associated with many metabolic pathways, including glutathione and purine metabolism. These results demonstrated that OHC exposure causes chronic oxidative stress in pet cats. PBDEs were positively associated with alanine, aspartate, and glutamate metabolism. Due to the chronic exposure of cats to mixtures of these contaminants, the combination of their respective metabolic pathways may have a synergistic effect.

   These results indicate it is necessary to pay specific attention to the onset of lifestyle-related diseases due to abnormal lipid metabolism in pet cats. Pet cats have faced lifestyle challenges in recent years, due to the increase in type 2 diabetes and cardiogenic arterial thromboembolism. Providing companion animals with adequate care and an environment with low exposure to OHCs is an important consideration in maintaining the health and well-being of pets. Therefore, it is necessary to reduce the OHC contained in the indoor environment and pet food. In addition, it is essential to clarify the toxic effects of various pollutants on pet cats.



Thousands in Bosnia protest possible changes to election law

Solutions based on ethnic discrimination contrary to all democratic, legal standards, say protesters

Talha Ozturk |26.07.2022



BELGRADE, Serbia

Thousands of people gathered in Bosnia and Herzegovina's capital Sarajevo on Monday to protest possible amendments to the nation’s election law and constitution by the Office of the High Representative (OHR), an international institution that is responsible for implementing the country’s peace agreement.

Several thousand people gathered in front of the OHR’s office to convey the message that solutions based on ethnic discrimination and which are contrary to all democratic and legal standards are completely unacceptable.

Dervo Sejdic, a Bosnian Roma who had in the past appealed to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, France after he was blocked from running in elections because he was not Bosniak, Croat or Serb, called for protests over the planned changes to the election law.

Many political parties joined the call, including the Social Democratic Party of Bosnia and Herzegovina (SDP), the Democratic Front (DF), the Democratic Action Movement (PDA), Our Party, the Democratic Action Party (SDA) and the People and Justice (NiP) party.

The protestors carried the national flag of Bosnia and Herzegovina. No incidents were recorded and the gathering was secured by a large number of police officers.

Earlier in the day, SDA leader Bakir Izetbegovic said Bosnia needs the authority of a high representative who would protect the constitution and the 1995 Dayton Peace Agreement.

Izetbegovic's remarks came at a press conference following an extraordinary meeting held at the SDA’s headquarters ahead of the protest in front of the OHR.

According to local media, by Aug. 1, Christian Schmidt, a German politician and the High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina, will impose measures for the re-functioning of Bosnia’s Federation (FBiH) entity.

"The high representative in Bosnia Herzegovina is to protect the Constitution and the Dayton Peace Agreement and by no means to impose solutions that we failed to reach through a series of negotiations that stretched throughout the last year, especially changes in the very sensitive sphere of inter-ethnic and party balances and the balance of party influence among the ethnocentric and civic parties,” said Izetbegovic.

Visiting Bosnia Herzegovina, Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic said it is in Croatia's interest to have a stable and democratic Bosnia Herzegovina in which Croats will be equal.

"The key is inclusion, so isn't it most natural that Croats who voted and fought for the independence of Bosnia and Herzegovina will be able to participate in the government? These reactions are exaggerated. We need to calm down so that the elections can be conducted in the best way," said Plenkovic

Plenkovic's remarks came after meeting with Dragan Covic, the head of the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ), the main Bosnian Croat party.

For his part, Covic said Bosniaks in the country want to maintain the status quo.

"During the last two years, we tried to implement the agreement in Mostar. We failed. The wish of the Bosniak parties was to maintain the status quo, but they only partially succeeded in that because all the problems surfaced when it came to the majority of the minority people. I am convinced from the talks with the high representative that those decisions will go in the direction of a democratic atmosphere in the campaign phase as well as that immediately after the election, the results will be able to be implemented," he said.

According to local media, Schmidt, who oversees the peace agreement’s implementation in Bosnia Herzegovina and has special powers to impose laws and dismiss officials, would impose a new law regarding how delegates are chosen from the House of Peoples of the Bosniak-Croat Federation entity’s parliament.

Many say the OHR would give the Croat nationalist party HDZ and the Alliance of Independent Social Democrats (SNSD) party a disproportionate degree of political influence and further deepen discriminatory ethnic divisions.

Bosniaks, Croats and Serbs will lose representatives in the House of Peoples if their ethnic population in any federation canton amounts to less than 3% of the same ethnic population in the federation entity.

This would allow HDZ to get more delegates, at least 14 out of 17 seats in the Croat group, as HDZ rules in cantons with larger Croat populations.

With complete control over the Croat groups, a member from the HDZ will now be guaranteed a seat as either the president or as one of the two vice presidents of the federation in a team with a Bosniak and a Serb selected from their respective groups.

Regardless of whether the HDZ has a president or a vice president for the federation, all three ethnic constituencies are required to form the government, making the HDZ indispensable.

Under the current election law, at least one Bosniak, one Croat and one Serb delegate are elected from each canton.

This would be the third time Schmidt uses the so-called “Bonn powers” after assuming office in August 2021.

The first time he did so to annul a law on immovable property in Republika Srpska, a Serb-dominated entity.

The second time, Schmidt used his "Bonn powers" to finance the country’s general elections on Oct. 2, allocating €6.5 million (approximately $6.97 million) for the Central Election Commission.
Greenland Minerals to object govt's draft decision on rare earth license

(Reuters) - Greenland Minerals Ltd said on Tuesday it will object to the Greenland government's draft decision to not grant it a license for the Kvanefjeld rare-earths project citing a legislation that effectively bans uranium exploration.

The Australia-listed miner said it will lodge an objection against the draft decision as it relies on a rule — which bans mining of ore bodies with uranium content of 100 parts per million (ppm) or greater — that is being contested separately in the court. https://bit.ly/3J3xMj9

"The draft decision rejecting our application for a mining licence is at odds with Greenland's stated policy to be a significant player in the energy transition," Greenland Minerals' Managing Director Daniel Mamadou said.

In March, Greenland Minerals took the governments of Greenland and Denmark to court for the legislation passed last year that banned uranium exploration and risked the development of the miner's Kvanefjeld project. https://bit.ly/3oxXcMl

So far, more than 1 billion tonnes of mineral resources and ore estimates of 108 million tonnes have been outlined in the Kvanefjeld project area across three different zones. It also contains radioactive uranium, which some residents fear will harm the environment. https://bit.ly/3J52HeG

The development comes amid rising interest for rights to exploit rare earth deposits in Greenland, which as per the U.S. Geological Survey has the world's biggest undeveloped deposits of the metals needed in electric-vehicle batteries.

The Greenland government will make a final decision after a consultation process on the draft decision, the miner said on Tuesday. However, it expects relief from the arbitration process to obtain the exploration license.

"Despite the current situation, we hope the legal process will allow for a fully informed assessment of the project," Mamadou said.

Shares of Greenland Minerals finished about 7% lower, their worst session in two weeks.

(Reporting by Sameer Manekar in Bengaluru; editing by Uttaresh.V)