Published as soon as accepted and summarized in monthly issues, Environmental Science & Technology Letters is an international forum for brief communications on experimental or theoretical results of exceptional timeliness in all aspects of environmental science (pure and applied), and short reviews on emerging environmental science & technology topics. Manuscripts describing cross-disciplinary research or addressing emerging issues are of particular interest.

Environmental Science & Technology Letters is an international forum for brief communications on experimental or theoretical results of exceptional timeliness in all aspects of environmental science (both pure and applied). Published monthly, it features manuscripts that describe cross-disciplinary research or address emerging issues, as well as short reviews on emerging topics in environmental science and technology.

《Environmental Science and Technology Letters》是一个国际性论坛，专注于环境科学（包括基础和应用）各个方面的实验或理论结果的简要交流。该期刊每月发布已接受的稿件，并总结成月刊，特别关注跨学科研究或新兴问题的稿件。此外，期刊也欢迎关于新兴环境科学与技术主题的短评。

Environmental Science and Technology Letters

Microplastic (MP) pollution has become a global issue, attracting attention from stakeholders around the globe. Knowledge of MPs has been substantially advanced in recent years. Newly developed analytical technologies allow better characterization of MPs, but characterizing nanosized plastic particles remains challenging. Transport of plastic debris from land to oceans is a key driver for marine plastic pollution, and the relative contributions from riverine runoff and atmospheric deposition must be further quantified. Another lingering issue is whether MPs can bioaccumulate and biomagnify along a food web, which demands further investigations. Currently there is no health risk assessment for human exposure to MPs, probably due to the lack of reference threshold values. Hence, establishing reference threshold values for MPs should be a long-term and continuing task for the scientific community. Recent progress in quantifying the vertical settling of plastic debris in deep oceans has brightened the prospect of finding the "Missing Plastics", at least partially. Future efforts are urgently needed in developing novel analytical techniques, conducting additional laboratory and field measurements, and formulating robust models to better understand the occurrence, fate, and effects of MPs on the planet.

Lian-Jun Bao

Lei Mai

Liang-Ying Liu

Xiang-Fei Sun

Eddy Y. Zeng

Environmental Science & Technology Letters

Microplastics on the Planet: Current Knowledge and Challenges

地球上的微塑料：当前知识与挑战

The rare-earth elements are critical to many green energy technologies but are difficult to separate from one another because of their chemical similarity. We demonstrate an alternative, biogenic method based on the adsorption of lanthanide to the bacterium Roseobacter sp. AzwK-3b, immobilized on an assay filter, followed by subsequent desorption as a function of pH. The elution desorption data suggest that the basicity of the individual lanthanides is important in determining their desorption behavior. It is found that via preprotonation of the bacteria it is possible to concentrate a solution of equal concentrations of each lanthanide to nearly 50% of the three heaviest lanthanides (Tm, Lu, and Yb) in just two passes. This surpasses existing industrial practice. The findings suggest that there is an opportunity to harness the diversity of bacterial surface chemistry to separate and recover technologically important rare-earth metals in an environmentally benign manner.

William D. Bonificio

David R. Clarke

Rare-Earth Separation Using Bacteria

The petroleum refining industry is the key contributor to industrial volatile organic compounds (VOCs). To establish refined emission factors (EFs) and a source profile, 76 samples from eight refineries were collected using 33 processes. Arithmetic and weighted average methods were used to produce composites of the source profiles. EFs of eight emission sources (0.027–0.96 kg of VOCs/t of crude) were estimated and further classified with different control technology levels. EFs of all refineries ranged from 0.67 to 2.77 kg of VOCs/t of crude. Equipment leak (EL) was the largest emission source (37.65–76.70%), followed by storage tank (ST), loading operation (LO), and wastewater collection and treatment systems (WT). EFs of the EL, ST, WT, LO, cooling tower, processing vent (PV), stationary combustion, and flare were 0.96 ± 0.45, 0.28 ± 0.18, 0.17 ± 0.12, 0.093 ± 0.091, 0.070 ± 0.070, 0.028 ± 0.017, 0.010 ± 010, and 0.027 ± 0.023 kg of VOCs/t of crude, respectively. Alkanes made the largest contribution to the petroleum refining industry, followed by OVOCs and aromatics. Ethane, propane, isobutane, n-butane, isopentane, and n-pentane were the major species. Toluene, benzene, ethylene, and propene in EL, n-butyl acetate and acetone in ST, toluene and benzene in WT, MTBE in LO, and n-hexane in PV were dominant in the corresponding sources.

Guiying You

Sihua Lu

Zengxin Jin

Jie Ren

Rui Sun

Jing Li

Wanfei Hou

Shaodong Xie

Environ. Sci. Technol. Lett.

Emission Factors and Source Profiles of Volatile Organic Compounds in the Petroleum Refining Industry through On-Site Measurement from Multiple Refineries

Microfibers of polyester and cotton might be significant for the transport and fate of chemical pollutants in the air due to the amounts emitted, as well as their capacities to sorb inorganic and organic compounds. It was hypothesized that household tumble driers could be atmospheric sources of these microfibers. This study quantified the number of the two most common textile fibers discharged from a household vented tumble dryer to ambient air. The results suggest that driers of this type are a potential source of air contamination by microfibers, releasing 433,128–561,810 microfibers during 15 min of use. Microfibers can be generated from both polyester and cotton textiles. The abundances of microfibers of polyester produced were directly proportional to the masses of clothing loaded into a dryer, but such a relationship was not apparent for cotton textiles. On the basis of the results presented here and other relevant data, it was estimated that the average Canadian household can annually release from 9 × 107 to 12 × 107 microfibers from a single dryer. To minimize the release of these microfibers into the air, an appropriate engineered filtration system should be developed and adopted as an effective control measure for individual household driers.

Danyang Tao

Kai Zhang

Shaopeng Xu

Huiju Lin

Yuan Liu

Jingliang Kang

Tszewai Yim

John P. Giesy

Kenneth M. Y. Leung

Microfibers Released into the Air from a Household Tumble Dryer

家用滚筒烘干机释放到空气中的微纤维

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) comprise >10 000 synthetic compounds that are globally distributed and highly persistent but remain challenging to monitor. Here we assess the utility of baleen─an accreting, keratinaceous tissue that baleen whales use for filter-feeding─to track PFAS dynamics in marine food webs. In six species investigated, PFAS were detected in all baleen tested (n = 18 plates, 220 samples, ∑10PFAS range of 0.02–60.5 ng/g of dry weight), at levels higher than those of other tissue types besides liver. Three of the species in our data set had not been tested for PFAS contamination previously, and two of those species (blue whale and North Atlantic right whale) are internationally endangered species. Apparent links were observed between PFAS and life-history events by testing successive subsamples along the growth axis of the baleen plates. These results establish baleen as a viable sample matrix for assessing PFAS contamination in marine ecosystems by enabling multiyear time-series analyses through single-tissue sampling with seasonal resolution.

Matthew S. Savoca

Anna R. Robuck

Michaela A. Cashman

Mark G. Cantwell

Lindsay C. Agvent

David N. Wiley

Rachel Rice

Sean Todd

Nicole E. Hunter

Jooke Robbins

Jeremy A. Goldbogen

Rainer Lohmann

Whale Baleen To Monitor Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS) in Marine Environments

鲸须监测海洋环境中全氟和多氟烷基物质（PFAS）

Alessandro Zulli

Mengyang Zhang

Sehee Jong

Catherine Blish

Alexandria B. Boehm

Infectivity and Persistence of Influenza A Virus in Raw Milk

生乳中甲型流感病毒的传染性和持久性

Detecting and quantifying tire wear particles (TWPs) in the environment pose a unique environmental challenge due to their chemical complexity. There are emerging concerns around TWPs due to their potential high numbers of particles released, outnumbering microplastics, as well as the leaching of toxic additives such as 6-PPD which has been linked to the death of salmon even when present at very low levels (<0.1 μg/L). Analytical techniques such as pyrolysis gas chromatography mass spectrometry (Py-GC/MS) and thermal extraction-desorption gas chromatography mass spectrometry (TED-GC/MS) have been used but also demonstrate limitations including low sample mass, low sample throughput, and complex characterization and quantification procedures. This work aims to overcome these challenges by developing a new approach which utilizes a coupling between thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC/MS). This work is the first to harness conventional TGA-GC/MS for the analysis of tire rubber, with the detection of additives such as 6-PPD, while also pioneering a novel mode of operation, PyroTGA-GC/MS, using fast heating to enable robust quantitative analysis of TWPs in road dust. The limits of detection and quantification of 0.08/0.16 μg and 0.20/0.40 μg for SBR and PI, respectively, are lower than those achieved using Py-GC/MS and TED-GC/MS for SBR and align with those achieved for PI. This study reveals a clear link between the ratio of PI to SBR and the proportion of heavy goods vehicles. This work solves key issues in tire particle analysis related to sample size and throughput. By overcoming these limitations, we introduce a technique that provides an economically viable solution for large-scale commercial analysis of tire rubber and particles.

Kieran S. Evans

Daniel Baqer

Marc-Krystelle Mafina

Maya Al-Sid-Cheikh

Qualitative and Quantitative Analysis of Tire Wear Particles (TWPs) in Road Dust Using a Novel Mode of Operation of TGA-GC/MS

道路灰尘中轮胎磨损颗粒(TWPs)的定性与定量分析——基于TGA-GC/MS新型操作模式

Stefano Basso

Andreas Musolff

Heleen A. de Wit

More Frequent Runoff and Connected Sources in Headwaters Promote Browning of Northern Freshwaters

北方淡水源头更频繁的径流和连通源头促进水体褐变

Sapana Jadoun

Sampath Chinnam

Shagufta Jabin

Yachana Upadhyay

Nirmala Kumari Jangid

Jannatun Zia

Recovery of Metals from E-waste: Facts, Methods, Challenges, Case Studies, and Sustainable Solutions

电子废弃物中金属的回收：事实、方法、挑战、案例研究及可持续解决方案

Rico K. Y. Cheung

Jun Zhang

Tiantian Wang

Lisa Kattner

Sophie Bogler

Joseph V. Puthussery

Ru-Jin Huang

Martin Gysel-Beer

Jay G. Slowik

Vishal Verma

André S. H. Prevot

Imad El Haddad

David M. Bell

Robin L. Modini

Online Measurements during Simulated Atmospheric Aging Track the Strongly Increasing Oxidative Potential of Complex Combustion Aerosols Relative to Their Primary Emissions

模拟大气老化过程中在线测量追踪到复杂燃烧气溶胶的氧化潜力相对于其初级排放显著增加

Abbreviation	Environ. Sci. Technol. Lett.
Journal Impact	8.92
Quartiles(Global)	ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES(Q1)

ISSN	2328-8930
h-index	99

Publication Information	Publisher: American Chemical Society，Publishing cycle: ，Journal Type: journal，Open Access Journals: No
Basic data	Year of publication: 2013，Proportion of original research papers: 96.99%，Self Citation Rate:3.40%， Gold OA Rate: 17.55%

Environmental Science and Technology Letters

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