BACKGROUND Traffic exhaust, refineries and industrial facilities are major sources of air toxics identified by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (U.S. EPA) for their potential risk to human health. In utero and early life exposures to air toxics such as benzene and 1,3-butadiene, which are known leukemogens in adults, may play an etiologic role in childhood leukemia that comprises the ma...

The use of microbial catalysts in the biodegradation of organic compounds has advanced significantly during the past three decades. It has been found that large numbers of microbes co-exist in almost all natural environments, particularly in soils. Many natural and synthetic organic chemicals are readily biodegradable in natural environment. Biodegradation of materials involve initial proximity...

BACKGROUND Evidence is needed regarding the air pollutant components and their sources responsible for associations between particle mass concentrations and human cardiovascular outcomes. We previously found associations between circulating biomarkers of inflammation and mass concentrations of quasi-ultrafine particles <or= 0.25 microm in aerodynamic diameter (PM0.25) in a panel cohort study of...

Vanadium-based catalysts are considered the most promising materials to replace cobalt-based for activation of peroxymonosulfate (PMS) degrade organic pollutants. However, these traditional vanadium species easily leak out metal ions that can affect environment, even though is much less than cobalt. Compared other vanadium-based catalysts, e.g., V2O3, fluorinated V2AlC shows a high and constant...