Cloud Hosting

The proportion of mining industry operations and technologies companies hiring for data analytics-related positions rose significantly in July 2022 compared with the equivalent month last year, with 63.3% of the companies included in our analysis recruiting for at least one such position.

This latest figure was higher than the 52% of companies that were hiring for data analytics-related jobs a year ago and an increase compared to the figure of 58.5% in June 2022.

When it came to the rate of all job openings that were linked to data analytics, related job postings dropped in July 2022 from June 2022, with 7.1% of newly posted job advertisements being linked to the topic.

This latest figure was the same as the 7.1% of newly advertised jobs that were linked to data analytics in the equivalent month a year ago.

Data analytics is one of the topics that GlobalData, from which our data for this article is taken, has identified as being a key disruptive force facing companies in the coming years. Companies that excel and invest in these areas now are thought to be better prepared for the future business landscape and better equipped to survive unforeseen challenges.

Our analysis of the data shows that mining industry operations and technologies companies are currently hiring for data analytics jobs at a rate higher than the average for all companies within GlobalData's job analytics database. The average among all companies stood at 5.8% in July 2022.

GlobalData's job analytics database tracks the daily hiring patterns of thousands of companies across the world, drawing in jobs as they're posted and tagging them with additional layers of data on everything from the seniority of each position to whether a job is linked to wider industry trends.

You can keep track of the latest data from this database as it emerges by visiting our live dashboard here.

Selective Electroplating and Anodising Solutions for the Mining Industry

Flexible Containers for Lubricants, Greases and Liquids

View post:

Data analytics hiring levels in the mining industry rose in July 2022 - Mining Technology

The software that many school districts use to track students progress can record extremely confidential information on children: Intellectual disability. Emotional Disturbance. Homeless. Disruptive. Defiance. Perpetrator. Excessive Talking. Should attend tutoring.

Now these systems are coming under heightened scrutiny after a recent cyberattack on Illuminate Education, a leading provider of student-tracking software, which affected the personal information of more than a million current and former students across dozens of districts including in New York City and Los Angeles, the nations largest public school systems.

Officials said in some districts the data included the names, dates of birth, races or ethnicities and test scores of students. At least one district said the data included more intimate information like student tardiness rates, migrant status, behavior incidents and descriptions of disabilities.

The exposure of such private information could have long-term consequences.

If youre a bad student and had disciplinary problems and that information is now out there, how do you recover from that? said Joe Green, a cybersecurity professional and parent of a high school student in Erie, Colo., whose sons high school was affected by the hack. Its your future. Its getting into college, getting a job. Its everything.

Over the last decade, tech companies and education reformers have pushed schools to adopt software systems that can catalog and categorize students classroom outbursts, absenteeism and learning challenges. The intent of such tools is well meaning: to help educators identify and intervene with at-risk students. As these student-tracking systems have spread, however, so have cyberattacks on school software vendors including a recent hack that affected Chicago Public Schools, the nations third-largest district.

Now some cybersecurity and privacy experts say that the cyberattack on Illuminate Education amounts to a warning for industry and government regulators. Although it was not the largest hack on an ed tech company, these experts say they are troubled by the nature and scope of the data breach which, in some cases, involved delicate personal details about students or student data dating back more than a decade. At a moment when some education technology companies have amassed sensitive information on millions of school children, they say, safeguards for student data seem wholly inadequate.

There has really been an epic failure, said Hector Balderas, the attorney general of New Mexico, whose office has sued tech companies for violating the privacy of children and students.

In a recent interview, Mr. Balderas said that Congress had failed to enact modern, meaningful data protections for students while regulators had failed to hold ed tech firms accountable for flouting student data privacy and security.

There absolutely is an enforcement and an accountability gap, Mr. Balderas said.

In a statement, Illuminate said that it had no evidence that any information was subject to actual or attempted misuse and that it had implemented security enhancements to prevent further cyberattacks.

Nearly a decade ago, privacy and security experts began warning that the spread of sophisticated data-mining tools in schools was rapidly outpacing protections for students personal information. Lawmakers rushed to respond.

Since 2014, California, Colorado and dozens of other states have passed student data privacy and security laws. In 2014, dozens of K-12 ed tech providers signed on to a national Student Privacy Pledge, promising to maintain a comprehensive security program.

Supporters of the pledge said the Federal Trade Commission, which polices deceptive privacy practices, would be able to hold companies to their commitments. President Obama endorsed the pledge, praising participating companies in a major privacy speech at the F.T.C. in 2015.

The F.T.C. has a long history of fining companies for violating childrens privacy on consumer services like YouTube and TikTok. Despite numerous reports of ed tech companies with problematic privacy and security practices, however, the agency has yet to enforce the industrys student privacy pledge.

In May, the F.T.C. announced that regulators intended to crack down on ed tech companies that violate a federal law the Childrens Online Privacy Protection Act which requires online services aimed at children under 13 to safeguard their personal data. The agency is pursuing a number of nonpublic investigations into ed tech companies, said Juliana Gruenwald Henderson, an F.T.C. spokeswoman.

Based in Irvine, Calif., Illuminate Education is one of the nations leading vendors of student-tracking software.

The companys site says its services reach more than 17 million students in 5,200 school districts. Popular products include an attendance-taking system and an online grade book as well as a school platform, called eduCLIMBER, that enables educators to record students social-emotional behavior and color-code children as green (on track) or red (not on track).

Aug. 5, 2022, 9:27 a.m. ET

Illuminate has promoted its cybersecurity. In 2016, the company announced that it had signed on to the industry pledge to show its support for safeguarding student data.

Concerns about a cyberattack emerged in January after some teachers in New York City schools discovered that their online attendance and grade book systems had stopped working. Illuminate said it temporarily took those systems offline after it became aware of suspicious activity on part of its network.

On March 25, Illuminate notified the district that certain company databases had been subject to unauthorized access, said Nathaniel Styer, the press secretary for New York City Public Schools. The incident, he said, affected about 800,000 current and former students across roughly 700 local schools.

For the affected New York City students, data included first and last names, school name and student ID number as well as at least two of the following: birth date, gender, race or ethnicity, home language and class information like teacher name. In some cases, students disability status that is, whether or not they received special education services was also affected.

New York City officials said they were outraged. In 2020, Illuminate signed a strict data agreement with the district requiring the company to safeguard student data and promptly notify district officials in the event of a data breach.

City officials have asked the New York attorney generals office and the F.B.I. to investigate. In May, New York Citys education department, which is conducting its own investigation, instructed local schools to stop using Illuminate products.

Our students deserved a partner that focused on having adequate security, but instead their information was left at risk, Mayor Eric Adams said in a statement to The New York Times. Mr. Adams added that his administration was working with regulators as we push to hold the company fully accountable for not providing our students with the security promised.

The Illuminate hack affected an additional 174,000 students in 22 school districts across the state, according to the New York State Education Department, which is conducting its own investigation.

Over the last four months, Illuminate has also notified more than a dozen other districts in Connecticut, California, Colorado, Oklahoma and Washington State about the cyberattack.

Illuminate declined to say how many school districts and students were affected. In a statement, the company said it had worked with outside experts to investigate the security incident and had concluded that student information was potentially subject to unauthorized access between Dec. 28, 2021, and Jan. 8, 2022. At that time, the statement said, Illuminate had five full-time employees dedicated to security operations.

Illuminate kept student data on the Amazon Web Services online storage system. Cybersecurity experts said many companies had inadvertently made their A.W.S. storage buckets easy for hackers to find by naming databases after company platforms or products.

In the wake of the hack, Illuminate said it had hired six additional full-time security and compliance employees, including a chief information security officer.

After the cyberattack, the company also made numerous security upgrades, according to a letter Illuminate sent to a school district in Colorado. Among other changes, the letter said, Illuminate instituted continuous third-party monitoring on all of its AW.S. accounts and is now enforcing improved login security for its A.W.S. files.

But during an interview with a reporter, Greg Pollock, the vice president for cyber research at UpGuard, a cybersecurity risk management firm, found one of Illuminates A.W.S. buckets with an easily guessable name. The reporter then found a second A.W.S. bucket named after a popular Illuminate platform for schools.

Illuminate said it could not provide details about its security practice for security reasons.

After a spate of cyberattacks on both ed tech companies and public schools, education officials said it was time for Washington to intervene to protect students.

Changes at the federal level are overdue and could have an immediate and nationwide impact, said Mr. Styer, the New York City schools spokesman. Congress, for instance, could amend federal education privacy rules to impose data security requirements on school vendors, he said. That would enable federal agencies to levy fines on companies that failed to comply.

One agency has already cracked down but not on behalf of students.

Last year, the Securities and Exchange Commission charged Pearson, a major provider of assessment software for schools, with misleading investors about a cyberattack in which the birth dates and email addresses of millions of students were stolen. Pearson agreed to pay $1 million to settle the charges.

Mr. Balderas, the attorney general, said he was infuriated that financial regulators had acted to protect investors in the Pearson case even as privacy regulators failed to step up for schoolchildren who were victims of cybercrime.

My concern is there will be bad actors who will exploit a public school setting, especially when they think that the technology protocols are not very robust, Mr. Balderas said. And I dont know why Congress isnt terrified yet.

Original post:

A Cyberattack Illuminates the Shaky State of Student Privacy - The New York Times

FARMINGTON HILLS, Mich.

To increase access to digital humanities (DH) tools and support emerging research and collaboration amongst scholars, Gale, part of Cengage Group, and Bodleian Libraries at the University of Oxford, announce the recipients of the second cohort of the Gale Scholar Asia Pacific, Digital Humanities Oxford Fellowships. Gale will fund the research of two scholars for three months. The fellowship seeks to support the scholars research into a DH-related topic at the University of Oxford, using the Centre for Digital Scholarship of the Bodleian Libraries. To help foster emerging scholarship in the Asia-Pacific region, the fellows have access to the Bodleian Libraries resources including Gale Primary Sources as well as Gale Digital Scholar Lab which provides fellows with invaluable text and data mining tools to advance their work through DH methods.

Gale and the Bodleian Libraries congratulate the following candidates, who were awarded the fellowships in the second year of the program and highlight the projects they are pursuing:

Dr. Xiurong Zhao, Renmin University of China, China

Project: The Use of GIS to Map Infectious Diseases in Victorian England seeks to find new answers about the causes of infectious diseases and their spread, and the social impacts of these diseases. By using tools from Gale Digital Scholar Lab, the project will utilize new research methods to produce disease maps to support new information and resources that are easily accessible to the public.

Dr. Terhi Nurmikko-Fuller, Australian National University, Australia

Project: Transnational Liberalism: A Linked Data Case Study of Australian Political History will leverage data sets to answer questions about the political landscape in colonial Australia, the wider Asia-Pacific region, and the British world more generally during the mid- to late-1800s. The project provides comprehensive insight into the origins of the Liberal party, which has dominated the national government of Australia for 62 years (since WWII) and shaped the Asia-Pacific region for decades.

I am thrilled to welcome our second group of Gale fellows to the Bodleian Libraries, said Richard Ovenden, Bodleys librarian at the University of Oxford. We have chosen the finest researchers and academics with the intention of advancing their respective fields through access to our rich holdings and the various forms of digital scholarship employed at the Bodleian. The first group of Gale fellows were able to use Bodleian approaches and collections to significantly advance understanding of the humanities in their research areas, and we are so excited to see what we can achieve together this year.

The goal of the Gale Scholar Asia Pacific, Digital Humanities Oxford Fellowships is to encourage emerging DH scholarship in the Asia-Pacific region and progress the contribution of non-Western and regional perspectives in the field of DH research. The program increases opportunities for collaboration with other scholars to share new ideas, while providing access to critical tools to support their work. Fellows will become short-term visiting fellows at the Universitys Jesus College to allow them access to a range of facilities and resources during their stay.

We are pleased to continue sponsoring fellowships at the Bodleian Libraries this year. We hope the second-year cohort derives as much value from their stay at Oxford as the first-year cohort, said Terry Robinson, senior vice president for Gale Global Academic. Having access to University of Oxfords world-class facilities, resources and people will undoubtedly enrich their understanding and use of digital scholarship in their projects. We also hope that access to Gale Digital Scholar Lab and Gale Primary Sources at the Bodleian will help them push the boundaries of their research and bring it to the attention of a global audience.

The fellows will start the program at the University of Oxford in October 2022 and complete it in June 2023.

Gale has been at the forefront of supporting digital scholarship for many years. Gale Digital Scholar Lab was created to address common challenges researchers and scholars face when analyzing large sets of archives. In offering fellowships to scholars in multiple disciplines, Gale is increasing access to text and data mining tools and furthering opportunities in both research and teaching. In June, Gale also announced fellowships to support emerging LGBTQ+ research.

For more information on Gale Scholar Asia Pacific, Digital Humanities Oxford Fellowships, visit its webpage.

Follow Gale on:

###

Gale, part of Cengage Group, provides libraries with original and curated content, as well as the modern research tools and technology that are crucial in connecting libraries to learning, and learners to libraries. For more than 65 years, Gale has partnered with libraries around the world to empower the discovery of knowledge and insights where, when and how people need it. Gale has 500 employees globally with its main operations in Farmington Hills, Michigan. For more information, please visitwww.gale.com.

Here is the original post:

Gale and the Bodleian Libraries Continue to Support Asia-Pacific Research on Digital Humanities with Second Year of Fellowships - Higher Ed Dive

Washington, DC (August 5, 2022) As delegates in Kingston, Jamaica, wrap up three intensive weeks of negotiations at the International Seabed Authority (ISA) for rules that could launch the deep sea mining industry by summer 2023, a growing chorus of countries is calling for caution.

The time bomb that would launch the industry was triggered last year when the Pacific country of Nauru, a state sponsor of aspiring deep sea miner The Metals Company, activated an obscure legal provision called the 2-year rule that would allow the ISA to begin taking applications for commercial deep sea mining projects by July 2023 with whatever rules are in place at that time.

Chiles effort to launch a substantive debate on the 2-year rule, supported by civil society and a handful of member states such as Costa Rica, was rebuffed by other member states on the procedural pretext that it was proposed too late to be accepted on the agenda. Chile is one of the countries that are leading the call for a moratorium. The Pacific nations of Palau, Fiji, Samoa, and Micronesia, citing concerns about the impact the industry would have on the health of the ocean and the lives and livelihoods of Pacific Peoples, also recently launched an alliance calling for a moratorium on the sectors development. The call for a moratorium has also gained support from over 200 members of Parliament from 47 different countries.

Greenpeace USA project lead on deep sea mining Arlo Hemphill said: We are pleased to see that the momentum against this destructive industry is growing as more countries have paused to consider the warnings of the scientific community and frontline communities alike. Considering the risks we face for climate change, biodiversity loss, and economic and social disruption, we should not proceed as though we are lemmings at the edge of a cliff, ready to launch another destructive industry in the already stressed oceans a cornerstone of life on Earth. Discussions such as those raised by Chile on the 2-year rule are necessary to ensure that we do not rush into another environmental disaster.

The ISA itself has faced continued criticism that it is not fit for purpose, with allegations of a lack of transparency, accountability, and inclusivity; close relationship with prospective deep sea mining companies; and a myriad of technical problems that plagued the meeting. These left many observers questioning whether the body could effectively regulate the industry that would occur over 200 miles from any shore on the high seas that cover almost half of our planet.

Hemphill continued: As we have heard repeatedly throughout these negotiations, the ISAs conduct in managing this important body and organizing the meetings is not an encouraging indicator of their ability to regulate profit-driven corporations conducting mining activities thousands of feet below the ocean surface. Instead of discussing the minutiae of how to divide the profits, we really should dedicate more time to considering whether this industry is even necessary.

Electric vehicle companies, an important part of the transition to green transportation, could comprise a significant share of the end market for deep-sea mined energy minerals. However, these companies can reduce the need for these minerals by scaling up closed-loop battery recycling and investing in battery efficiency and new chemistries.

Greenpeaces recently launched Race to the Top web application finds that five of the eight EV manufacturers ranked (Rivian, Renault, BMW Group, Volvo, and Volkswagen) have publicly supported a global moratorium on deep sea mining and publicly committed to not sourcing minerals from the deep seabed. Their stance strongly signals to the mining companies and the ISA that this new industry may not even have a market. Greenpeace USA is calling on US automakers Ford, General Motors, and Tesla to join their European counterparts in making a public commitment supporting a moratorium on deep sea mining and pledging to exclude deep sea minerals from their supply chains.

Joey Tau, Deputy Coordinator of the Pacific Network on Globalization (PANG), who attended the July ISA meeting as part of the Greenpeace International delegation, said: As the ISA continues to push through negotiations towards the unrealistic time limits of June 2023, Pacific groups remain concerned as negotiations limit the engagement of global communities, especially Indigenous groups. These talks need the free, prior, informed consent of all as the ocean is the common heritage of all humankind.

Tau continued: We stand at a precipitous moment in history, which demands great political leadership beyond the sovereign right of individual nation states to collectively govern our oceans. It is our hope that the global community will share in our vision of common stewardship and responsibilities for our oceans and support the growing call for a halt, a pause, and even for an outright ban on deep sea mining from citizens, faith-based leaders, civil society members, scientists and a growing number of political leaders including from our very own blue continent.

The ISAs host country, Jamaica, has come under pressure from local civil society organizations and the opposition spokesperson on Land, Environment, and Climate Change to adopt a moratorium. The Jamaican government has stated that they are not prepared to support deep-seabed mining before an appropriate, robust regulatory framework is put in place.

Theresa Rodriguez-Moodie, Chief Executive Officer Jamaica Environment Trust, said: We note the recent statement by the Jamaican Government. While this is a good thing if it means not adopting regulations or approving contracts next year, it is important to note that the environmental baseline data is still lacking. There is still so much we do not know about the deep sea, so it would be impossible to effectively measure and monitor if you have no starting point for comparison.

Rodriguez-Moodie added: We also strongly believe that as we face the climate crisis, which is already upon us, it is high time we moved away from the destructive approaches of the past. We must concentrate our efforts on developing technology and systems which reduce the use of raw materials and promote closed-loop recycling rather than investing in technologies that could cause irreversible damage to the health of our planet. If we pursue this destructive industry, we risk the vital ecosystem services provided by the ocean for short-term economic gain. The Jamaica Environment Trust calls for a moratorium on deep sea mining until a number of conditions around environmental harm and good governance can be met. We urge the Jamaican Government to join in this call, as a leader in the Caribbean and as a small island developing state already trying to cope with the impacts of the climate crisis.

Eleanor Terrelonge, President of the Jamaica Climate Change Youth Council, which led a show of solidarity against deep sea mining at the meeting venue, said: We at the Jamaica Climate Change Youth Council have heard the voice of the people on this issue of deep sea mining. The sheer readiness with which young people came out to support us in demonstration against this new exploitative industry is proof enough of where our people stand. We stand for people over profit and the protection of the environment on which we all rely. We join the voices calling for a moratorium on deep sea mining, as we support evidence-based decisions that require a lot more science and exploration into the vast unknown of the deep sea before exploitation can begin. Our oceans are our last saving grace in the fight against climate change, we cannot afford to lose our largest carbon sink nor all the unique ecosystems that are housed within.

###

Contact: Tanya Brooks, Greenpeace USA Senior Communications Specialist, P: 703-342-9226, E: [emailprotected]

See more here:

Key countries oppose deep sea mining as regulations advance to open the industry - greenpeace.org

Basic soil properties

The oxidisable carbon (Cox) measured in the soil samples ranged within the common values for tilled agricultural soil, which is generally<5% (Table 1)14. A weak positive correlation was observed between HNO3 extractable Cu and Cox (P0.05). Lead, Zn and Cd also showed positive correlation but to only a slight extent, whereas correlation between As and Cox was negative in both soil layers. The slight to no correlation between Cox and the extractable soil PTE proves that if there was any additional organic matter (OM) input to the soil, it did not significantly add to the topsoil contamination, albeit available PTE released by OM mineralization may be either taken up by roots of the following cultures or leached. A weak positive correlation between Cu and Cox can be expected due to the Cu affinity for organic matter. Soil pH was neutral for the majority of samples, with some ranging to the moderately alkaline spectrum15. No significant relationships were determined between soil pH and the phyto-available PTE (as a percentage of HNO3 extract).

The highest pseudo-total soil PTE concentrations were for As, followed by Zn, Cd and Pb. The sample containing the lowest As concentration (min.) exceeded the soil background level (SBL)12 1.9 times (Table 2). The SBL allows for the comparison between contaminated soils and background levels of PTE in soils. In the most contaminated sample, As exceeded the SBL 93 times. Regarding differences between soil layers, a slightly higher pseudo-total As concentration was found in the deeper B layer (possibly due to leaching); HNO3 extractable median of 54.5mgkg1 as opposed to 49.1mgkg1 in the A layer. However, the greatest maximum content of As was observed in the A layer (418mgkg1). Hork and Hejcman7 performed a large-scale characterization of pollution levels in the region north of KH. Interpolations of PTE showed that As was frequently found in the range of hundreds to thousands of mg kg1. The large number of dumps of waste rock and slag in the area surrounding the gardens contain not only primary minerals of As, but also secondary minerals. Secondary As minerals such as bukovskyite (Fe3+2(AsO4)(SO4)(OH)), pitticite (Fe3+20(AsO4,PO4,SO4)13(OH)249H2O), and scorodite (Fe3+(AsO4)2H2O) were created by weathering of arsenopyrite, and also zykaite (Fe3+4(AsO4)3(SO4)(OH)15H2O), kankite (Fe3+(AsO4)3.5H2O), and parascorodite (Fe3+(AsO4)2H2O)16,17,18,19. Arsenic is firmly bound to oxides of Fe/Al in the form of arsenite(III) or arsenate(V)8, and so can be considered largely immobile in mineral type soils; this is reflected in the relatively low phyto-available portion of this element in the studied soils (mean=2.1% and 2.4% in A and B layers respectively). However, when exposed to soil solutions containing organic anions in the dissolved organic carbon (DOC), e.g., organic acids such as oxalic acid, citric acid, and malic acid, research (including research done by Ash et al.20) has shown that As can be released into solution by various mechanisms, including the complete dissolution of the mineral oxide to which As was bound20,21. Therefore, the addition of organic residues and manures to soil is likely to enhance the mobility of As and its potential uptake by plants. At the same time however, with sufficient irrigation the released As can be leached to greater soil depth, thus eliminating the pathway of As exposure by inhalation or ingestion of contaminated soil at the surface. Another option could involve the use of Fe-oxides in order to sorb mobile As22. Despite its generally low relative availability, As was the most phyto-available element compared to the other studied PTE, although control soils had only a slightly lower percentage of availability. Congruent to observations by Xu and Thornton23, who studied As-contaminated gardens at a mining area in southern England, the phyto-available content correlates with the total As content (R=0.80 and 0.81 for A and B respectively).

Regarding Cd, more than a quarter of the data were in excess of the 1mgkg1 SBL limit. Enrichment with Cd in the KH soils is particularly evident when compared to the control soils. Cadmium is a metal that is characterised by generally higher mobility than other metals with similar valence, such as Cu, Pb, and Zn, which are associated with binding to organic matter carbonates and clays. Higher mobility of Cd usually translates into enhanced plant uptake but can also mean greater vertical leaching; in this case, little difference in total Cd contents between A and B layers was observed.

For Pb, concentrations exceeding the SBL were detected in approximately one quarter of the samples from both layers. However, the maximum pseudo-total Pb concentration was observed in deeper (1530cm) soil samples; this may reflect the smelting practices that took place in past centuries. Lead sulphides were added to the smelter to decrease the melting temperature of silver24; because smelting activities ceased long before the establishment of the vegetable gardens, it is likely that the most enriched soils have been buried by imported topsoil or newly developed surface soil layers. Lead isotope analysis would be necessary to confirm the Pb source. Independent t-test confirms the higher content of Pb in the B layer samples; nevertheless, both layers A and B contained considerably more Pb than in the control soil.

Besides As, Zn was the only PTE whose median concentration in KH soils was above the SBL. However, while excess Zn is phytotoxic, it is generally considered relatively nontoxic for animal and humans, and concentrations must be highly excessive for symptoms of toxicity to manifest in humans25. Furthermore, Zn is a micronutrient element in plants, and so concentrations at or near baseline or recommended guideline levels are not a concern26.

The plant samples (Table 3) were contaminated with higher concentrations of As, Cd, Pb and Zn than the allowable quantity (AQ) and maximum allowable quantity (MAQ) set by the Ministry of Health in the Czech Republic (Decree No. 53/2002)9. The plants samples also exceeded the maximum permitted concentrations of Cd (0.020.1mgkg1) and Pb (0.1mgkg1) set by the EU directive (Decree No 1881/2006)27.

Higher As concentrations occurred in cucumbers, onions, garlic, potato tubers, and peppers (max values reaching 5.09, 3.01, 3.73, 1.04 and 1.22mgkg1, respectively). Higher As concentrations in some plant parts could be explained by fractions of bioavailable As in soils, deposition of dusts on plants (that may contaminate the stomatal chambers) with above-ground edible biomass, longer planting periods and different garden plots and soils in the area26. Cadmium concentrations in edible plant parts were highest in several of the potato tubers and pepper plants, reaching concentrations up to 0.30 and 0.68mgkg1, respectively. Cadmium can be observed to being efficiently stored by root and leaf systems, depicting the bioavailability of Cd in soils (up to 5%), indicating a relationship between Cd in plants and Cd in the growth medium26.

Several factors that affect the concentrations of Pb in a plant are pollution and accumulation abilities of plants, with atmospheric deposition of Pb on above ground biomass being an important source of Pb contamination in plants26,28. The plant samples with the highest Pb concentrations were peppers, potato tubers, and tomatoes (max concentrations of 4.42, 3.65 and 2.06mgkg1, respectively).

Soluble Zn is readily available for plant uptake, however, rate of uptake is controlled by plant species and cultivars26. With regards to our results, Zn concentrations in the plants were up to 15 times higher than the AQ in the case of zucchini (Table 3). The high Zn concentrations in the edible plant parts correlated to the high concentrations in the soils, reaching up to 759mgkg1 in some samples.

Jolly et al.29 investigated transfer factors of PTE into different vegetables that were grown on soil with elevated PTE concentrations. They also observed a relative abundance of As, Cd, Pb and Zn in the edible parts of plants, with highest concentrations in Amaranthus and elevated concentrations also in tomatoes, radish, spinach and beans. Tremlov et al.6 found As concentrations ranging from 1.6 to 64mgkg1 in dried plant edible tissues grown on contaminated KH soils with limited plant available As in soils with highest concentrations in parsnip and black radish and lowest concentrations in savoy cabbage and lettuce. The study by Tremlov et al.6 presents results similar to this study, where we found low plant available As in soils, however, plant samples still surpassed As guideline values. Another study by Tremlov et al.30 found both low and high As concentrations in different plant species ranging from 0.02 to 39.30mgkg1 with arsenite and arsenate being the predominate As compounds. A study conducted by Krlov et al.31 on soils contaminated by mining activities in KH showed low plant available concentrations for As and Pb (not exceeding 0.5% of pseudototal) and relatively high plant available concentrations for Cd and Zn (47 and 60%, respectively). In the aboveground biomass of the plants studied by Krlov et al.31, low As concentrations were found (ranging from 0.36 to 3.64mgkg1) in the plant species, indicating a low translocation rate. In our study, As concentrations in our plant samples were up to 5.09mgkg1, therefore concentrations were much lower than results presented by Tremlov et al.6,30 but similar to Krlov et al.31. Cadmium in the study by Krlov et al.31, was more readily translocated in the plant tissues, with concentrations in edible plant parts between 0.02 and 2.58mgkg1. Our Cd concentrations in the plants went up to 0.68mgkg1 and was found in peppers. Therefore, Cd was not as easily translocated into the aboveground plant parts, which could have been due to soil type and plant species/cultivars. The Cd values in our study and the study by Krlov et al.31 in majority of cases surpassed both the limits set by the Ministry of Health in the Czech Republic9 and the European directive27. In the case of Zn, high concentrations found by Krlov et al.31 ranged between 21 and 228mgkg1 were similar to the results from this experiment (11.83 to 153mgkg1), were concluded as not phtotoxic. Concentrations of Pb ranged between 0.04 and 1.03mgkg1 in the study by Krlov et al.31, while in our results, Pb concentrations were significantly higher (0.43 to 4.42mgkg1). Our results exceeded the MAQ and the European directive, which states the limit of Pb in foodstuff as 0.10mgkg1. Therefore, PTE concentrations in plants are highly influenced by the plant species and the soil physio-chemical properties. Despite the low plant availability of PTE, concentrations in plants studied in this experiment still exceeded the guideline values set for edible plants, as shown in Table 3.

Potentially toxic elements in soil can transfer to humans in a number of ways, including the direct consumption of contaminated soil particles with unwashed vegetables, on unwashed hands, through soil ingestion by children, infants, and pets, by inhalation of dust, or through uptake into edible vegetables32. A further exposure to soil PTE is by its inadvertent transport to the inside of houses from the garden; Laidlaw et al.33 showed that the source of interior Pb dust was primarily from soil in two out of three houses. Izquierdo et al.34 performed a comprehensive risk assessment for PTE bioaccessible in urban gardens. Their conclusions highlighted a combined exposure for children; soil ingestion due to play, and consumption of vegetables grown on contaminated soil. Drahota et al.3 found health risks, especially related to As, associated with ingestion of mine waste materials and contaminated urban soils. In several localities surrounding KH, mine waste slags were re-cultivated into gardens and fields35, therefore posing a risk to humans.

Soil PTE levels vary and are difficult to predict in city vegetable gardens due to the heterogeneous nature of urban pollution and past land uses. Nonetheless, many affordable and feasible (for households) remediation techniques exist that can help decrease the plant available fractions. Such remediation techniques involve the incorporation of clays, compost, biochar, clean top-soils, or by providing a crop-cover, and by growing ornamental plants rather than edible ones. Such remediation techniques have been considerably studied with promising results35,36,37,38,39,40,41. However, when implementing amendment measures, several factors must be taken into account. Soil properties (eg. pH, soil organic matter, Cox, etc.) as well as the type of contamination and the main contaminants present are the most important factors. Implementing amendment for As contamination widely differ from amendments that would work for Zn or Pb, for example.

The plants with the highest overall PTE concentrations were peppers, potato tubers, tomatoes and cucumbers, therefore the gardeners are recommended to avoid planting these plant species in their gardens or to use different cultivars that could possibly accumulate less PTE in the edible plant parts. The plant with the lowest uptake of As and Cd into the edible plant parts were apples, therefore, planting fruit trees rather than vegetables, could be a solution. While growing of ornamental plants instead of edible ones is a tactical way to combat plant to human transfer of risk elements in the garden soils surround KH, another possibility is the plantation of trees. Trees have the ability to retain risk elements bound in soils, albeit the uptake ability of trees can be relatively low and depends on the level of soil contamination42,43. The chosen amendment would differ greatly from garden to garden depending on the plants cultivars, the soil type and the highest PTE present in the soils and plants.

See the rest here:

Assessment of potential exposure to As, Cd, Pb and Zn in vegetable garden soils and vegetables in a mining region | Scientific Reports - Nature.com