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Exposure to ambient air pollution has significant adverse health effects; however, whether air pollution is associated with urological cancer is largely unknown. We conduct a systematic review and meta-analysis with epidemiological studies, showing that a 5 μg/m3 increase in PM2.5 exposure is associated with a 6%, 7%, and 9%, increased risk of overall urological, bladder, and kidney cancer, respectively; and a 10 μg/m3 increase in NO2 is linked to a 3%, 4%, and 4% higher risk of overall urological, bladder, and prostate cancer, respectively. Were these associations to reflect causal relationships, lowering PM2.5 levels to 5.8 μg/m3 could reduce the age-standardized rate of urological cancer by 1.5 ~ 27/100,000 across the 15 countries with the highest PM2.5 level from the top 30 countries with the highest urological cancer burden. Implementing global health policies that can improve air quality could potentially reduce the risk of urologic cancer and alleviate its burden.

New energy industries, such as wind and photovoltaic (PV) power generation, are key to supporting the carbon peaking and carbon neutrality goals of China. The installed capacity of wind and PV power in China is the largest worldwide; therefore, it is necessary to secure the supply of key metal materials and conduct a more accurate management of emerging solid wastes. This study sets different development scenarios based on the historical data and planning objectives of wind and PV power industries of China. It assesses the demand, waste, and supply of key metals in China’s new energy industry using a life distribution model of wind and PV power generation equipment, and focuses on identifying the supply pressure of silver, copper, gallium, silver, steel, and neodymium,thereby providing a basic support for realizing the green and low-carbon development of the energy industry by 2060. In the baseline scenario, the decommissioned volume of the wind and PV power generation industries will reach 4.6 GW and 28.3 GW in 2035,respectively; and the total decommissioned volume (by mass) of both wind and PV power generation equipment will reach 2.54 ×106 t and 1.048 ×107 t in 2035 and 2060, respectively. In terms of the supply of key metals for the new energy industry during 2030‒2060,iron and steel have a low supply risk (≤5%), neodymium has a medium-high supply risk (25%‒50%), copper and silver have a high supply risk (50%‒100%), and the supply of gallium and indium are at an extremely high risk owing to their excessive peak demand.To improve the security and diversity of the supply chain of the new energy industry, it is necessary to ensure the sustainable supply of metal mineral resources and promote material recycling and efficient use. Furthermore, we propose the following recommendations:(1) treating decommissioned equipment for wind and PV power generation as waste electrical and electronic products, (2) incorporating wind and PV power generation enterprises into the Catalogue of Classified Management of Pollutant Discharge Permits for Stationary Pollution Sources, (3) improving the distributed new-energy solid-waste recycling system, and (4) developing recycling technologies for emerging solid wastes.

In order to improved the defects of xylan-based films such as strong hygroscopicity and low mechanical strength, a collaborative modification protocol of citric acid (CA) and MPTMS-modified xylan (MSMX) was proposed. Xylan from sugarcane bagasse was firstly modified by (3-mercaptopropyl)trimethoxysilane (MPTMS), and then citric acid was used as crosslinking agent or plasticizer. The MSMX/PVA/CA films were prepared by casting method and the effects of citric acid content on the structure and packaging performance of the composite film were studied. The results show that with the increase of CA content, the cross-linking degree of MSMX/PVA/CA films increases and the internal structure becomes more dense, which lead to the significant enhancement of mechanical properties and water vapor barrier performance. Meanwhile, the hydrophobicity of the MSMX/PVA/CA films is improved with the decrease of hydrophilice groups. When CA content is 20% (mass fraction), the tensile strength of MSMX/PVA/CA film is 41.8 MPa, water contact angle is 82°, and the water vapor transmittance reaches 2.79×10-13 g·cm·cm-2·s-1·Pa-1, which is 37.79% lower than that of film without CA. The addition of CA improves the moisture barrier properties and mechanical strength of xylan composite films, which makes it have a potential application in the field of food and drug packaging.

Mobile phones and various electronic products contribute to the world's fastest-growing category of hazardous waste with international repercussions. We investigated the trends in potential human health impacts and ecotoxicity of waste mobile phones through quantitative life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) methods and regulatory total threshold limit concentrations. A market-dominant sample of waste basic phones and smartphones manufactured between 2001 and 2015, were analyzed for toxicity trends based on 19 chemicals. The results of the LCIA (using USEtox model) show an increase in the relative mass of toxic materials over the 15-year period. We found no significant changes in the use of toxic components in basic phones, whereas smartphones contained a statistically significant increase in the content of toxic materials from 2006 to 2015. Nickel contributed the largest risk for carcinogens in mobile phones, but the contributions of lead and beryllium were also notable. Silver, zinc and copper contents were associated with non-cancer health risks. Copper components at 45,818-77,938 PAF m3/kg dominated ecotoxicity risks in mobile phones. Overall, these results highlight the increasing importance of monitoring trends in materials use for electronic product manufacturing and electronic-waste management processes that should prevent human and environmental exposures to toxic components.