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Background. The improper recycling of electronic waste (e-waste) by informal recyclers often leads to contamination of the environment. E-waste contains organic and inorganic compounds along with heavy metals and trace elements. These pollutants can have a negative effect on humans. Biomonitoring can provide information on the sources, amount, geographical distribution, and adverse health effects of contaminants. Objectives. The present study aimed to assess risks to the health of informal e-waste recyclers in Payatas, the Philippines due to their exposure to e-waste toxicity by examining the presence of micronuclei in buccal epithelium cells. Methodology. Frequencies of binucleated cells (BNc) and abnormal cells were obtained from the buccal epithelium of the study population composed of e-waste exposed recyclers (n=40) and a control group (n=52). Descriptive statistics and regression analysis were employed for the data analysis. Results. Participants' gender, occupation, smoking status, alcohol consumption, and the number of karyolitic cells of both groups were significantly associated. Only occupation in e-waste recycling and length of e-waste exposure were significantly associated in terms of the number of abnormal cells and micronuclei. Similar trends were found in the linear regression analysis drawn from participants' length of e-waste exposure with a significance of R2= 7346, indicating that as the length of e-waste exposure increased, the number of micronuclei found in the participants' buccal epithelium cells increased as well. Conclusions. Longer exposure to e-waste materials may induce genotoxic damage in human cells which is a serious concern, leading to adverse effects to human health. Competing Interests. The authors declare no competing financial interests.

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Abstract. Berame J, Lawsin N, Miguel F, Chavez J. 2020. Morphological variations of mangosteen fruits from Luzon and Mindanao Islands, the Philippines. Biodiversitas 21: 3094-3100. Luzon and Mindanao islands in the Philippines are the important mangosteen producing provinces whose growing areas are scattered on these two islands. With this, mangosteen variability was detected based on field fruit collections in summer of 2019. The morphological variations of mangosteen fruits were observed and collected in Quezon Province in Luzon and Davao-Zamboanga Provinces in Mindanao based on the total number of 175 mangosteen trees. The main objectives of the research were to find out the morphological variations of mangosteen fruits and using Tomato Analyzer 4.0 to determine the morphological characters that can be used to differentiate mangosteen accessions in the Philippines. The variables include fruit shape index (external and internal), curve fruit shape index, asymmetry, internal eccentricity and weight of the ripe fruits. The results show that fruit characters like ellipsoidal, circular, rectangular, lobe shape, size, pericarp area, and pericarp thickness. are highly resemblance particularly in its fruit shape characters, and even sharing a similar taste of ripe fruits. Data revealed that Garcinia mangostana shared a similar character with Garcinia malaccensis even though they are from different geographical areas. Based on the morphological variations and characters, the two varieties of mangosteen fruits in the Philippines, G. mangostana and G. malaccensis, are so closely related that they could be combined together as one species as identified in the morphological analysis of this study.