We conducted an integrative literature review of published studies on pesticide and cancer exposure, focusing on farmers, rural population, pesticide applicators, and rural workers. The Medline/PubMed was used as searching database. After the retrieval, 74 articles were selected according to pre-established criteria, which design involved 39 case-controls, 32 cohorts, 2 ecological ones, and 1 cross-sectional. Among them, 64 studies showed associations between pesticides and cancer while 10 did not find any significant association. The studies found 53 different types of pesticides significantly associated with at least one type of cancer and 19 different types of cancers linked to at least one type of pesticide. Although few studies presented contradictory results, the sole fact of being a farmer or living near crops or high agricultural areas have also been used as a proxy for pesticide exposure and significantly associated with higher cancer risk. The literature well illustrates the case of prostate cancer, Non-Hodgkin lymphoma, leukemia, multiple myeloma, bladder and colon cancers. Studies are recommended to further investigate the relationship between pesticide and neoplasm of testis, breast, esophagus, kidney, thyroid, lip, head and neck, and bone.

Wastewater treatment generates solids requiring subsequent processing. Costs and contaminant concerns (e.g., per‐ and polyfluoroalkyl substances [PFAS]) are challenging widely used landfilling and land application practices. These circumstances are partly driving the re‐emergence of pyrolysis and gasification technologies along with beneficial reuse prospects of the char solid residual. Previously, technologies experienced operational challenges leading to revised configurations, such as directly coupling a thermal oxidizer to the reactor to destroy tar forming compounds. This paper provides an overview of pyrolysis and gasification technologies, characteristics of the char product, air emission considerations, and potential fate of PFAS and other pollutants through the systems. Results from a survey of viable suppliers illustrate differences in commercially available options. Additional research is required to validate performance over the long‐term operation and confirm contaminant fate, which will help determine whether resurging interest in pyrolysis and gasification warrants widespread adoption. Practitioner Points Pyrolysis and gasification systems are re‐emerging in the wastewater industry. Direct coupling of thermal oxidizers and other modifications offered by contemporary systems aim to overcome past failures. Process conditions when coupled with a thermal oxidizer will likely destroy most organic contaminants, including PFAS, but requires additional research. Three full‐scale facilities recently operated, several in construction or design that will provide operating experience for widespread technology adoption consideration.

The ecological degradation of streams draining urban land, known as the urban stream syndrome, is characterized by elevated nutrients and contaminants, increased hydrologic flashiness, and altered biotic assemblages. This study demonstrated an improvement in chemical characteristics by evaluating water quality trends from 1975 to 2012 and from 2013 to 2018 in the Chicago, Calumet, and Des Plaines River Systems in Cook County, Illinois. Data from 41 monitoring locations were compiled and 11 water quality parameters were analyzed for long‐term monotonic trends and differences in water quality parameters between select time periods to investigate the outcomes from improvements in water reclamation plant (WRP) and tunnel and reservoir infrastructure carried out by the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago. From 1975 to 2012, significant decreasing trends in concentrations were demonstrated at most sampling locations for total organic carbon (TOC), total Kjeldahl nitrogen (TKN), ammonium nitrogen (NH4+), total suspended solids (TSS), fecal coliform (FC), and sulfate. Significant increasing trends were demonstrated for dissolved oxygen (DO) and chloride concentrations and temperature. Total phosphorus (TP) concentrations increased downstream of the Stickney, Kirie, and Calumet WRPs from 1975 to 2012, but decreased downstream of the Kirie WRP and had no trends downstream of the Stickney and Calumet WRPs from 2013 to 2018. Improvements in TKN, NH4+, TOC, TSS, FC, TP, and DO concentrations over four decades demonstrated the benefits of expanding secondary wastewater treatment and implementing the Tunnel and Reservoir Plan System, instream and side‐stream elevated pool aeration stations, and effluent disinfection.

Solids from wastewater treatment undergo processing to reduce mass, minimize pathogens, and condition the products for specific end uses. However, costs and contaminant concerns (e.g., per‐ and polyfluoroalkyl substances [PFAS]) challenge traditional landfill and land application practices. Incineration can overcome these issues but has become complicated due to evolving emissions regulations, and it suffers from poor public perception. These circumstances are driving the re‐emergence of pyrolysis and gasification technologies. A survey of suppliers was conducted to document differences with technologies. Both offer advantages over incineration with tailored production of a carbon‐rich solid, currently less stringent air emission requirements, and lower flue gas flows requiring treatment. However, incineration more simply combines drying and thermal processing into one reactor. Equipment costs provided favor pyrolysis and gasification at lower capacities but converge with incineration at higher capacities. Long‐term operational experience will confirm technology competitiveness and elucidate whether pyrolysis and gasification warrant widespread adoption. Practitioner Points Pyrolysis and gasification systems are gaining traction in the wastewater industry with several full‐scale installations operating, in construction, or design Several advantages, but some disadvantages, are considered in comparison with incineration Organic contaminants, including PFAS, will undergo transformation and potentially complete mineralization through each process

The objective of this study was to develop a machine learning (ML) application to determine the optimal dosage of sodium hypochlorite (NaOCl) to curtail corrosion and odor by H 2 S in the headworks of a water resource recovery facility (WRRF) without overly consuming volatile fatty acids (VFAs) that are essential for the enhanced biological phosphorus removal. Given the highly diverse datasets available, three subproblems were formulated, and three cascaded ML modules were developed accordingly. The final ML models, chosen based on performance, were able to predict various targeted variables. More specifically, in Module 1, a recurrent neural network (RNN) was designed to predict wastewater characteristics. In Module 2, a random forest (RF) classifier and a support vector machine (SVM) classifier were built with the information from Module 1 along with other datasets to predict the concentrations of VFAs and H 2 S, respectively. Finally, in Module 3, with the information obtained from Module 2, another RF classifier was developed to predict NaOCl dosage to reduce H 2 S but keeping VFAs within the target range. These efforts are relevant and informative for WRRFs that are considering developing Intelligent Water Systems to predict the wastewater characteristics to make operational improvements. Practitioner Points• A recurrent neural network (RNN) using long short-term memory (LSTM) successfully predicted influent wastewater parameters.• A support vector machine classifier predicted hydrogen sulfide (H 2 S) with 97.6% accuracy.• The concentration of VFAs, an important parameter in EBPR, was predicted using a random forest classifier with 93.4% accuracy.• The optimal NaOCl dosage for H 2 S control can be predicted with a random forest classifier using H 2 S, VFAs, and flow.