This study utilizes new, high-quality ground-based observations to investigate seasonal variations in key aerosol optical and physical properties across entire Indo-Gangetic Plain (IGP), Himalayan foothills, and central Himalayas including southern Tibetan Plateau, for the first time. Seasonal average aerosol optical depth (AOD) is ≥ 0.3 across most of the region, indicating heavy pollution almost throughout the year, except at high altitude locations where AOD is 2–3 times lower. Pre-monsoon AOD levels are elevated due to additional emissions from seasonal sources such as agro-residue burning and forest-fires, and continental aerosols advected from polluted regions. Monsoon AODs are lower because rains suppress emissions from forest fires and garbage burning, significant seasonal sources such as brick production are almost absent as well as regional transport of emissions. Fine-mode aerosols contribute > 80% to AOD in post-monsoon and winter at almost all sites. Clean continental and clean marine aerosols dominate Himalayas, while urban-industrial and biomass burning aerosols are prevalent in Himalayan foothills and IGP, except in Karachi and Lahore where mixed aerosols are present in significant quantity. Aerosol volume size distributions are bimodal in all seasons, with modal radius at 0.1–0.3 μm (fine mode) and at 2–5 μm (coarse mode). A comparison revealed commonality of aerosols between Himalayas, Minsk (Belarus) and Dushanbe (Central Asia), at the same time demonstrating intra-regional variability of dominant aerosol types unique to Himalayas and IGP, providing valuable constraints for high-resolution chemistry-transport modelling, inputs to improve satellite retrievals, and deepen understanding of aerosol impacts on climate and ecosystems in this region.

From waste to fuel: Uncovering the drivers of garbage and plastic burning in Northwest Nigeria

This study evaluates the implications of solid waste disposal management on the environment and human health in Ogbomoso, Oyo State. A structured questionnaire was used to collect the required data. 143 copies of questionnaire was successfully retrieved. Data were analyzed using mean score analysis. Findings revealed that the most common methods of waste disposal in the study area included burning of refuse (64.3%), dumping at landfill sites (58%), and engaging private waste collectors (55.2%). In terms of contributing factors to improper waste disposal include was insufficient waste collection facilities, which ranked highest with a mean score of 4.24. This was followed by poor government policies on waste disposal, ranked second with a mean score of 3.91. The least significant factor was urbanization and population growth, which ranked fifth with a mean score of 3.22. With respect to the environmental and health impacts of improper waste disposal, the most significant consequence identified was the spread of diseases, which ranked first with a mean score of 4.02. This was followed by soil and water contamination (mean = 3.91), air pollution and unpleasant odour (mean = 3.38), and ecosystem disruption (mean = 3.36). The impact with the lowest perceived significance was stigma and shame, which ranked fifth with a mean score of 2.93. The study concludes that for effective solid waste management, the following measures should be prioritized: improvement of waste collection facilities, enforcement of effective waste management policies, public awareness campaigns, use of suitable transportation systems, implementations of waste reduction targets.

SUMMARYBACKGROUNDThis study was carried out to document experiences and perceptions of air pollution among adolescents with asthma symptoms, and their caregivers.METHODA qualitative study among children with symptoms of asthma (aged 12–16 years) and their caregivers was conducted in seven African countries (Ghana, Nigeria, Malawi, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda and Zimbabwe). Focus group discussions were used to collect data from children and caregivers and a total of 41 sessions (children 21, caregivers 20) were held. Analysis of the data gave rise to two major themes (perception of air pollution and mitigation against air pollution) from which subthemes were derived.RESULTSParticipants identified causes of air pollution as cigarette smoking, use of wood for cooking, burning of garbage, generator, presence of industries in residential areas; and that these worsened asthma symptoms. The experiences the children had encountered were at home, while commuting to school and in school. Personal mitigation measures and governmental measures were suggested.CONCLUSIONIt is recommended that governments implement policies to mitigate air pollution and to encourage individuals to adopt personal measures to mitigate its impact.

Abstract Background: Smog is a significant environmental and public health issue, particularly in urban areas with high levels of air pollution. It is associated with adverse health effects, including respiratory and cardiovascular diseases, as well as environmental impacts such as damage to crops and ecosystems. Objective: To assess the knowledge of medical students about smog and its associated factors. Material and Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted from May to August 2023. Convenience sampling was used to include 111 MBBS students of Lahore Medical & Dental College. A self-structured questionnaire was used for data collection. Data was entered and analyzed in SPSS version 23. Chi-square test was applied to find associations between the variables. Results: A higher number of male students cited decreased visibility (p=0.024) as a health implication of smog. More male students named crop burning (p=0.043) and burning garbage (p=0.036) as contributing factors to smog. More females than males thought that carbon monoxide played an important role in producing smog (p=0.036). A higher number of males than females recommended increased tree planting (p=0.006) and the use of renewable energy sources (p=0.028) as modes of prevention. Among males, 41 (93%) believed that social media could work as the most effective tool for health education regarding smog. Conclusion: Medical students have a good understanding of the factors associated with smog, its health implications, and preventive measures. Social media and health awareness campaigns could be the most effective mediums for spreading awareness about smog.

Biological species have their structure and functions. But in the last few decades, due to toxicants emitted by biological species through domestic wastage, industrialization, pesticides, burning garbage, etc., there have been rapidly abnormal changes in their function like productivity, change in shape, necrosis, etc. The effect of these abnormal changes is not instantaneous, i.e., it takes their own time. The time-consuming process creates more complications for the survival of these biological species. Due to these time-consuming abnormal changes, we have developed and analyzed a deformed biological population model with population deformation delay and toxicant's depletion delay for the internally emitted toxicants. Therefore, a model is designed and focused on analyzing the impact of the delay of these abnormal changes due to internally emitted toxicants on the biological population. The contribution is summarized as follows:•Examined the system's stability and explored the possibility of the Hopf bifurcation with respect to deformation and depletion delays. In this process, the critical threshold for delays is determined.•Additionally, with the help of the optimal control method and using Pontryagin's maximum principle, we minimize the cost of control strategies.•Provided the numerical authentication of our theoretical findings, using MATLAB simulations.

Climate change is an environmental issue that is getting more and more attention in science and daily life. One of the contributing factors to climate change is waste management, which is not environmentally friendly. In RT 01 Eka Jaya Village, Jambi City, there is still a habit of people throwing and burning garbage carelessly, which causes greenhouse gas emissions such as CO₂, N₂O, NOₓ, NH₃, and other organic carbon compounds. To overcome this problem, the service team from the Environmental Engineering Study Program, University of Jambi, carried out socialization, training, and the provision of facilities to support the sustainable management and processing of household waste. The activity showed a significant increase in community knowledge and behavior towards waste management, as evidenced by the questionnaire results, namely that 99% of residents understood the correct waste management methods. In addition, the community also gained skills in processing glass waste into paving block products, which has the potential to become a business idea and improve the local economy. This activity shows that an educational and participatory approach can effectively change people's behavior towards better and sustainable waste management.

As sustainable construction gains popularity worldwide, the demand for environmentally friendly construction supplies (GBM) is rapidly increasing. These materials contribute significantly to lowering the impact on the environment, increasing energy efficiency, and improving the health of occupants. By integrating environmentally friendly materials, the construction industry can significantly reduce carbon footprints while promoting long-term sustainability in infrastructure development. This paper explores the benefits and challenges of GBM adoption. Green building materials contribute to a more sustainable and resilient construction sector by reducing resource depletion, reducing emissions and improving energy efficiency. This research is significant in guiding architects, developers and policymakers towards informed decision-making. Understanding the impact of GBM adoption ensures the creation of healthy, cost-effective and environmentally friendly buildings, supporting global sustainability goals. Alternative taken as Remanufacturing (REM), Incineration (INC), landfill (LND), Polyurethane, Aluminum. Evaluation Preference taken as Tensile strength, Elongation at break, Maintenance cost , Raw material extraction. The results show that incineration (INC) has the highest ranking and landfill (LND) has the lowest ranking. Incineration (INC) has the highest value for Green Building Materials according to the WPM approach.

Abstract The COVID-19 pandemic lockdown provided an unprecedented opportunity to examine changes in India’s air quality following abrupt reductions in anthropogenic emissions, particularly from transportation, industry, and construction. While many studies reported substantial pollution declines during the lockdown, most focused exclusively on this period, neglecting the subsequent ‘unlock’ phase, the influence of transboundary pollution, and the need to distinguish between emission-driven and meteorology-driven changes in PM2.5. Our study addresses these gaps by isolating the contributions of meteorological variability and activity restrictions on PM2.5 across the entire lockdown and unlock phases (February 24-June 30, 2020) using a high-resolution modelling framework and satellite-derived PM2.5 data. Through our WRF-Chem modeling study, we found that PM2.5 concentrations decreased by 29% post-lockdown, compared to a 21% decline over the same period in preceding years, with satellite observations showing similar reductions of 31% and 22%, respectively. However, only an additional 8–9% reduction in 2020, beyond the typical interannual variability, was directly attributable to emission controls, while meteorological factors largely influenced the overall decline. The most pronounced PM2.5 decline occurred in the Indo-Gangetic Plain during the unlock phase. Despite the initial improvements, restrictions on transportation, industry, and construction alone were insufficient to bring PM2.5 levels below the National Ambient Air Quality Standards. A key finding is that persistent emissions from the residential sector, which remained largely unaffected during the lockdown, significantly limited the overall reduction in PM2.5. Without targeted interventions to address household emissions, such as promoting cleaner fuels and improving waste management to prevent garbage burning, India will struggle to achieve sustained air quality improvements. Our results emphasize the urgent need for integrated, regionally tailored, long-term strategies that address all major pollution sources to ensure lasting reductions in PM2.5 levels. Implementing comprehensive measures can significantly improve India’s air quality, ensuring a healthier and more sustainable environment.

Pollutant input to groundwater could result in karstic aquifers water quality degradation. In the karstic aquifer of Yucatan several anthropogenic activities take place without water sanitation or waste management, thus, these activities could be a source of contaminants to sinkholes (locally known as “cenotes”), which are the most relevant features in the karstic platform. In this context, this study monitored total n-alkanes (TAL) and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in sediments of sinkholes at the ring of cenotes in Yucatan over a two year full hydrologic cycle (rainy-dry-rainy-dry seasons). Total PAHs measured in this study ranged from 1.7 to 1450 ng/g, and from 0.01 to 7520.8 ng/g for TAL. Spatially significant variations were only found between the eastern and central zones in dry season, probably as result of the environmental and hydrological changes. Main probable origin of hydrocarbons was found to be pyrogenic, resulting from local customs such as constant garbage burning and seasonal farmfields burning. Although PAHs did not show concentrations of concern yet, current socioeconomic development and no water sanitation envisages future threats to the karstic aquifer water quality for human supply.

Fires can occur unexpectedly, even if you have been careful to use appliances that produce fires in the house, some of the sources of fire are electrical short circuits, gas stoves, burning garbage, cigarette butts and candles when the lights go out. The purpose of the training in community service is to provide knowledge about the causes of fires and their preventive measures. Participants involved in the training included students of the Public Health Department of STIKes Maluku Husada, Instructors from the Ambon City Fire Service Tribe and residents of Batu Merah Village, Sirimau District, Ambon City. Training techniques with material presentation, practice and review of results. The implementation method is by identifying problems that occur in objects, determining the priority scale of improvement and providing problem solving and feedback in the form of result evaluation. The implementation of training can provide knowledge about the factors that cause fires at home, so that it can encourage public awareness of the importance of preventive measures to avoid fires. The conclusion of the training in community service is that it can provide knowledge about the factors that cause fires and know preventive measures to minimize the occurrence of fires and can encourage concern in fire prevention in the community.

Basic Health Research Data in 2018 reported that lung cancer in women in Indonesia ranked third after breast cancer and cervical cancer. A person's risk of developing lung cancer can be evaluated by looking at several things, namely age and gender, genetic predisposition to cancer, tobacco use, and exposure to toxic agents at home or work. The purpose of this research is to obtain data on several risk factors with the incidence of lung cancer in non-smoking women at Adam Malik General Hospital and Santa Elisabeth General Hospital. This research is a case-control matching study involving 224 research subjects through medical record data collection from January 2019 to December 2020. All research subjects were recorded from medical record data confirmed by questionnaires related to risk factors, namely ages, exposure to cigarette smoke (passive smokers), genetics, mosquito coils, limes, pesticides, garbage burning, exposure to firewood, and air pollution. Data were analyzed by logistic regression test. The average age in the case group was 57.86 years, while in the control group, the average age was 47.4 years. The largest age group in both study groups was 40 years. In this research, five risk factors of lung cancer influenced the incidence of lung cancer in non-smoking women, namely age (p = 0.008), passive smokers (p = 0.043), genetic factors (p < 0.001), exposure to firewood (p = 0.007), and air pollution factors (p = 0.041). It was estimated that risk factors that significantly influence the incidence of lung cancer in women are not the age of 40 years, genetic factors, passive smokers, and exposure to firewood.

The problem that occurs is that household waste continues to increase along with the development of population and the number of increasingly dense settlements. The existence of this household waste is of concern to the community and the government because it can cause various negative impacts. Based on the results of observations of the existing trash cans, the accumulation of household waste is the source of this unpleasant odor. Smell is connoted as something that tends to disturb comfort, and gives the impression of being unclean and the like, such as fishy, rotten, urine, rancid, and so on. The smell of burning garbage is also dangerous because it contains H2 which reduces the amount of oxygen in the air. This study aims to prevent the occurrence of unpleasant odors from garbage. The tool will be designed using the NodeMCU microcontroller with website-based monitoring and Whatsapp notifications automatically when the trash can is full and automatic deodorizing powder spraying according to the concentration of gas released by the stench. This study uses the Experimental and Comparative Testing method in designing an IoT-based Smart Trash Bin tool and conducting tests on the built system and comparing the test results with the expected system. The results of this study indicate that the Smart Trash Bin tool can work and function as expected, namely being able to minimize the unpleasant odor emitted by the trash can and being able to monitor the sprinkling of deodorizing powder, the status of the height of the trash can and can provide notifications both automatically and manual to officers through the website.

Fly ash derived from the incineration of garbage is known to contain hazardous materials that can affect the growth of plants and animals and pose a threat to human health. In this study, we explored how treatment of fly ash leachate with microalgae could alter the properties of dissolved organic matter (DOM). Fly ash leachate samples obtained from a landfill site in Wenzhou were treated with the microalgae Chlorella vulgaris or Scenedesmus obliquus without and with the addition of ammonium ferric citrate (C6H8FeNO7) for 24 days, and changes in DOM levels and types were measured using excitation emission matrix fluorescence technology. The following results were obtained: Analysis of three-dimensional fluorescence spectral indices indicated that the algal treatment process consistently generated new autogenous DOM, with most of the organic matter being newly formed. Additional nutrients had a minor effect on the production and composition of DOM in the system. Using a parallel factor model to analyze the three-dimensional fluorescence spectral matrices of water samples from various systems revealed common components in each group, including arginine, tryptophan-like proteins and fulvic acid-like substances. This study aimed to explore the changes in DOM properties during microalgae treatment of fly ash leachate from the perspective of three-dimensional fluorescence.

Current and emerging waste-to-energy technologies: A comparative study with multi-criteria decision analysis

Comparative analysis of winter composite-PM2.5 in Central Indo Gangetic Plain cities: Combined organic and inorganic source apportionment and characterization, with a focus on the photochemical age effect on secondary organic aerosol formation

There are several strategies that can be used to reduce pollutants and carbon dioxide (CO2) from smoke during combustion, and one of them is using a wet scrubber sprayer. A multi-level sprayer had been studied, but it was investigated without considering electronic control. Therefore, the work evaluates whether applying a multi-level sprayer with electronic control can reduce the value of CO2. The study’s objective is to assess the potential utilisation of multi-level sprayers and electronic control in determining the efficiency of a basic wet scrubber for removing CO2 generated from burning garbage, particularly dry waste like paper, with the additional goal of minimising water usage. The system will be built in a small and simple wet scrubber with dimensions of 60 cm in height and about 40 cm in length and width. CO2 value and water usage in the wet scrubber will be measured. The results from implementing the one-level, two-level, and three-level sprayer with electronic control were compared and benchmarked with the value without a sprayer and electronic control. The work showed that the design leads to an improved water usage efficiency of the wet scrubber and reduced CO2 value.

Climate change is an important topic requiring thorough study due to the importance and increasing impact on the various environmental and human systems. Therefore, this study aimed to clarify the changes observed in the minimum and maximum temperatures, as well as the calculation of rainfall rates during the period spanning 1990 to 2018 in the governorate of Madaba. The amount of rain as well as the average minimum and maximum temperatures were examined through annual, seasonal, and monthly analyses. The comparison results from 2018, 2010, 2000, and 1990 showed that there was an increase in the seasonal, annual, and maximum temperatures for the month of June reaching about 1.51 °C. The month of July and Shahrab reported an elevation of 1.06 °C and 1.26 °C with an annual increase in maximum temperatures of 1.44 °C. Similarly, rainfall rates decreased by 0.05 mm between 1990 and 2018, hence legislative laws were enacted against individuals contributing to climate change. This started with individuals practicing waste and garbage burning, as well as developing unified programs and plans to address the consequences.

Burn pit-related smoke causes developmental and behavioral toxicity in zebrafish: Influence of material type and emissions chemistry

In this paper, we tried to find the effects of brick kiln emissions on human health at Surkh-Rod district of Nangarhar province, Afghanistan and which live in a circle of one kilometer of brick kilns. Establishing the facts, both quantitative and qualitative data were simultaneously collected, the area was sampled based on non-random convenience sampling, (20) brick kilns selected based on random stratified sampling and the respondents were selected based on sample random sampling. Microsoft excel descriptive analysis, percentage analysis was performed for data analysis of close-ended statements and thematic analysis was used to analyze non-quantifiable data from the open-ended items (textual). After analyzing the data, it concludes that a wide range of individuals, including men, women, kids, adolescents, and senior citizens, work in brick kilns. The majority of these workers lack access to modern education, and their religious education is also at a low level. The toxic gases in the kiln causes more suffer to those employed there. Furthermore, those families who live near kilns for at least five years at a distance of almost one kilometer have shortness of breath, headaches, different types of lung diseases, Eye Irritation, Hearth and skin diseases. These disease is caused by the harmful gases produced by the burning of coal, coal, wood, garbage and various types of fuel. Also, our finding shows that they don't wear any of the protective equipment that should be worn at work to protect themselves from the potentially harmful impacts of these hazardous gasses.