#heavymetals — Public Fediverse posts

#PlasticPollution in #ShootingRanges and warfare areas - an overlooked #environmental issue

Andrés Rodríguez-Seijo, et al. 15 July 2026

Abstract
"Shooting ranges and military training fields, including warfare-impacted areas, have been widely recognized as environmentally impacted zones by inorganic and organic #contamination, such as #HeavyMetals, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons or explosive-related compounds. However, the possible contamination by #plastics and #microplastics in soil has been widely overlooked despite potential plastic sources, such as #ShotgunCartridges, #PlasticWads or #landmines. Due to how these activities occur, plastics have remained in the field for decades or centuries, favoring their conversion from macro to microplastics, polluting the soil and water resources. Moreover, shooting and recreational activities such as #airsoft or #paintball practices could also be a substantial source of plastics to ecosystems; once shot, pellets can have conventional or biodegradable plastics in their composition, and there left in the environment, favouring impacts on soil properties. Although some initiatives have emerged to avoid the use of single-use plastics in shotgun ammunition, alternative materials (biodegradable plastics) can also be a potential risk, favouring the heavy metal bioavailability of shot pellets. These emerging pollutants should also be considered in these areas to understand if they could be a potential source of micro- and nanoplastics to the environment and, therefore, an environmental concern that requires changes at industrial and regulatory levels."

Read more:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0013935125008771

#EndangeredSpecies #EndangeredBirds #AmmunitionPollution #ProtectNature

Thawing permafrost responsible for acidification of Yukon watersheds
#Indigenous #FirstNations #Yukon #Canada #Permafrost #ClimateChange #Ecology #Environment #WaterQuality #Pollution #NorthernCanada #Watersheds #HeavyMetals #Freshwater #AcidRockDrainage
https://the-14.com/thawing-permafrost-responsible-for-acidification-of-yukon-watersheds/

Duke study raises concerns about Roundup use https://www.allforgardening.com/1654120/duke-study-raises-concerns-about-roundup-use/ #30PercentVinegar #DefenseProductionAct #DukeUniversity #epa #farmworkers #garden #gardener #gardening #Glyphosate #H2AVisas #HeavyMetals #herbicides #It'sOurFuture #LandscapeContractors #LandscapeFabrics #NorthCarolinaStateExtension #PesticideApplicatorLicense #PresidentTrump #Roundup

#GoldExtraction from #EWaste gets 10 times more efficient with new sponge material

Researchers developed a nanoscale cross-dimensional composite material via self-assembly of two-dimensional graphene oxide and one-dimensional chitosan macromolecules.

By Prabhat Ranjan Mishra, Oct 27, 2024

"Researchers have developed a new type of material that’s 10 times more efficient at extracting gold from e-waste than previous adsorbents. Developed by chemists and materials scientists at the National University of Singapore, the material is a type of sponge made of #GrapheneOxide and #chitosan [shrimp shells].

"The material can reportedly transform the way gold is extracted from electronic wastes, which has been described so far as a dirty business with low yields and results in toxic #pollutants.

"The cheaper, cleaner and efficient method was tested by researchers using real e-waste provided by a recycling company."

[...]

"While the present work focused on gold, the team say the technique could be adapted to recover other valuable metals such as #silver, #platinum or #palladium from #ElectronicWaste or even #mining residues. And that is not all: as well as e-waste, the technology might be applied to a wider range of environmental cleaning efforts, such as filtering out #HeavyMetals from #PollutedWater sources or industrial effluents, reported Physics World."

Read more:
https://interestingengineering.com/innovation/gold-extraction-from-e-waste-sponge


Article in Physics World - Eco-friendly graphene composite recovers gold from e-waste

24 Oct 2024

https://physicsworld.com/a/eco-friendly-graphene-composite-recovers-gold-from-e-waste/

#SolarPunkSunday #NoGoldMining
#EWasteRecycling #MetalsExtraction #Electronics #RareEarthMinerals #Recycling #NewTechnology #ShrimpShells

Not just human health! The #Toxic Blend of LA’s Urban #WildfireSmoke Will Have Lasting Health Consequences

Los Angeles residents are breathing bits of "cars, metal pipes, plastics."

By Zoya Teirstein, January 22, 2025

“These fires are different from previous quote-unquote ‘wildfires,’ because there are so many structures that burned,” said Yifang Zhu, a professor of environmental health sciences at the University of California, Los Angeles. 'Everything in the households got burned — cars, metal pipes, plastics.'

"#Wildfiresmoke is toxic. Burning trees and shrubs produce very fine #particulatematter, known by the shorthand PM 2.5, which burrow deep into the lungs and can even infiltrate the bloodstream, causing cold- and flu-like symptoms in the short term, and heart disease, lung cancer, and other chronic issues over time.

"But the fires that raced through Los Angeles burned thousands of homes, schools, historic buildings, and even medical clinics, blanketing the city in thick smoke. For several days after the first fire started, the city’s air quality index, or #AQI, exceeded 100, the threshold, typically seen during wildfires, at which air becomes unhealthy to breathe for children, the elderly, and those with asthma. In some parts of the city, the AQI reached 500, a number rarely seen and always hazardous for everyone.

"At the moment, air pollution experts know how much smoke fills the air. That’s shown improvement in recent days. But they don’t know what’s in it. 'What are the chemical mixtures in this smoke?' asked Kai Chen, an environmental scientist at the Yale School of Public Health. 'In addition to fine particulate matter, there are potentially other hazardous and #carcinogenic organic compounds — gas pollutants, trace metals, and microplastics.'

"Previous research shows that the spikes in unhealthy air quality seen during such events lead to higher rates of hospitalizations for issues like asthma, and even contribute to heart attacks among those with that chronic disease. A 2024 study on the long-term effects of smoke exposure in California showed that particulate matter from wildfires in the state from 2008 to 2018 contributed to anywhere from 52,000 to 56,000 premature deaths. A health assessment of 148 firefighters who worked the Tubbs Fire, which burned more than 36,000 acres in Northern California in 2017 and destroyed an unusually high number of structures, found elevated levels of the #PFAS known as forever chemicals, #HeavyMetals, and flame retardants in their blood and urine.

"The L.A. County Department of Public Health has formally urged people to stay inside and wear masks to protect themselves from windblown toxic dust and ash. Air quality measurements don’t take these particles into account, which means the air quality index doesn’t reveal the extent of contaminants in the air.

"Zhu and her colleagues have been collecting samples of wildfire smoke in neighborhoods near the fires. It’ll be months before that data is fully analyzed, but Zhu suspects she will find a dangerous mix of chemicals, including, potentially, #asbestos and lead — materials used in many buildings constructed before the 1970s.

"The risk will linger even after the smoke clears. The plumes that wafted over the landscape will deposit chemicals into drinking #water supplies and #contaminate# soil. When rains do come, they’ll wash #ToxicAsh into streams and across the land, said Fernando Rosario-Ortiz, an environmental engineer and interim dean of the University of Colorado Boulder environmental engineering program. 'There’s a lot of manmade materials that are now being combusted. The potential is there for contamination,' he said, noting that little research on how toxic ash and other byproducts of wildfires in urban areas currently exists. 'What we don’t have a lot of information on is what happens now.'

"After the Camp Fire razed Paradise, California, in 2018, water utilities found high levels of volatile organic compounds [#VOCs] in #DrinkingWater. Similar issues have arisen in places like Boulder County, Colorado, where the Marshall Fire destroyed nearly 1,000 structures in 2021, Rosario-Ortiz said, though the presence of a contaminant in a home doesn’t necessarily mean it will be present in high levels in the water. Still, several municipal water agencies in Los Angeles issued preemptive advisories urging residents not to drink tap water in neighborhoods near the Palisades and Eaton fires. It’ll be weeks before they know exactly what’s in the water.

"As wildfires grow ever more intense and encroach upon urban areas, cities and counties must be prepared to monitor the health impacts and respond to them. 'This is the first time I’ve ever even witnessed or heard anything like this,' said Zhu, who raised her daughter in Los Angeles and has lived there for decades, said. 'Even being in the field studying wildfires and air quality impacts, I never imagined that a whole neighborhood, a whole community in Palisades, would burn down.'"

Read more:
https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-toxic-blend-of-las-urban-wildfire-smoke-will-have-lasting-health-consequences/?utm_source=flipboard&utm_medium=flipboard_rss&utm_campaign=znetwork
#AirPollution #WaterPollution #AirIsLife #WaterIsLife #ToxicMaterials #EnvironmentalDisaster #EnvironmentalDamage #Pyrocene #PyroceneEra

#PrayerHorseRide's Third Annual March Ride Begins March 17, in Schurz, Nevada

Reconnecting and Revitalizing #Traditional Ways of Life Threatened by Destructive #Mining Resource Extractions Supporting "#GreenEnergy"

By Prayer Horse Ride, via #CensoredNews

SCHURZ, Nevada -- "Prayer Horse Ride "#NanesootuhinaPookooGoobakatudu," is getting ready to begin our annual ride March 17th-26th, from Schurz, #Nevada through Yerington, Fallon, Wadsworth and Nixon, through Lovelock, then Orovada, and ending in #PeeheeMuhuh (#ThackerPass in the McDermitt Caldera), in the traditional, ancestral, and unceded lands of the #Paiute, #Shoshone, and #Bannock.
The Riders, walkers, and runners carry the prayer with each community. They'll move forward to raise awareness regarding lithium mining in Peehee Mu'huh and the McDermitt Caldera; AND also raise awareness to #CopperMining in the #PineNutHills, a holy place known to the #Nuwu; in honor and remembrance of the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women / People (#MMIW/P) in Nevada; and to revitalize and restore cultural identity, languages, creativity, and supportive lifeways in our indigenous communities.

"Northern Nevada is the home of the #NorthernPaiute, #WesternShoshone, #Washoe, and #Bannock people. We, as descendants of them, will continue to give voices to the voiceless on #MotherEarth. To all of our relations.

"'We do this prayer ride to reconnect and revitalize our way of life,' says Josh Dini, Sr, a member of Walker River Paiute Tribe, #WaterProtector and #PrayerHorseRider, and a member of #AmericanIndianMovement Northern Nevada (#AIMNNV).

"Indigenous communities in the Great Basin and McDermitt Caldera are experiencing fast-tracked #mining and industrial development to support 'green energy,' and are threatened by #ecologically and #sociologically destructive resource extraction processes, most notably, #lithium and #copper mining, in areas in proximity to or within #communities, #reservations and #LandTrusts, and #SacredSites.

"#HeavyMetals extraction #poisons lands, air, and water. Sacred sites for ceremony, where ancestors are buried, where medicines grow, and where lifecycles are anchored, are destroyed.

"'Copper mining in our Pine Nut Hills takes away our knowledge and our identity of who we are,' says Dini, who explained the mining threatens an important Paiute medicine food, as well as numerous traditional campsites and sacred places that have been used for innumerable generations.

"'We ride in honor of the people on the land before extraction industries, past - present - and future. Here in Nevada we have places important to the indigenous culture that are considered America's sacrifice zones in search of 'green energy.'

"'We are Paiute and Shoshone allied with many of the federally recognized tribes in Nevada. We lead this prayer for Mother Earth,' says Gary McKinney, a Duck Valley Shoshone Paiute, water protector and Prayer Horse Rider, People of Red Mountain spokesperson, AIMNNV council member, and SIRGE Coalition Steering Committee member.

Prayer Horse Ride will visit #Indigenous northern Nevada communities affected by these issues including #WalkerRiver Paiute Tribe, #Yerington Paiute Tribe, #Fallon Paiute Shoshone Tribe, #Lovelock Paiute Tribe, and #PyramidLake Paiute Tribe. As Riders reach each community, they may share meals, engage in ceremony, share stories and songs, and teach and learn traditional arts, bringing the communities together to celebrate and remember the traditional ways.

"McKinney says, 'We ride to honor the land and the people - of the past, present, and the future. #LifeOverLithium."

"About Prayer Horse Ride: Established in 2022 to honor the late #MyronDewey, Water Protector, Paiute Shoshone journalist and drone pilot, and to continue prayers for cultural sites like Peehee Mu’huh (Thacker Pass), we are an indigenous led prayer group and community service organization that advocates for our indigenous communities, to protect what we have left and to raise your awareness to what our communities face, and most importantly, in gathering tribes back together to stand in unity, not by separation.

"'We'll continue this ride in the Vision of our Ancestors, for Healing, Strength and Awareness, in Prayer and Unity.'

"Prayer Horse Riders have a story to tell and you can reach out to PHR media liaison André Wesner for inquiries: [email protected]

https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2024/02/prayer-horse-ride-2024-in-honor-of.html

#PrayerRide #WaterIsLife #WaterProtectors #IndigenousLands #IndigenousActivism #EnvironmentalRacism #CulturalGenocide #NoUraniumMining #NoMining #LandBack #LandDefenders #CorporateColonialism