Publications by authors named "Johnny Gasperi"

Tire road wear particles (TRWP) and microplastics (MP) are increasingly present in the environment due to anthropogenic sources like industrial activities and road traffic. Their load is high in urban sediments and more specifically in stormwater management infrastructure such as detention basins. Eleven detention basins featured by contrasting land uses (industrial, urban, agricultural, and heterogeneous) were sampled in a French metropolitan city to examine how land use influences the presence of TRWP, MP, and metals in these basins.

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The rising interest in Rooftop Agriculture (RA) has stemmed a demand for sustainable, lightweight alternatives to peat as plant growing media. Co-composting organic waste with biochar could represent a solution with reduced environmental impact. However, knowledge gaps remain regarding the food safety and environmental performance of these materials.

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Microplastics (MPs) are often detected in river sediment, but the processes that lead to their long-term archiving need more investigation. In this study, the evolution of MPs buried in sediments was explored in a river segment with a diversity of deposition conditions. Two cores were collected on a high island -flooded only during overbank episodes- and in a semi-active channel also flooded during moderate-water periods.

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Performic acid (PFA), widely recognized for its disinfectant properties in wastewater, shows selective and limited reactivity in oxidizing micropollutants. This study investigates the activation of PFA through UV-C photolysis to generate an advanced oxidation process (UV-C/PFA) and enhance the degradation of six pharmaceuticals: lidocaine, furosemide, sulfamethoxazole, diclofenac, acetaminophen, and carbamazepine. The synergy of UV-C photolysis with PFA enhances the removal of PFA-persistent pharmaceuticals.

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Plastic pollution in rivers is a major source for plastic pollution into the ocean. However, it is now recognized that plastics may accumulate in rivers for years, especially in estuaries, before reaching the ocean. This long residence time favours fragmentation of macroplastics into smaller and smaller pieces, but relative data are still carse.

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Due to strong anthropogenic pressures and their location at the interface between continental and oceanic environments, estuarine areas are affected by significant diverse pollution and species that live in these areas are particularly exposed. Microplastic (MPs) pollution is a worldwide issue and causes substantiated trouble in estuaries where sometimes the number of MPs equal or exceed the number of fish larvae which suggest a high risk of contamination of biota especially in benthic organisms and demersal fish. There are growing evidence that, beyond intrinsic toxicity, MPs can transfer chemicals (additives or pollutants).

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Several studies have focused on quantifying microplastics (MP) in the environment using μ-FTIR and Py-GC/MS, the most common analytical methods. However, their application to complex matrices like sediments is affected by interferences specific to each method. In this study, we developed a protocol combining μ-FTIR and Py-GC/MS for sequential analysis of MP (10-500 μm) in 16 river sediment samples, targeting PE, PP, and PS polymers.

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Urban highways are a central infrastructure in megacities and represent diverse sources of microplastic pollution. Understanding the relative contribution of these microplastic sources, including the abrasion of macrolitter and the generation of tire and road wear particles (TRWP) is necessary to better assess the sources and fate of microplastics in terrestrial environments. This study focuses on microplastic (MP) and TRWP infiltration in the soil of a biofiltration swale alongside a high-traffic highway in the north of Paris, France.

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Wastewater has been identified as one of the main contributors to microplastic (MP) pollution in aquatic environments. Hence, this study investigates the presence, characteristics of MPs in wastewater sample types (industrial, domestic, and medical wastewater), and also the removal efficacy of MPs by local wastewater treatment stations. Overall, industrial wastewater showed a higher MP abundance level at 60,881 ± 48,154 items/m, compared to domestic and medical wastewater with values of 31,494 ± 10,142 items/m and 35,453 ± 13,186 items/m, respectively.

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Microplastics (MP) have been reported in many rivers across the globe but their depositional and archiving mechanisms in sediments are not fully understood yet. The aim of this study was to identify potential controlling factors of MP spatial distribution in surface sediment after a characterisation (sediment composition, hydrological conditions, sedimentary environment) of 14 sampling sites in an 8 km segment of the Loire river. Samples were collected from 3 sedimentary environments (sandbars, riverbanks and semi-active channels) with diverse flooding frequencies, grain size distributions and total organic carbon (TOC) contents.

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Stormwater systems, such as infiltration ponds or basins, play a critical role in managing runoff water and reducing particulate pollution loads in downstream environments through decantation. Road runoff carries several pollutants, including trace metals and tire and road wear particles (TRWP). To improve our understanding of infiltration ponds as regards TRWP and their capacity to reduce TRWP loads, we have studied the occurrence, spatial distribution and size distribution of TRWP, as well as their relationship with metals, in considering the input of metals as tire additives, in the sediments of an infiltration pond located along the Nantes urban ring road (Western France), which happens to be a high-traffic roadway site.

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Urban areas concentrate on human activities that generate large amounts of waste. A small fraction is mismanaged and ends up on urban surfaces and eventually in waterways. The fraction reaching waterways is usually estimated using poorly constrained data, while litter density on urban surfaces and its subsequent transfer dynamics are also poorly documented.

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Microplastic (MP) pollution is a critical environmental challenge worldwide, however limited research is reported in remote lakes of Pakistan. This study assessed MPs (>5 mm) prevalence, distribution and risk perspective in water and sediment of eight remote and high-altitude lakes (>1500 m above sea level) of Gilgit Baltistan, Pakistan. The lakes exhibited an average abundance of 152.

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Urban areas constitute a major hotspot of litter, including plastic litter, that stormwater can wash off towards waterways. However, few studies quantified and characterized litter densities in urban areas and fluxes transported by stormwater networks. Moreover, little information is available on litter transport dynamics in stormwater, and on the factors driving this transport.

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Microplastics (MPs, plastic items from 1 µm to 5 mm in size) are present in all environmental compartments. The evaluation of their concentration, fate, and spatial distribution is still a challenge for the scientific community. This concern is just debuting in developing countries, (i.

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The contamination of freshwater with microplastics (MPs) has been established globally. While the analysis of MPs has predominantly involved spectroscopic methods for revealing particle numbers, the potential of employing spectroscopy for mass estimation has been underutilized. Consequently, there is a need to enhance our understanding of the mass loads of MPs and ensure the complementarity and comparability of various techniques for accurate quantification.

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Here, microplastic atmospheric deposition data collected at an urban site during the French national lockdown of spring 2020 is compared to deposition data from the same site in a period of normal activity. Bulk atmospheric deposition was collected on the vegetated roof of a suburban campus from the Greater Paris and analysed for microplastics using a micro-FTIR imaging methodology. Significantly lower deposition rates were measured overall during the lockdown period (median 5.

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During wet weather events, combined sewer overflows (CSOs) transfer large amount of particulate matter and associated pollutants into surrounding water bodies, thereby deteriorating the recipients' ecological health. Resuspension of sewer sediments during these events contributes significantly to pollution level of these discharges. However, how much this in-sewer process contributes to CSOs' quality regarding microplastic (MP) pollution is little known.

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This study aims to examine tire and road wear particle (TRWP) emissions under realistic conditions in order to provide some valuable insights into understanding their sources and fate in the environment. TRWP emissions were evaluated with a fully instrumented vehicle driving on five representative road types: urban, ring road, suburban, highway, and rural. Multiple vehicle dynamic variables were recorded to assess the factors influencing these emissions.

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The dispersed pollution caused by microplastics (MPs) represents a current and global concern. While the fragmentation of plastic debris into smaller particles occurs in rivers, little MP research is done on freshwater species and is published compared to the marine environment. The Loire River is the longest river in France and is subject to moderate to high anthropic pressure while it represents major societal and economic issues.

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The aim of this study was to explore the adverse effects of a microplastic (MP) mixture obtained from litter accumulated in the Seine River (France) compared to those of their major co-plasticizer, dibutylphthalate (DBP), on the sentinel species Hediste diversicolor. A suite of biomarkers has been investigated to study the impacts of MPs (100 mg kg sediment), DBP (38 μg kg sediment) on worms compared to non-exposed individuals after 4 and 21 days. The antioxidant response, immunity, neurotoxicity and energy and respiratory metabolism were investigated using biomarkers.

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Article Synopsis
  • The study examines microplastic (MP) occurrence in river sediments from three urban rivers in Vietnam's Red River Delta, discovering significant variability in MP concentrations ranging from 1,600 to 94,300 items per kilogram.
  • Microplastics were primarily found in fiber form, made mostly of polypropylene and polyethylene, with no notable seasonal effect on their distribution.
  • A trend was identified showing that higher microplastic concentrations correlated with areas of high organic matter and population density, indicating potential hotspots for microplastics in urban river environments.
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The contamination of microplastics (MP) in freshwater environments represent a major way for the MP transport in the environment. The assessment of MP pollution in freshwater compartments is then important to visualize the pressure and the impacts on medium, and to set up necessary measures. In this context, this study focused on the influence of anthropogenic activities of a medium French city (Angers) on MP levels in samples collected from the Loire River, the longest river in France.

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Bis(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP) is a plasticizer that has been massively used since the second part of the twentieth century by the plastic industry to provide softness properties to PVC. This chemical is considered as toxic to reproduction and endocrine disrupting, and a wide range of uses are now forbidden by the EU. Despite these regulations, DEHP is still found to be a widespread contaminant in watersheds in the EU.

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