The Science of the total environment
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Sci. Total Environ. · Jun 2020
Evaluation of environmental performance of dietary patterns in the United States considering food nutrition and satiety.
Food production substantially depletes the environment in different ways, but little is known about how overall dietary patterns relate to these environmental impacts. The objective of this study was to evaluate the environmental performance of different dietary patterns among U. S. adults using life cycle assessment (LCA). ⋯ Discretionary foods consistently exhibited higher impacts on the basis of nutritional FUs due to their low nutrient density. The results can be implied as practical guidelines to help reduce the carbon footprint associated with current U. S. diets without compromising their nutritional adequacy and satiety.
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Sci. Total Environ. · Jun 2020
Presence and interaction of free-living amoebae and amoeba-resisting bacteria in water from drinking water treatment plants.
Free-living amoebae (FLA) are ubiquitous and many isolates have been shown to be infected with amoeba-resisting bacteria, as the example of Acanthamoeba and Legionella interaction. Due to the high environmental prevalence of Acanthamoeba. in the Castilian Plateau (Spain), the aims of this work were to investigate the occurrence of Acanthamoeba and other FLA in water from several sampling points from four Drinking Water Treatment Plants (DWTP) and to investigate the presence of Legionella spp. and other amoeba-resisting bacteria in biofilms in raw and finished water, taking into account that no legislation exists for this protozoa control. Acanthamoeba was detected at different sampling points, and sand filters seemed to contribute to amoebic enrichment. ⋯ Legionella species identified in these samples were L. drozanskii, L. donaldsonii and L. feeleii. Additionally, Acanthamoeba co-culture led to the isolation of Pseudomonas aeruginosa, P. stutzeri, P. fluorecens, Achromobacter xylosoxidans and Stenotrophomonas maltophilia. The highly disseminated presence of Acanthamoeba and the detection of amoeba-resisting bacteria inside amoebae highlight the importance of developing methods for controlling FLA in order to limit human pathogenic amoeba-resisting bacteria survival to the water purification processes.