The COVID-19 pandemic and global environmental change: Emerging research needs

The outbreak of COVID-19 raised numerous questions on the interactions between the occurrence of new infections, the environment, climate and health. The European Union requested the H2020 HERA project which aims at setting priorities in research on environment, climate and health, to identify relevant research needs regarding Covid-19. The emergence and spread of SARS-CoV-2 appears to be related to urbanization, habitat destruction, live animal trade, intensive livestock farming and global travel. The contribution of climate and air pollution requires additional studies. Importantly, the severity of COVID-19 depends on the interactions between the viral infection, ageing and chronic diseases such as metabolic, respiratory and cardiovascular diseases and obesity which are themselves influenced by environmental stressors. The mechanisms of these interactions deserve additional scrutiny. Both the pandemic and the social response to the disease have elicited an array of behavioural and societal changes that may remain long after the pandemic and that may have long term health effects including on mental health. Recovery plans are currently being discussed or implemented and the environmental and health impacts of those plans are not clearly foreseen. Clearly, COVID-19 will have a long-lasting impact on the environmental health field and will open new research perspectives and policy needs.     

Preparation and characterization of antibacterial silver/vermiculites and silver/montmorillonites

The reason for the preparation and characterization of the novel antibacterial silver/vermiculites (Ag/V) together with the silver/montmorillonites (Ag/M) was that the information on the vermiculite structure change and stability of Ag/V in water as well as its effect on bacteria are sporadic. The vermiculite (V), (Si_3.02Al_0.98)^IV (Mg_2.27Al_0.12Ti_0.07)^VI O₁₀(OH)₂ Ca_0.09Na_0.21K_0.50 from West China and montmorillonite (M), (Si_3.96Al_0.04)^IV (Al_1.20Mg_0.42Ti_0.02)^VI O₁₀ (OH)₂Ca_0.15Na_0.14K_0.08 from Ivan?ice (Czech Republic), fraction <0.4 μm were the starting clay materials for sample preparation. The samples V1 and M1 were prepared via reaction of the V and M with the 0.01 mol L⁻¹ AgNO₃ aqueous solution. The samples V2 and M2 were treated with the aqueous solution of AgNO₃ for two times. The cation exchange and reduced metallic silver on M1 and V1 evoked the specific surface area (SSA) diminution, the mean particle-size diameter extension and appearance of micropores with radius (<0.4 nm). Repeated silver cation exchange in M2 and V2 reduced particle size, increased slightly SSA and micropores with radius of 0.4-0.5 nm. Samples Ag/V and Ag/M showed higher content of pores with radius 0.5-1.0 nm than original V and M. The Ag concentration was found higher in Ag/V than in Ag/M and higher in repeatedly treated samples: 0.9 wt.% Ag in V1, 1.4 wt.% Ag in V2, 0.6 wt.% Ag in M1 and 1.0 wt.% Ag in M2. Vermiculite structure consisting of the hydrated interstratified phases and the mica-like phase changed to the cation-one-zero layer hydrate interstratification structure in V1 and to the random of two-one layer hydrate interstratifications in V2. Infrared and Mössbauer spectroscopy revealed no changes in the structure of the clay minerals that could be related directly to the sorption and crystallization of silver. Transmission electron microscopy showed that the silver nanoparticles size distribution was much narrower for the samples Ag/M than for Ag/V. The mean size of the Ag particles was between 40 and 50 nm. Although the Ag nanoparticles did not adhere sufficiently at the clay minerals surface and migrated moderately into water, all samples under study were approved to be effective inhibitors of the bacterial growth persisting for the whole testing period of 6 days. Silver/vermiculite was antimicrobial more efficient against Klebsiella pneumoniae and Pseudomonas aeruginosa than silver/montmorillonite.