Pecologix Political Ecology Blotter

The collection of rainwater for human consumption is a practice well established in many parts of the world. Much of the research to date regarding this inexpensive and sustainable source has focused on its microbiological or chemical quality and there have been no reviews of epidemiological evidence regarding actual health risks associated with rainwater consumption. [...]

Cyanobacteria are the Earth’s oldest (∼3.5 bya) oxygen evolving organisms, and they have had major impacts on shaping our modern-day biosphere. Conversely, biospheric environmental perturbations, including nutrient enrichment and climatic changes (e.g. global warming, hydrologic changes, increased frequencies and intensities of tropical cyclones, more intense and persistent droughts), strongly affect cyanobacterial growth and bloom potentials in [...]

About half of the rural population of Cambodia lacks access to improved water; an even higher percentage lacks access to latrines. More than 35,000 concrete BioSand Water filters (BSF) have been installed in the country. However, the concrete BSF takes time to produce and weighs hundreds of pounds. A plastic BSF has been developed but [...]

Providing a water supply and the associated transportation of potable water is a considerable burden on recovery efforts following a natural disaster. To reduce this burden and meet the water requirements of a community, a low-maintenance, low-cost trailer-mounted water disinfection system has been developed that has the capability to provide potable water from local surface [...]

Formaldehyde, acetaldehyde and antimony are clearly related to migration from PET into water. However, several studies have shown other theoretically unexpected substances in bottled water. The origin of these compounds has not been clearly established (PET container, cap-sealing resins, background contamination, water processing steps, NIAS, recycled PET, etc.). Here, we surveyed toxicological studies on PET-bottled [...]

Decentralized membrane filtration systems (DMFS) have the potential to supply safe drinking water in low-income countries (LICs) where centralized municipal water treatment is practically infeasible. This study aimed at applying an integrated bench-scale and field-testing approach to assess the sustainability of a DMFS in producing safe drinking water in LICs. The state-of-the-art DMFS employed in [...]

It is often called the largest mass poisoning in human history. Yet more than a decade after the discovery that drinking-water wells in Bangladesh are contaminated with naturally occurring arsenic, researchers are still struggling to understand the hydrology and chemistry behind an environmental crisis that affects more than 60 million people in the Bengal Basin.A [...]