Trace Elements in Soil and Urban Groundwater in an Area Impacted by Metallurgical Activity: Health Risk Assessment in the Historical Barga Municipality (Tuscany, Italy)

Trace elements were measured in soil and groundwater collected within the Fornaci di Barga urban area (Serchio River Valley, Tuscany, Italy), a territory that integrates natural assets with touristic vocation, impacted by long-lasting metallurgical activity. Epidemiological studies highlighted that the area surrounding the industrial plants is characterized by a persistent excess of diseases, attributed to heavy metal pollution. Soils were taken in school gardens, public parks, sport grounds and roadsides. The results indicate that Cu, Zn and Cd represent the main contaminants in surface soil, likely originated by deposition of airborne particulate matter from metallurgical activity. Risk assessment considering soil ingestion and dermal contact exposure routes revealed that the cadmium Hazard Quotient approaches unity for children, and the cadmium risk-based concentration obtained by combining exposure information with toxicity data is only slightly lower compared with the cadmium maximum concentration actually measured in soil. Groundwater does not show evidence of trace metal contamination, suggesting that the migration of contaminants from soil to subsurface is a slow process. However, assessment of the possible interconnections between shallow and deep-seated aquifers requires monitoring to be continued. The obtained results highlight the possible link between space clusters of diseases and metal concentration in soil

Metabolic evidence of viable myocardium in regions with reduced wall thickness and absent wall thickening in patients with chronic ischemic left ventricular dysfunction

AbstractReduced end-diastolic wall thickness with absent systolic wall thickening has been reported to represent nonviable myocardium in patients with chronic coronary artery disease. To assess whether reduced regional end-diastolic wall thickness and absent wall thickening accurately identify nonviable myocardium, 25 patients with ischemic left ventricular dysfunction (ejection fraction at rest 27 ± 10%) underwent positron emission tomography with oxygen-15-labeled water and 18fluorodeoxyglucose to assess metabolic activity and spin-echo gated nuclear magnetic resonance imaging to measure regional end-diastolic wall thickness and wall thickening. The presence of metabolic activity was defined as 18fluorodeoxyglucose uptake (corrected for partial volume) >50% of that in normal regions.Of 355 myocardial regions evaluated, 266 were hypokinetic or normokinetic at rest and 89 were akinetic (that is, absent wall thickening). 18Fluorodeoxglucose uptake was observed in 97% of the hypokinetic and normokinetic regions and in 74% of the akinetic regions. End-diastolic wall thickness was greater in akinetic regions with than in those without 18fluorodeoxyglucose uptake (11 ± 4 vs. 7 ± 3 nun, p < 0.01). The highest values for sensitivity and specificity of end-diastolic wall thickness in predicting the absence of metabolic activity in akinetic regions were 74% and 79%, respectively, and corresponded to an end-diastolic threshold of 8 mm. However, the positive predictive accuracy was only 55% and did not improve for other end-diastolic wall thickness values. In all myocardial regions, there was only a weak correlation between 18fluorodeoxyglucose activity and either end-diastolic wall thickness (r = 0.17) or wall thickening (r = 0.32).Thus, metabolic activity is present in many regions with reduced end-diastolic wall thickness and absent wall thickening. These data indicate that assessment of regional anatomy and function may be inaccurate in distinguishing asynergic but viable myocardium from nonviable myocardium

Il blocco dei licenziamenti durante la pandemia nell'ambito della tutela emergenziale del lavoro dei principi costituzionali

L'elaborato affronta il tema del blocco dei licenziamenti e delle tutele del lavoratore durante l'emergenza pandemica. Nel primo capitolo abbiamo un paragrafo in cui si fa riferimento alla compressione dei diritti Costituzionali durante l'emergenza pandemica, ai soggetti legittimati a tali limitazione ed agli strumenti adottati dal governo. Si parte dalla limitazione dei diritti di tipo personale fino ad arrivare a quelli attinenti alla sfera economica. Il secondo paragrafo è dedicato alla materia del licenziamento per giustificato motivo oggettivo, viene analizzato il precedente blocco dei licenziamenti, le analogie e le differenze con quello attuale. Il secondo capitolo riguarda le misure che sono state prese dal governo a sostegno del lavoro e viene affrontata tutta la dinamica relativa all'evoluzione del blocco dei licenziamenti nella normativa d'emergenza. Sempre in questo capitolo si affronta anche il tema relativo alla legittimità costituzionale del divieto. Il terzo capitolo riguarda la crisi come opportunità per il diritto del lavoro. Il primo paragrafo riguarda l'impatto della crisi pandemica sul lavoro e sulla necessità di una ri-valorizzazione dello stesso in chiave sociale. Il secondo paragrafo è relativo alla tutela della sicurezza, della salute sul lavoro e sulle nuove forme di lavoro(lavoro agile). Il terzo paragrafo affronta la necessità di una concreta partecipazione dei lavoratori alla struttura aziendale(art. 46 Cost.). Il quarto paragrafo, molto importante, dedicato alle misure che dovranno essere prese per la conservazione dei posti di lavoro quando il blocco dei licenziamenti sarà terminato. Infime un ultimo paragrafo sugli effetti della pandemia sul processo civile telematico e sulle novità che potrebbero essere introdotte

Reply to comment by F. Speranza et al. on ``Recent eruptive history of Stromboli (Aeolian Islands, Italy) determined from high-accuracy archeomagnetic dating''

International audienceAbstract Available from http://www.agu.org</A

The Legacy of Hg Contamination in a Past Mining Area (Tuscany, Italy): Hg Speciation and Health Risk Assessment

The World Health Organization included mercury among the ten chemicals posing a major public health concern. The mercury-cell manufacturing process has been extensively used in chloralkali plants to produce chlorine and caustic soda by electrolysis, representing a potential source for Hg release into the environment. Despite a significant decline due to the membrane cell processing alternative, there is still a use of mercury in chlor-alkali facilities globally. In the Tuscany region (Italy), solution mining by pumping water into NaCl deposits was applied to produce brines for a mercury-cell chlor-alkali plant. The Hg-contaminated exhausted brines were reinjected at depth in the NaCl deposit through injection wells, or order to renew the available resources. Activities ceased in 1995 following the dispersion of highly contaminated Hg-bearing brines into the environment, and reclamation started. In the present study, the existing dataset for the pristine soil and water contamination has been evaluated and new data provided. The results indicate the legacy of contamination, with Hg concentration exceeding the regulatory limit in some soil samples. Risk assessment by applying Hg speciation analysis indicates that mercury in soil does not carries a risk of non-cancerous effects for the different exposure routes in case of an outdoor use of the site, but the risk would become unacceptable in case of indoor settings such as residential buildings via vapor intrusion

Environmental impacts and risk assessment in the re-use of Cr-bearing pyrolyzed tannery wastes: A case study in a residential area

Increasing concern has been raised on the environmental impacts of chromium-tanning wastes recycling. In particular, the pyrolytic conversion of leather industry sludges into Cr(VI)-free carbonized residues is believed to represent a viable route for a sustainable re-use of this type of wastes. The aim of this study was to determine the impact of recycled Cr-bearing pyrolyzed char (named KEU) as backfilling material for road construction in an urban area in Tuscany (Italy). Geochemical and chromium-isotope data, together with microstructural analyses (HR-TEM and XAS), indicate that the presence of KEU results in a significant enhancement of the natural Cr background. The results support the hypothesis that, in environmental conditions, the Cr (III) hosted in KEU is converted into Cr(VI), which is leached out by rainwater. Indeed, Cr(VI) is dispersed in surface water, reaching concentrations up to 18 mg/L and it also occurs in coatings on the surface gravel of unpaved roads. The 53Cr/52Cr ratio measured in KEU, reported in δ53Cr notation, was in the restricted range δ53Cr = −0.031 ± 0.057 ‰; on the contrary, the δ53Cr in water varied between +1.581 ± 0.038 ‰ and +3.261 ± 0.191 ‰, indicating the reduction of Cr(VI) after the pristine oxidative mobilization. The risk-based soil screening levels (SSLs) for total Cr are well above the concentration measured in soil for all the exposure pathways. On the contrary, the SSL for Cr(VI)indicates that soil contamination poses health hazards for residents