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Did the COVID-19 pandemic and travel restrictions improve air quality? The authors investigate this question in New York City using existing pollution data and forecasting trends.

In this study, the authors determine optimal pH levels for maximizing isopropanol degradation in water. This has important applications for cleaning up polluted wastewater in the environment.

Arsenic contamination in rice, caused by the use of arsenic-laden groundwater for irrigation, is a growing global concern, affecting over 150 million people. To address this, researchers hypothesized that genetically modifying rice plants with arsenic-resistant genes could reduce arsenic uptake and allow the plants to detoxify arsenic, making them safer to consume.

Chemicals used in fertilizers and pesticides often end up in nearby bodies of water due to runoff and may have negative impacts on these important ecosystems. In this study, the authors use water containing different nitrogen levels to investigate the effect on the growth of the English daisy.

Chemical pollution can have significant effects on freshwater organisms. In this study, the effect of copper sulfate on the survival of Daphnia pulex and Ostracoda was investigated.

Coronary Artery Disease (CAD) is the leading cause of death in the United States, and 81% of Acute Kidney Injury (AKI) patients in the renal fibrosis stage later develop CAD. In this study, Mathew and Joykutty aimed to create a cost-effective strategy to treat AKI and thus prevent CAD using a model of the zebrafish, Danio rerio. They first tested whether AKI is induced in Danio rerio upon exposure to environmental toxins, then evaluated nitrotyrosine as an early biomarker for toxin-induced AKI. Finally, they evaluated 4 treatments of renal fibrosis, the last stage of AKI, and found that the compound SB431542 was the most effective treatment (reduced fibrosis by 99.97%). Their approach to treating AKI patients, and potentially prevent CAD, is economically feasible for translation into the clinic in both developing and developed countries.

The authors assess incidence and mortality rates of two cancer types in relation to trihalomethane pollutant concentrations in drinking water.

Air pollution is thought to increase the prevalence of health conditions like chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Ganeshwaran and Ropiak investigate this relationship by determining whether there is a correlation between between one type of air pollution (fine particulate matter concentrations) and COPD hospitalization rates in Massachusetts.