Health hazards related to conidia of Cladosporium—biological air pollutants in Poland, central Europe

The spores of Cladosporium Link. are often present in the air in high quantities and produce many allergenic proteins, which may lead to asthma. An aerobiological spore monitoring program can inform patients about the current spore concentration in air and help their physicians determine the spore dose that is harmful for a given individual. This makes it possible to develop optimized responses and propose personalized therapy for a particular sensitive patient. The aim of this study was to assess the extent of the human health hazard posed by the fungal genus Cladosporium. For the first time, we have determined the number of days on which air samples in Poland exceeded the concentrations linked to allergic responses of sensitive patients, according to thresholds established by three different groups（2800/3000/4000 spores per 1 m^3 of the air）. The survey was conducted over three consecutive growing seasons（April–September, 2010–2012） in three cities located in different climate zones of Poland（Poznan, Lublin and Rzeszow）. The average number of days exceeding 2800 spores per cubic meter（the lowest threshold） ranged from 61（2010） through 76（2011） to 93（2012）, though there was significant variation between cities. In each year the highest concentration of spores in the air was detected in either Poznan or Lublin, both located on large plains with intensive agriculture. We have proposed that an effective, science-based software platform to support policy-making on air quality should incorporate biological air pollutant data,such as allergenic fungal spores and pollen grains.

Petroleum Pollution of Groundwater in Zibo and Its Prevention Measures

The source of ground water supply in Dawu is an extremely huge one in Shandong province. Now it is faced with serious pollution of petroleum in Hougao area. Aiming at this problem, the petroleum pollution in aeration zone and in groundwater was analyzed. The result shows that the contaminant of groundwater comes from the leaching of petroleum in the soil horizon of aeration zone through precipitation, and the quick flow of groundwater makes the convection dominate themigration of contaminant. So movement of groundwater controls the distribution of petroleum contaminant, which is consistent with the direction of ground flow. Building a groundwater closure zone in Hougao is an effective method to stop the contaminated groundwater flowing toward the water supply source of Dawu. The petroleum contaminant can be effectively reduced through using the aeration, biological and oxidation technologies.

National Ecological Deficit Accounting of China with Detailed Ecological Footprint

Ecological footprint is a new method to assess sustainable development quantitatively. It translates production into biologically productive areas offering material flows to measure the utilized degree of nature by humankind. At present, China runs ecological deficits because footprints required for consumption are larger than available ones. In the paper, the ecological footprint model is applied to calculate the deficits by resource, environment and import-export accounting. It is clear that the deficits have caused enormous pressure to resource and environment, which would become bigger with more factors of resource and environment being accounted. In the primary production and energy trade, import footprint turned from deficit to surplus after 1996, which benefited the conservation of national resource. But compared with the huge depletion caused by resource and environment, they had small effects on deficits.