The Effects of Cannabis Use: A Test Among Dual Electronic and Combustible Cigarette Users

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Despite greater rates of cannabis use among those that smoke combustible cigarettes, it is currently unknown whether cannabis use is related to e-cigarette dependence or maladaptive beliefs about combustible cigarettes. Therefore, the current study sought to identify whether adult dual users of combustible and e-cigarettes (ie, dual users) who also used cannabis differed from dual users who did not use cannabis on e-cigarette dependence severity, perceived barriers to quitting, and perception of risks and of benefits of e-cigarettes. METHODS: Participants were 414 current dual users (48.3% female, M  = 35.1 years, SD = 10.0), 51% of whom were current cannabis users. RESULTS: Dual users who reported current cannabis use evidenced more severe dependence on e-cigarettes (η  = 0.12), higher perceived barriers for quitting e-cigarettes (η  = 0.06), and greater perceived benefits (η  = 0.03) as well as higher perception of risks (η  = 0.03) for using e-cigarettes. The results were evident after controlling for the variance associated with sex, age, education, income, and frequency of e-cigarette use. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS: Overall, the current findings suggest cannabis may be an important type of substance use behavior that is relevant to e-cigarette dependence and beliefs about use and quitting among adult dual users. SCIENTIFIC SIGNIFICANCE: The present data extend current understanding of dual users by contextualizing cannabis use within e-cigarette and combustible cigarette use behaviors and highlight a potential substance use behavior that may be targetable in the framework of nicotine cessation. (Am J Addict 2020;00:00-00)

Biosorption of Metals and Metalloids

Industrial activities such as mining operations, refining of ores and combustion of fuel oils play a relevant role in environmental pollution since their wastes contain high concentrations of toxic metals that can add significant contamination to natural water and other water sources if no decontamination is previously applied. As toxic metals and metalloids, including arsenic, cadmium, lead, mercury, thallium, vanadium, among others, are not biodegradable and tend to accumulate in living organisms, it is necessary to treat the contaminated industrial wastewaters prior to their discharge into the water bodies. There are different remediation techniques that have been developed to solve elemental pollution, but biosorption has arisen as a promising clean-up and low-cost biotechnology. Biosorption is one of the pillars of bioremediation and is governed by a variety of mechanisms, including chemical binding, ion exchange,physisorption, precipitation, and oxide-reduction. This involves operations(e.g. biosorbent reuse, immobilization, direct analysis of sample without destruction) that can be designed to minimize or avoid the use or generation of hazardous substances that have a negative impact on the environment and biota, thus following the concepts of "green chemistry" and promoting the environmental care. Furthermore, it has to be specially considered that the design of a biosorption process and the quality of a biosorbent are normally evaluated from the equilibrium, thermodynamic, and kinetic viewpoints.Therefore, a successful biosorption process can be only developed based on multidisciplinary knowledge that includes physical chemistry, biochemistryand technology, among other fields.In this chapter, we explain in detail all the aforementioned aspects. State of the art applications of biosorbents for metals and metalloids removal are carefully revised based on a complete analysis of the literature. Thus, it is evidenced in this chapter that the main points to consider regarding biosorption are the type of biomaterial (e.g. bacteria, fungi, algae, plant?derivatives and agricultural wastes, chitin/chitosan based materials) and the presence of a broad set of functional groups on their surface that are effective for the removal of different toxic metals and metalloids. In fact, removal percentages as high as 70-100% can be found in most works reported in the literature, which is demonstrating the excellent performance obtained with biosorbents. Also, biosorbents have evolved with the help of nanotechnology to modern bio-nano-hybrids materials having superlative sorption properties due to their high surface area coming from the nano-materials structures and multifunctional capacity incorporated from the several types of chemical groups of biomaterials. These, as well as other important aspects linked to biosorption are fully covered in the present chapter.Fil: Escudero, Leticia Belén. Universidad Nacional de Cuyo. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Mendoza; ArgentinaFil: Quintas, Pamela Yanina. Universidad Nacional de Cuyo. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Mendoza; ArgentinaFil: Wuilloud, Rodolfo German. Universidad Nacional de Cuyo. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Mendoza; ArgentinaFil: Dotto, Guilherme L.. Universidade Federal de Santa Maria; Brasi