Fine particulate matters less than 2.5 µm (PM2.5) in the ambient atmosphere are strongly associated with adverse health effects. However, it is unlikely that all fine particles are equally toxic in view of their different sizes and chemical components. Toxicity of fine particles produced from various combustion sources (diesel engine, gasoline engine, biomass burning (rice straw and pine stem burning), and coal combustion) and non-combustion sources (road dust including sea spray aerosols, ammonium sulfate, ammonium nitrate, and secondary organic aerosols (SOA)), which are known major sources of PM2.5, was determined. Multiple biological and chemical endpoints were integrated for various source-specific aerosols to derive toxicity scores for particles originating from different sources. The highest toxicity score was obtained for diesel engine exhaust particles, followed by gasoline engine exhaust particles, biomass burning particles, coal combustion particles, and road dust, suggesting that traffic plays the most critical role in enhancing the toxic effects of fine particles. The toxicity ranking of fine particles produced from various sources can be used to better understand the adverse health effects caused by different fine particle types in the ambient atmosphere, and to provide practical management of fine particles beyond what can be achieved only using PM mass which is the current regulation standard.

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In order to assess the ecological effect of acid mine drainage, metal mine (Dalsung) and coal mine (Samtan) drainage in South Korea were collected. The each mine drainage then investigated by whole effluent toxicity test (WET) and toxicity identification evaluation (TIE). WET results demonstrated that DS leachate and ST mine water is more toxic than other mine drainage due to the presence of cationic metals and acidic pH. TIE results revealed that the acidic pH and copper (Cu) could be the main toxicants in both mine drainage. The strong acidic pH (pH < 3.5) enhanced the metal toxicity by increase of metal activity and bioavailability. The toxicity of most mine drainage revealed that the positive correlation between metal concentration and toxicity unit (TU). The regression data between TU and sum of cumulative criterion unit (CCU) demonstrated the reasonable statistical significance (R = 0.89; p < 0.01), however the excessive iron concentration in mine drainage could be an inhibition factor to estimate the toxicity by the effect of amorphous iron precipitate.

Wood has the ability to absorb and desorb moisture, which can affect its dimensional size when in use. Limiting this can provide products with greater shape stability and less stresses on external coatings. One method that has been investigated for achieving this has been through chemical modification. In this work, the dimensional stabilisation imparted to Scots pine sapwood by chemical modification with maleic anhydride (MA) combined with sodium hypophosphite (SHP) was investigated. The influence of concentration of MA, treatment temperature and treatment period on weight percent gain (WPG) and bulking coefficient (BC) during treatment with MA and SHP of wood was studied. Furthermore, dimensional stability was determined by the water soak/oven dry method (wet-dry cycle) through five cycles in order to determine the hydrolytic stability of the ester bond and any potential cross-linking reactions. Wood blocks (20 × 20 × 10 mm) modified with MA combined with SHP exhibited lower weight loss following water soaking than unmodified blocks or MA-treated blocks. Wood blocks modified with MA and SHP showed the best anti-swelling efficiency and minimum wet-volume (water-saturated). However, as the concentration of SHP increased, dimensional stability was diminished without any increase in weight percentage gain after water soaking. When combined with FTIR results, it appeared that the modification with MA and SHP seemed to form cross-linking between wood constituents, though high concentration of SHP did not seem to result in additional cross-linking.