Science Inventory

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The US EPA has developed a set of annual North American anthropogenic and fire emissions data for criteria air pollutants across 18 broad source catagories for 2002 through 2017.  The sixteen new annual emissions inventories were developed using consistent input data and met...

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are widely used, and their fluorinated state contributes to unique uses and stability but also long half-lives in the environment and humans. PFAS have been shown to be toxic, leading to immunosuppression, cancer, and other adverse healt...

To identify U.S. lead exposure risk hotspots, we expanded upon geospatial statistical methods from a published Michigan case study. Evaluation of identified hotspots using six lead indices, based on housing age and sociodemographic data, showed moderate-to-substantial agreement w...

Global shifts in climatic conditions and anthropogenic disturbances are dramatically modifying the Earth’s ecosystem. Ensuring water security, availability, and quality within this context largely depends on how accurately we can map Global Surface Water Extents (GWSE). Map...

Background: Observational epidemiologic studies provide critical data for the evaluation of the potential effects of environmental, occupational and behavioural exposures on human health. Systematic reviews of these studies play a key role in informing policy and practice. System...

Chemical safety assessment begins with defining the lowest level of chemical that alters one or more measured endpoints. This critical effect level, along with factors to account for uncertainty, is used to derive limits for human exposure. In the absence of data regarding the sp...

Communities across the United States and particularly in the Midwest continue to grapple with the complications associated with aging infrastructure. This includes the presence of lead (Pb)-bearing plumbing components such as lead service lines (LSLs), downstream galvanized iron ...

In drinking water distribution systems, including premise plumbing, dissolved oxygen (DO) and free chlorine (FC) are common oxidants and ductile iron (DI) and copper (Cu) are commonly used pipe materials. Microelectrodes are a tool that have been applied in previous corrosion res...

Secondary organic aerosol (SOA) from acid-driven reactive uptake of isoprene epoxydiols (IEPOX) contributes up to 40% of organic aerosol (OA) mass in fine particulate matter. Previous work showed substantial conversions of particulate inorganic sulfates to surface-active organosu...

Bioaccessibility and relative bioavailability of As, Cd, Pb and Sb was investigated in 30 legacy gold mining wastes (calcine sands, grey battery sands, tailings) from Victorian goldfields (Australia). Pseudo-total As concentration in 29 samples was 1.45–148-fold higher than...

Communities across the United States are enduring, often unexpectedly, the effects of extreme events, such as excessive heat, prolonged droughts, extreme floods, and wildfires. In places where contaminated sites and waste management facilities are also present, communities must c...

This research investigated the in-situ decay rates of four human wastewater-associated markers (Bacteroides HF183 (HF183), Lechnospiraceae Lachno3 (Lachno3), cross-assembling phage (crAssphage), pepper mild mottle virus (PMMoV) and three enteric viruses (human aden...

Communities across the world are experiencing a myriad of impacts from intensifying extreme heat, flood, drought, and wildfire events due to climate change. Further impacts can be experienced due to nearby contaminated sites and waste management facilities that are either activel...

Journal article submitted to EcoHealth - (Abstract) - Lyme disease (LD) is the most common vector-borne disease in the United States (U.S.). This paper assesses how climate change may influence LD incidence in the eastern and upper midwestern U.S., and the associated economic bur...

Permafrost soils store ∼50% of terrestrial C, with Yedoma permafrost containing ∼25% of the total C. Permafrost is undergoing degradation due to thawing, with potentially hazardous effects on landscape stability and water resources. Complicating ongoing efforts to project...

Extensive research in recent years has reported higher per- and polyfluoroalkyl substance (PFAS) concentrations in municipal solid waste (MSW) landfill leachate than other municipal wastewaters, including multiple studies of leachate from MSW landfills in the United States. Becau...

Background:  Xenobiotic metabolites are widely present in human urine and can indicate recent exposure to environmental chemicals. Proper inference of which chemicals contribute to these metabolites can inform human exposure and risk. Furthermore, longitudinal biomonitoring...

Aqueous film-forming foams (AFFFs) are used in firefighting applications, and often contain per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), which can detrimentally impact environmental and biological health. Incineration is a potential disposal method for AFFFs, which may produce sec...

Climate change is projected to impact river, lake, and wetland hydrology, with global implications for the condition and productivity of aquatic ecosystems. We integrated Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2 based algorithms to track monthly surface water extent (2017–2021) for 32 sit...

During dichloramine decomposition, the relative importance of nitrogen and oxygen containing end-products from the reactive nitrogen species pathway is unknown.  At pH 9 with and without 10 μM total dimethylamine (TOTDMA) and 200, 400, or 800 μeq Cl2•L−1 initial dichloramine, nit...

This study investigated the decay rates of wastewater-associated markers and enteric viruses in laboratory microcosms mimicking estuarine water environments in temperate Sydney, NSW, Australia using qPCR and RT-qPCR assays. The results demonstrated the reduction in concentrations...

The lack of standardized methods and large differences in virus concentration and extraction workflows have hampered Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS-CoV-2) wastewater surveillance and data reporting practices. Numerous studies have shown that adsorption-extraction (AE) me...

Seagrass beds play a critical role in biodiversity maintenance, serving as nursery habitats for fisheries, and aiding in carbon and sediment sequestration in the ecosystem. These habitats receive dissolved and particulate material inputs, like nutrients and heavy metals, aff...

Many factors, including microbiome structure and activity in the drinking water distribution system (DWDS), affect the colonization potential of opportunistic pathogens. The present study aims to describe the dynamics of active bacterial communities in DWDS and identify the facto...

Computational fluid dynamics simulations are used to model the velocity field and the transport of a passive scalar within a micro-scale chamber used to measure diffusional transport through various building materials.  Comparisons of solutions obtained using a steady, lamin...