Cancer mortality and congenital anomalies in a region of Italy with intense environmental pressure due to waste

Objectives: Waste management in the Campania region has been characterised, since the 1980s, by widespread uncontrolled and illegal practices of waste dumping, generating concerns over the health implications. The objective of this study was to evaluate possible adverse health effects of such environmental pressure. Methods: The health effects of waste-related environmental exposures in Campania were assessed in a correlation study on nine causes of death (for the years 1994-2001) and 12 types of congenital anomaly (CA) (1996-2002) in 196 municipalities of the provinces of Naples and Caserta. Poisson regression was used to analyse the association between health outcomes and environmental contamination due to waste, as measured through a composite index, adjusting for deprivation. Results: Statistically significant excess relative risks (ERR, %) in high-index compared with low-index (unexposed) municipalities were found for all-cause mortality (9.2 (95% CI 6.5 to 11.9) in men and 12.4 (9.5 to 15.4) in women and liver cancer (19.3 (1.4 to 40.3) in men and 29.1 (7.6 to 54.8) in women). Increased risks were also found for all cancer mortality (both sexes), stomach and lung cancer (in men). Statistically significant ERRs were found for CAs of the internal urogenital system (82.7 (25.6 to 155.7)) and of the central nervous system (83.5 (24.7 to 169.9)). Conclusion: Although the causal nature of the association is uncertain, findings support the hypothesis that waste-related environmental exposures in Campania produce increased risks of mortality and, to a lesser extent, CA

Comparative assessment of autochthonous bacterial and fungal communities and microbial biomarkers of polluted agricultural soils of the Terra dei Fuochi

Organic and inorganic xenobiotic compounds can affect the potential ecological function of the soil, altering its biodiversity. Therefore, the response of microbial communities to environmental pollution is a critical issue in soil ecology. Here, a high-throughput sequencing approach was used to investigate the indigenous bacterial and fungal community structure as well as the impact of pollutants on their diversity and richness in contaminated and noncontaminated soils of a National Interest Priority Site of Campania Region (Italy) called “Terra dei Fuochi”. The microbial populations shifted in the polluted soils via their mechanism of adaptation to contamination, establishing a new balance among prokaryotic and eukaryotic populations. Statistical analyses showed that the indigenous microbial communities were most strongly affected by contamination rather than by site of origin. Overabundant taxa and Actinobacteria were identified as sensitive biomarkers for assessing soil pollution and could provide general information on the health of the environment. This study has important implications for microbial ecology in contaminated environments, increasing our knowledge of the capacity of natural ecosystems to develop microbiota adapted to polluted soil in sites with high agricultural potential and providing a possible approach for modeling pollution indicators for bioremediation purposes

New Prospective on Sentinel Animal Systems: Experiences in Southern Italy Polluted Areas

The aim of the present work is to provide a picture of the current knowledge on Animal Biomonitoring Systems and highlight the link between environmental pollution and Public Health concerns. In this paper are showed the results of three studies performed during the PhD scholarship focused on environmental monitoring using domestic animals as sentinel animal systems. Environmental biomonitoring through domestic animals appears to be more feasible and effective compared to other research models, because animals share with humans the same risks of exposure to pollutants; the growing need of an early detection of industrial pollutants in the environment, especially micropollutants which have adverse effects at very low concentrations, is at the basis of Public and Environment Health surveillance programs. Furthermore, it’s important to disclose the presence of these compounds directly or through certain molecular biomarkers in living organisms rather than in the natural environment, where they are often present below the detection threshold. Here we report the preliminary data of a project developed in Basilicata region (Southern Italy): Project S.E.BIO.VET. (Environmental Epidemiology Study and VETerinary BIOmonitoring in Basilicata) using sheep as animal sentinel to verify the impact of gas drilling on the environment. Furthermore we investigated the utility of necropsy on pets to evaluate environmental pollution by heavy metals, through a research project performed on the entire Campania Region, leaded by the Regional Referal Center of Veterinary Urban Hygene (CRIUV). Laslty, we provide new insights for the use of dairy cattle as early warning for environmental pollution by nitrate and nitrite, highlighting new aspects of nitrate toxicosis which may occur both in animals and humans. Results of this work confirmed that dog is a good sentinel animal system in urban and rural areas, and can be used for epidemiological and comparative pathology studies for tumors in humans. Dairy cattle are one of the most sensible specie to nitrate and nitrite toxicosis, compounds which can be released even in milk which can be a dangerous source of exposure for humans. In this study, the preliminary data of SEBIOVET project confirm the crucial role of small ruminants to monitor environmental pollution on large scale, to have indications on the presence of unknown polluted site, or to monitor already known contaminated areas

Environmental geochemistry of Potentially Toxic Elements (PTEs) and Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) as a tool of exposure evaluation and chemical risk assessment

Environmental pollution is one of the most challenging environmental issues to tackle due to its impact to human health and the ecosystem. One of the main objectives of environmental geochemistry is to investigate, characterise, and reveal the patterns of organic compounds and inorganic elements and further unveil their possible sources. Geogenic features and anthropogenic activities are the main sources of environmental contamination which are likely to release these contaminants into atmospheric, soil and water media. Moreover, anthropogenic activities let out chemicals produced from industrial activities, domestic, livestock and municipal wastes (including wastewater), agrochemicals, and petroleum-derived products. Organic pollutants cover a large group of synthetized pollutants and Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) have received a specific attention due to their physico-chemical properties, high toxicity, and subject to long-range atmospheric transfer. Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs) and Organochlorines Pesticides (OCPs) are the main POPs that are subject to different regulation schemes to their irreversible adverse effects to both human and wildlife health. Stockholm Convention, Rotterdam and Basel, World Health organisation (WHO) and United Nations Economic Commission for Europe POPs Protocol have so far addressed, threated and introduced legislation which ban or fix threshold’s values of these POPs into environment. Potentially Toxic Elements (PTEs) are widespread metals/metalloids related to geogenic and/or anthropogenic activities. PTEs are one of the major concerns in the environment because their concentrations are increasing due to accelerated population growth rate, higher level of urbanisation and industrialisation providing a great variety of anthropogenic contamination/pollution sources. They have often been given special emphasis because their accumulation in different matrices can cause soil and land degradation and they can be transferred into the human body as a consequence of dermal contact, inhalation and ingestion through food chain and drinking water. PTEs are generally non-biodegradable having long biological half-lives and tend to accumulate in soils being absorbed to clay minerals and organic matter. However, their bioavailability is influenced by different physicochemical processes (e.g. pH, Eh) and physiological adaptation. PTEs and POPs can be observed in different environmental media but soil is considered an important reservoir due to its physico-chemical properties which confer high retention capacity of these pollutants. Soil contamination has been increasing worldwide and has become the focus of attention in recent years. Several soil parent materials are natural sources of certain organic contaminants, elements, and these can pose a risk to the environment and human health at elevated concentrations. For that, various geostatistical computations have been used to identify source patterns of different pollutants related to underlying geological features and/or anthropogenic activities, and to further distinguish mineralisation from contamination. Several single and complex contamination/mineralisation indices such as Enrichment Factor, Geo-accumulation Index or Single Pollution Index have been elaborated to quantify the contamination or mineralisation status of different PTEs. They are generally based on intervention limits (thresholds) or background/baseline values of a single element based on National Legislation, as a reference. Indices based on intervention limits (thresholds) are easily interpretable and comparable, but they disregard the compositional nature of geochemical data; hence they can be biased and/or spurious. This PhD research project reveals novel geostatistical computations that will lay out sources patterns of Potentially Toxic Elements (PTEs) and Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs), and assess the soils contamination levels in the central-southern Italy. Series of follow up studies have provided an invaluable baseline for these contaminants distribution in Italy to push towards an institutional response for more adequate regulation of these pollutants worldwide. A further ongoing research project is currently investigating the content and bioavailability of mercury and Potentially Toxic Elements (PTEs) in artisanal and small-scale gold mining (ASGM) districts of Kedougou (Senegal). This study in particular will represent a fundamental stepping stone to build a baseline review of PTEs in ASGM of Kedougou (Senegal) and evaluate human health risks from exposure of PTEs. It is envisaged that the results of this study should trigger more detailed surveys in contaminated areas as well as ad-hoc risk-based studies, which in the long-term will constitute a strong argument to cause an adequate institutional response by the Senegalese regulating authorities for a full application the Minamata convention

Solid Waste Management (SWM) at a University Campus (Part 1/10): Comprehensive-Review on Legal Framework and Background to Waste Management, at a Global Context

This-work, being the-first, in-a-series of 10, was intended to-provide a-sufficient-introductory to SWM; yet, it can also-be-treated-as an-independent and a-complete-piece. This-article starts-with a-concentrated-digest (synthesized from over 400 published-reference-documents), providing a-starting point, for readers, interested in-advanced-investigation on the-topic. As-such, the-following-issues were presented and analyzed: SWM history; Global and regional-generation-rates; WM-‘value-chain’; SWM-technologies; Impacts of uncontrolled-SW; International-Conventions, Protocols, Agreements, and commitments, addressing SWM, and their-analysis; as-well-as Global-SWM-practices (including municipal-waste management) and current-challenges, incorporating POPs. It was concluded, that waste is completely-unavoidable in-any, and every-human-activity; however, the-way the-waste is handled, stored, collected, and disposed-off, will-determine the-quality of our-surrounding-environment, to-be-either; clean, pleasant, healthy, and sustainable, or filthy, disgusting, harmful, and wasteful. The-way each-individual, company/organization, government, and society, at-large, deal with their-waste, will-eventually-determine our-own-future, as-humans. The-study also justified, that the-waste should-be-treated as a-resource, as it still-contains many-valuable-materials. The-study also-offered a-new-analogy; the-sustainable SWM-system should-be analogous to-a-digestive-system, extracting all-the-recyclables from the-waste, and only then discarding, the-small-remainder/waste. The-author, also-believes that Recycling (with a-capital R) is the-future of human-civilization; however, it must be done in the-environmentally sound-sustainable-manner, to-protect health of workers, and also to-extract the-optimum-amount of valuable-materials, from the-waste. This-study also-exposed, that despite the-existence of International, regional, and multilateral-agreements, illegal-trafficking of hazardous, toxic, radioactive, and e-waste, is still widely-practiced. Such-practices can-be regarded-as Environmental-racism, conducted by, or with the-help of, an-international-‘eco-mafia’. Environmental-racism was analyzed against human-rights; in-the-context of both; the-Universal-Declaration of Human-Rights and the-generation-approach. The-author also-justified, that Environmental-racism is real, alive, and widespread-global-trend, affecting many, if not all-countries. Environmental-racism is a-sin, against humanity; logically, as any-sin, it should-be exposed, condemned, and fought against, with every-fibre, of impartiality, left in-us. The-study also-exposed an-increasing-interest of majority of African-countries in inherently-dangerous nuclear-energy (with its-by-product--radioactive-waste); the-recommendation was offered, to-shift their-interest to clean/green/renewable-energy-sector, particularly solar-energy. There is also a-common-prejudiced stereotyped-misconception, that, in-the-developed-countries almost-everything (including WM) is: superior, brainy, flawless, highly-organized, and tidy; in-contrast, in-developing countries, and particularly in-the-‘dark’-continent of Africa, almost-everything (including WM) is substandard, mediocre, unsound, ad-hoc, and filthy. The-selected-examples, provided in-this-paper, will, possibly, demonstrate, that the-current-situation, at-least, with-regard-to WM, is not so ‘black and white’. This-paper has also-offered several-recommendations for further-research. Lastly, this-article does not claim to-be fully comprehensive, as it-is physically-impossible ‘to-fill an-ocean into a-small-cup’, and even the-most-comprehensive-review, have to-stop, at a-certain-point. Nevertheless, the-cohesive-theoretical-background, alongside-with author’s analytical-scholarly-input, hopefully provides a-credible-contribution to-the-body of knowledge, on-the-subject-matter, as-well-as a ‘food-for-thought’. With anticipation, this-work will not only attract, but also hold, considerable-attention, from SWM stakeholders, and other-interested-parties, both; locally and internationally. Keywords: Environmental racism, Convention, human rights, ‘eco’ mafia, POPs, e-waste, toxic, hazardous, radioactive, nuclear plants, solar energy, Africa.

Methodological aspects about the monitoring of airborne persistent pollutants through the \u201cMoss Bags\u201d approach

I muschi, grazie alle loro caratteristiche, sono considerati eccellenti biomonitor. Molto diffusa \ue8 la tecnica del trapianto delle cosiddette moss bags, che consiste nel posizionare muschio raccolto da aree remote all\u2019interno di sacchetti di nylon ed esporlo in aree in cui esso non cresce spontaneamente. La tecnica presenta alcune limitazioni: 1) l\u2019 impatto ambientale sulle aree da cui si raccoglie il muschio; 2) l\u2019identificazione e quindi la raccolta dei muschi nativi \ue8 difficoltosa per operatori non esperti; 3) i muschi raccolti da diverse aree sono caratterizzati da una intrinseca variabilit\ue0 in termini morfologici e di contenuto elementare; 4) la preparazione delle bag viene effettuata in maniera artigianale; 5) manca una standardizzazione della metodica espositiva; 6) scarsa conoscenza della relazione esistente tra i dati ottenibili da questa metodica e quelli derivanti dai modelli diffusionali o usando \u201cun inventario delle emissioni\u201d; 7) allo stato attuale esistono pochi lavori che sottolineano l\u2019abilit\ue0 delle moss bags di discriminare il grado di \u201cinquinamento\u201d tra siti posti ad una distanza relativamente breve tra loro; 8) ad oggi, \ue8 impossibile correlare l\u2019informazione ottenuta dalla tecnica delle moss bags con il contenuto di deposizioni inquinanti nelle aree di esposizione. Alla luce delle precedenti problematiche, per risolvere i primi sette punti appena elencati, sono stati eseguiti 4 studi che avevano i seguenti obiettivi: a) caratterizzare morfologicamente e chimicamente ed \u201cetichettare\u201d con tecniche molecolari il clone di S. Palustre sviluppato nel corso del progetto europeo EU-FP7 Mossclone. Per etichettare il clone, \ue8 stata effettuata una caratterizzazione molecolare. La relazione tra la composizione elementare del clone con i trattamenti pre-esposizione pi\uf9 comunemente usati \ue8 stata studiata mediante analisi ICP-MS; inoltre, il contenuto elementare del clone \ue8 stato confrontato con quello di muschio nativo. Infine, l\u2019abilit\ue0 di accumulare metalli delle bag contenenti il clone \ue8 stata comparata con quella delle bag contenenti Pseudoscleropodium purum; b) standardizzare il protocollo espositivo delle moss bags in termini di caratteristiche delle bag, durata e altezza di esposizione. L\u2019esperimento \ue8 stato effettuato esponendo le varie soluzioni testate in Austria, Italia e Spagna. In questo lavoro, la versatilit\ue0 di un nuovo strumento espositivo, la Mossphere, \ue8 stata provata per la prima volta; c) confrontare i dati ottenuti mediante la tecnica delle moss bags con quelli provenienti da un inventario delle emissioni. I due approcci sono stati applicati simultaneamente in cinque Comuni della regione Campania; d) saggiare mediante uno specifico disegno espositivo, la capacit\ue0 delle moss bags di distinguere gli input di inquinamento in siti con diverso uso del suolo e in prossimit\ue0 delle strade, in un territorio frammentato della Campania. I tests sui trattamenti pre-esposizione sullo S. palustre hanno evidenziato come la devitalizzazione sia necessaria per preservare il biomateriale. Il lavaggio con EDTA, essenziale per le specie native, risulta superfluo per il clone. Inoltre, il test di campo, ha evidenziato la maggior capacit\ue0 di accumulo di bag contenenti S. palustre rispetto a quelle contenenti il muschio nativo P. purum. In accordo con i risultati sulla standardizzazione del protocollo espositivo, risulta preferibile l\u2019uso della Mossphere con una maglia da 2 mm ed un rapporto peso muschio/superfice bag compreso tra i 5 e i 15 mg cm-2 esposta per non meno di 6 settimane ad un\u2019altezza di 4 metri da suolo. Gli ultimi due lavori hanno consentito di evidenziare: il vantaggio nell\u2019uso congiunto della tecnica delle moss bag con l\u2019inventario delle emissioni; e anche la capacit\ue0 delle moss bag nel discriminare fonti di inquinamento a piccola scala tra siti scelti in un territorio frammentato in termini di uso del suolo

MULTIMEDIA ENVIRONMENTAL GEOCHEMICAL CHARACTERIZATION OF DOMIZIO FLEGREO AND AGRO AVERSANO AREA (CAMPANIA REGION, ITALY). BASELINES, ISOTOPIC RATIOS AND ADVANCED HEALTH RISK ASSESSMENT

This thesis introduces the research activities and results of the environmental studies on different areas of Campania region during my PhD programme from 2013 to 2016 at the Department of Earth, Environmental and Resources Science of University of Naples ‘Federico II’ under the supervision of Prof. S. Albanese, Prof. A. Lima and Prof. B. De Vivo. The PhD project is focused on Domizio- Flegreo Littoral and Agro Aversano area, which are of continuous environmental concern due to documented illegal dumping and burning of waste since the early 1990s. This area is also characterised by a high degree of urbanization and by a continuously changing land-use patterns (Rezza et al., 2017). The aim of this study is the geochemical characterisation of the study area even trough an isotopic approach to define the actual degree of the environmental contamination, the sources that have caused it, and to improve the knowledge of the main pathways followed by contaminants to diffuse throughout the different environmental media

The Ecoremed protocol for an integrated agronomic approach to characterization and remediation of contaminated soils

Definition of a site as contaminated: Problems related to agricultural soils Massimo Fagnano.......... pp. 1-5 Geography of soil contamination for characterization and precision remediation of potentially contaminated sites Giuliano Langella, Antonietta Agrillo, Angelo Basile, Roberto De Mascellis, Piero Manna, Pierpaolo Moretti, Florindo Antonio Mileti, Fabio Terribile, Simona Vingiani.......... pp. 6-15 Assessing the bioavailability of potentially toxic elements in soil: A proposed approach Claudia Rocco, Diana Agrelli, Maria Tafuro, Antonio Giandonato Caporale, Paola Adamo.......... pp. 16-22 Use of the native vascular flora for risk assessment and management of an industrial contaminated soil Donato Visconti, Nunzio Fiorentino, Adriano Stinca, Ida Di Mola, Massimo Fagnano.......... pp. 23-33 Assisted phytoremediation for restoring soil fertility in contaminated and degraded land Nunzio Fiorentino, Mauro Mori, Vincenzo Cenvinzo, Luigi Giuseppe Duri, Laura Gioia, Donato Visconti, Massimo Fagnano.......... pp. 34-44 Bioassays for evaluation of sanitary risks from food crops cultivated in potentially contaminated sites Luigi Giuseppe Duri, Nunzio Fiorentino, Eugenio Cozzolino, Lucia Ottaiano, Diana Agrelli Massimo Fagnano.......... pp. 45-52 Responses of bacterial community structure and diversity to soil eco-friendly bioremediation treatments of two multi-contaminated fields Valeria Ventorino, Vincenza Faraco, Ida Romano, Olimpia Pepe.......... pp. 53-58 Monitoring and modelling the role of phytoremediation to mitigate non-point source cadmium pollution and groundwater contamination at field scale Mario Palladino, Paolo Nasta, Alessandra Capolupo, Nunzio Romano.......... pp. 59-6

Mosses for monitoring air pollution: towards the standardization of moss-bag technique and the set-up of a new biomaterial

The monitoring of the air quality by mosses provides qualitative and quantitative data using economic, easy-to-manage and eco-friendly methods. Due to peculiar morphological and physiological characteristics, mosses are very suitable adsorbents for a wide variety of pollutants (i.e. metals and metalloids, PAHs, radionuclides) and, when used as transplants in nylon bags, they allow an easy monitoring potentially of any site, with a highly dense sampling network. Nevertheless, the moss-bag technique, although widely applied, is still not based on standardized protocols. It follows that the data collected from biomonitoring surveys are not comparable, thus relegating the active biomonitoring exclusively to academic field or to scientific purposes. Moreover, there are not enough studies comparing bioaccumulation data with those obtained by estimation models or traditional monitoring approaches, neither it is clear how the moss-bag technique can discriminate pollution inputs on a very small scale and within areas relatively close to each other or characterized by different land uses. Another important issue is that the mosses employed as biomonitors are naturally grown species. The collection in nature implies an intrinsic variability of mosses in terms of elemental and chemical composition and, as a consequence, it poses a high degree of uncertainty in the interpretation of the results. Moreover, an uncontrolled harvesting of mosses could lead to a severe environmental impact. In this context, aims of this Doctoral Thesis are: 1) to test the variables affecting the exposure protocol in the view of a standard moss-bag method for the biomonitoring of air pollution; 2) to integrate biomonitoring results with emission data provided by inventories for the evaluation of the atmospheric pollution; 3) to characterize a novel moss biomaterial for biomonitoring purposes. For the standardization assay, more than one thousand moss bags were exposed contemporary in three European territories (Austria, Italy, Spain) belonging to three different climatic areas (Mediterranean, continental and oceanic). For each area, four distinct scenarios (background, urban, agricultural, industrial) were selected for the exposure, on the basis of their level and type of contamination. The moss included in bags was the Pseudoscleropodium purum (Hedw.) M. Fleisch, collected in a pristine area of the Galicia (NE Spain). Shoot apical parts were selected, EDTA-washed and finally devitalized by oven drying at 100 °C. For the first time, all the variables affecting the air pollutant uptake by moss exposed in bags were considered: 1) the moss bags characteristics (round, spherical and flat shapes; nylon net mesh size of 1, 2 and 4 mm; moss amount and moss weight/bag surface area ratio of 15, 30, 45 mg cm-2); 2) the exposure criteria (exposure time of 3, 6, 12 weeks; exposure heights of 4, 7, 10 m above ground); 3) the climatic conditions of the exposure area. The concentrations of metals and metalloids were determined by ICP mass spectrometry and the results were evaluated comparing pre- and post-exposure moss samples. Results showed that the amount of moss included in bags was the most important factor affecting the pollutant accumulation by mosses: the more the moss density inside bags increases, the less metal uptake occurs. The other variables (climate, bag size and shape, exposure time and height) had low or no influence at all. As consequence of the obtained results, the project Mossclone proposed the use of a standard moss bag, spherical-shaped, with a mesh size of 2 mm and filled with a moss amount less than 15 mg per cm2 of bag surface area. In addition, it was suggested to expose the moss-bags for not less than six weeks (to increase the detectability of metal concentrations in moss) and, for practical reasons, at 4 m above the ground. The proposed standardized protocol for moss-bag exposure was then tested in a biomonitoring campaign carried out in the framework of the LIFE-Ecoremed project, in order to assess the air quality of five municipalities belonging to the Italian RIPS “Litorale Domizio-Agro Aversano” (Campania Region, south Italy). In each municipality, two scenarios (urban and agricultural) and two sub-scenarios (a street side and a corresponding green area) were selected, in order to evaluate the anthropogenic pollution, with a particular attention to the vehicular traffic impact on the surrounding areas. The concentrations of twenty PAHs and of thirty-nine elements including rare earths were determined by ICP mass spectrometry in pre- and post-exposure samples of Hypnum cupressiforme Hedw. moss, treated and exposed following the standardized method. After exposure, the concentration of most of the elements and PAHs (in particular the 4- and 5-ringed PAHs) was significantly increased in moss material. The pollutants had a similar spatial distribution pattern over the entire study area, with road traffic and agricultural practices as the major diffuse pollution sources. Hypnum cupressiforme moss bags was able to detect airborne element and PAH inputs and to discriminate different pollution levels in a landscape characterized by a jeopardized structure in which agricultural and urban/residential sites are strictly mixed together. The data obtained in the Italian biomonitoring campaign were combined with those provided by emission inventories, which are a collection of estimations, recorded with spatial disaggregation, on the type, amount and emission sources of pollutants. As a result, it was observed that both approaches (biomonitoring and emission inventory) indicated the same most polluted municipality and a similar spatial pattern, in particular for lead. This suggests that the joint use of emission inventory and moss accumulation could be a valuable resource to reveal contaminants better than the use of a single approach, allowing a more deep investigation on the pollutant emission sources, especially for those contaminants not routinely monitored. To overcome the limits of the use of native mosses, the last part of the PhD thesis is focused on the characterization of a new moss biomaterial, provided by the cloning inside bioreactors. The cloned moss specie in question is the Sphagnum palustre L., whose elemental composition (pre- and post- treatments with EDTA and by devitalization) and molecular profile were given, in comparison with the conspecific field moss, in order to outline a defined fingerprint of the new biomaterial. The morphological and physico-chemical properties of the moss adsorbing surfaces were also examined by electron microscopy, in vitro experiments on metal adsorption and by the chemical analysis of the surface exchange sites. A field exposure test with moss-bags was performed, comparing the clone and the naturally grown P. purum. The clones exhibited a much lower metal concentration (from 10 to 100 times) in their tissues than the native samples, thus making the former better indicators of low metal loading. New DNA markers, also useful for systematic analyses of the Sphagnum genus, were provided in order to characterize and label the clone. The S. palustre clone exhibited acid base properties similar to those of naturally grown Sphagnum samples and showed a significantly higher metal uptake performance. Therefore, the use of this biomaterial, with very homogenous morphological and chemical characteristics and a remarkable metal uptake capability, is strongly recommended in the view of a rigorously standardized moss-bag protocol for the active monitoring of persistent atmospheric pollutants

Assessment and spatial distribution of Natural Background Levels (NBLs) in groundwater affected by natural and anthropogenic contamination: a case study in southern Italy

Lo studio della qualità delle acque sotterranee, alla luce della normativa europea (Water Framework Directive 2000/60/CE e Groundwater Daughter Directive 2006/118/EC) nonché italiana (D.Lgs 152/2006 e D.Lgs. 30/2009), non può prescindere dalla valutazione dei valori di fondo naturali (natural background levels –NBLs-). Negli ultimi decenni, diverse metodologie per la valutazione dei NBLs sono state proposte, applicate alla scala del corpo idrico sotterraneo (come previsto da 2014/80/UE) o sito specifica. I valori di fondo hanno come obiettivo quello di fornire uno strumento di valutazione dello stato qualitativo delle acque sotterranee nel caso in cui elevati valori di concentrazioni di taluni elementi siano superiori a quelli previsti dalla legge (in Italia si fa riferimento al D.lgs. 31/2001), REF, per motivi legati a fattori naturali. In questa ricerca il concetto di NBL è stato rivisto nell’ottica dell’analisi spaziale. Attraverso l’uso dell’Indicator kriging, sono state redatte della mappe di probabilità al superamento del NBL e del REF. Tali carte si sono rivelate degli strumenti per: 1. Distinguere le aree in cui la contaminazione è antropica e aree in cui la contaminazione è naturale 2. L’applicabilità del valore di fondo calcolato per l’area in esame e quando considerare il valore di fondo in alternativa al valore REF. Le indicazioni fornite dalle mappe sono dei supporti per la pianificazioni di ulteriori indagini e studi alla scala locale. La metodologia è stata applicata alla porzione meridionale del corpo idrico sotterraneo della Piana del Volturno –Regi lagni (quella in sinistra idrografica), in quanto presenta, per le sue peculiarità idrogeologiche, una contaminazione naturale diffusa nonché localmente fenomeni di contaminazione antropica. L’area inoltre è di grande interesse in quanto ricade in un sito di interesse regionale (Litorale Domizio-Agro Aversano), ed è stata soggetta negli ultimi anni a diversi studi mirati alla riqualificazione e bonifica dell’area