Ricerc@Sapienza

Children’s development and health may be affected by toxic heavy metal exposure or suboptimal essential element intake. This study aimed to provide updated information regarding the concentrations of 41 elements in children’s hair (aged under 18) living in a rural area of the Benishangul-Gumuz region, Ethiopia.

Concentrations of trace elements in drinking water affect its safety and acceptability for use. Potentially toxic element (PTE) contaminations are considered extremely hazardous because of toxicity, persistence, and bioaccumulative behaviour. Many areas in the Southern African Development Community are data poor and have poor accessibility. The results of our previous research identified the presence of fossil waters in southern Limpopo National Park. Groundwater and river water are the only sources of drinking water for the villages in the study area.

The study was aimed to evaluate the ability of native lichen Xanthoria (X.) parietina to biomonitor and bioaccumulate some heavy metals (As, Cd, Co, Cr, Ni, Pb), PAHs, PCDDs, PCDFs, PCBs and PBDEs and to evaluate the use of the native X. parietina as a multi-tracer tool for scenarios characterized by different anthropogenic pressures. Samples of native X. parietina were collected in six different sites (two green, two residential and two industrial areas, respectively) and analyzed for the target compounds. The results show that X.

The aim of the study was to evaluate occupational exposure to 40 elements among a group of Eritrean adults employed at the Medeber metal market by analysing human scalp hair samples and by investigating the role of some predictors (gender, age, and body mass index—BMI) on their levels.

Knowledge of glass trading in protohistoric Southern Italy has been limited by a lack of archeometrical data available to date, preventing comparison with the well-known Northern Italian context. The aim of the present work is to help fill the data gap for Southern Bronze-Iron Age vitreous items and enable a general overview of protohistoric Italian glass supply routes.

Despite a vast amount of literature has focused on trace element (TE) contamination in Antarctica during the last decades, the assessment of the main pathways driving TE transfer to the biota is still an overlooked issue. This limits the ability to predict how variations in sea-ice dynamics and productivity due to climate change will affect TE allocation in the food web.

Trace elements (for example As, V, Cr, Ni, Cu, Z, Cd and Pb) released by human activity are ubiquitously detected in topsoil.

Trace elements are natural constituents of soils and their concentration varies depending on parental materials. In order to investigate the inorganic pollution conditions of soil in Bevera Valley Basin, Northern Italy, two selected samples were taken from Rainer Quarry and Femar Quarry were analyzed. High levels of Arsenic (As) have been reported in groundwater. Exposure to As in the environment is hazardous to biota, this study aims to investigate mechanism involved in natural enrichment of As, considering interactions of underground waters with soils.