This study aims to enhance the value of the Montepulciano d’Abruzzo PDO supply chain by integrating multi-elemental and isotopic profiling with chemometric analysis. The objective is to establish a pilot study for origin authentication, supporting strategic, managerial, and regulatory decision-making for stakeholders in the wine sector. Wine and soil samples from producers in the Abruzzo region were analyzed for 63 elements and selected isotopic ratios using HR-ICP-MS and MC-ICP-MS. Exploratory data analysis, including PCA and clustering, was employed to investigate intrinsic data structure. Variable selection techniques identified the most discriminant markers, and multiple classification models were tested to assess producer-level differentiation. The combined elemental and isotopic dataset showed strong intrinsic structure. Four variables—Mo, 208Pb/206Pb, P, and 87Sr/86Sr—emerged as key discriminants. Quadratic Discriminant Analysis and Artificial Neural Networks achieved 100% accuracy in classifying samples by producer. The results demonstrate that integrating multi-elemental and isotopic data with chemometric tools offers a pilot approach to authenticate wine origin and enhance transparency across the PDO supply chain. Beyond scientific innovation, this study provides a pilot decision support model that can strengthen competitive differentiation, regulatory compliance, and sustainable territorial development, highlighting opportunities for digital transformation in PDO management.

Heavy metal contamination was identified in groundwater monitoring wells surrounding a waste deposit facility at the Rönnskär Cu–Pb–Zn smelter in Skellefteå, northern Sweden. The main objective of this study is to identify the sources of contamination, utilizing element screening analyses and multivariate statistical techniques. A second objective is to determine the usefulness of these techniques in Environmental Forensics investigations of contaminated groundwater at a complex industrial site. Water samples were collected from four groundwater monitoring wells and six waste deposit cells surrounding the contaminated area. Seventy-two elements are statistically examined and the dataset is reduced to the variables representative of the contaminated source material from the smelting process. A three-component model is identified and explains 88% of the total variation in the dataset. Component 1 includes concentrations of Cd, Co, Ni, Rb, Re, and Zn. This component displays a high correlation with two of the deposit cells and their associated groundwater monitoring wells. Component 2 is comprised of Sb, Cu, and Mo. This component displays a correlation between all monitoring wells and deposits likely due to the high mobility of these elements as oxyanions. Component 3 is dominated by As and displays high correlation to three older deposit cells representing a completely different source than for Components 1 and 2. The application of screening analyses and multivariate statistics in this study has achieved a meaningful identification of sources of contamination in the investigated area. It was also shown to be useful as an initial survey aiming to optimize a full-scale monitoring program at the site.

The increasing use of Technology-critical elements (TCEs) in modern technologies is expected to raise their concentrations in soils of many areas, prompting concerns about their mobility and entry into the food chain. This study examines pore water availability and plant uptake of gallium (Ga), thallium (Tl), and the rare earth elements gadolinium (Gd), neodymium (Nd), and ytterbium (Yb). Lettuce (Lactuca sativa) was grown under controlled greenhouse conditions in a native agricultural soil from Sweden, both at the baseline concentrations of the elements and after spiking in a concentration series in which the highest level corresponded to a 40-fold enrichment of the original concentrations. Our findings indicate that Tl poses the greatest risk among the investigated TCEs, as it was readily taken up by lettuce even at moderate concentrations in the soil, with a clear dose-dependent increase in accumulation (Bioconcentration factor, BCF = 0.084–1.5). Gallium demonstrated a low concentration in pore water and limited accumulation in lettuce (BCF = 0.00010–0.00066), suggesting a low immediate concern. However, the Ga uptake increased substantially at the highest contamination level, indicating a potential risk threshold. Relative to Ga and Tl, the REEs demonstrated intermediate levels of both pore water availability and lettuce uptake, although the uptake increased with rising soil concentrations (BCF = 0.0013–0.0071, 0.0013–0.012, and 0.0011–0.0020, for Gd, Nd, and Yb respectively). Notably, Nd was also found to negatively affect seed germination, suggesting a possible risk to crop productivity. Together, our findings highlight the need for targeted risk assessments of specific TCEs, as these elements may increasingly find their way onto our plates through soil-to-plant transfer under potential future soil contamination.

We assessed lead (Pb) contamination from ammunition in 59 consumer packages of hunted brown bear (Ursus arctos) vacuum-packed or canned meat products from six manufacturers in Sweden, Finland and Estonia. Medical X-ray imaging showed that 15 (34%) of 44 vacuum-packed samples contained 1–3 radiodense objects ≥ 0.1 mm assumed to be Pb fragments. Four of these samples underwent synchrotron X-ray imaging and all radiodense objects observed in the medical X-ray images were confirmed to be Pb. In one sample, eight additional Pb fragments were detected by synchrotron X-ray imaging. Inductively-coupled plasma mass spectrometry carried out on 39 vacuum-packed and 15 canned samples showed that 32 (59%) of these contained > 100 µg Pb/kg wet weight, which is the maximum level (ML) for meat from domestic animals in the European Union (EU). All canned bear meat samples were above the ML. The Pb concentrations were highly variable, both between and within products. In 6 of 8 product types, the mean Pb concentrations were 1.2–28.2 times higher than the ML. The Pb isotopic compositions (²⁰⁸Pb/²⁰⁶Pb vs. ²⁰⁷Pb/²⁰⁶Pb) were similar to those of Pb-based rifle hunting bullets from European manufacturers. We conclude that several types of commercial brown bear meat products on the market in Sweden, Finland and Estonia were highly contaminated with Pb from spent ammunition. Although no ML of Pb has been set for game meat in the EU, we strongly advise against consumption of bear meat products exceeding the ML for meat from domestic animals.

Technology-critical elements (TCEs), essential in emerging technologies, are increasingly finding their way into our environment, raising concerns about their sparsely studied behavior and toxicity. To contribute insights into the toxicological aspects, we employed in vitro bioassays to investigate the possible cytotoxic effects in four representative cell lines (AR-EcoScreen GR-KO-M1, DR-EcoScreen, MCF7AREc32, VM7Luc4E2) and the potential to induce oxidative stress via the nuclear factor erythroid 2-related factor 2 (Nrf2) pathway for a number of these elements. Nine TCEs, three rare-earth elements (REEs: Gd, Nd, Yb) and six less-studied TCEs (LSTCEs: Ga, Ge, In, Ta, Te, Tl), were selected for this study, along with three well-studied traditional metal contaminants (TMCs: As, Cd, Pb) for comparison. Among the 12 studied elements, nine showed signs of inducing cytotoxicity: As, Cd, Ga, Nd, and Te in three out of the four studied cell lines and Gd, Ta, Tl, and Yb in one to two cell lines. Tellurium repeatedly exhibited the highest potency. The TCEs Ga and In, similar to As and Cd, also demonstrated the potential to induce oxidative stress. The results of this study suggest that some TCEs may potentially cause adverse health effects similar to As and Cd, thus prompting further investigations. 

Municipal Solid Waste Incineration (MSWI) plants pose significant environmental concerns, generating solid by-products, namely Fly Ash (FA) and Bottom Ash (BA). These MSWI residues have received attention due to the presence of valuable elements, Potentially Toxic Elements (PTE), and other contaminants. Radionuclide detection is also critical because they can concentrate in incineration ashes to pose a radiological hazard. Therefore, multi-element and radionuclide analysis was performed on BA and FA, including samples from bag filters containing lime (FAL) and soda (FAS) additives collected from two MSWI plants in northern Italy. BA and FA were sampled in 2013, 2020, 2021, and 2022 for a multi-year assessment, including during the COVID-19 pandemic. Our objectives were to evaluate the potential of elemental flows and radiological impact of the two different MSWI plants. The chemical concentration of 70 elements and the activity of 8 radionuclides were determined using sector Field Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry (ICP-SFMS) and alpha and gamma spectrometry, respectively. Regarding major elements (Fe, Al, Mg, Ti, and P), high mean concentrations were found in BA, followed by FAL and FAS. Notably, in BA samples, Fe, Al, Zn, and Cu averaged 47600, 35300, 4100, and 3500 mg kg−1, respectively, and critical raw materials, namely elements of economic importance such as Mg, P, Ti, and Ba, were concentrated at 16100, 6800, 3500, and 1400 mg kg−1, respectively. The annual flows of elements from MSWI residue streams ranged in the order of 103-104 kg a-1 for Fe, Al, Zn, Cu, Mg and Ti, and the sum of Rare Earth Elements (∑REE) was about hundreds of kg per year. Chondrite-normalized patterns of REE and normalized patterns of selected elements over crustal averages helped to evaluate anthropogenic signals, which enabled us to hypothesise elemental sources related to the input MSW. BA and FA showed a higher content of natural radionuclides than artificial ones. In BA, natural radionuclides, 40K and 210Pb, ranged from 666 to 693 Bq kg−1 and 23.3–48.1 Bq kg−1, respectively. In FA, 40K ranged from 308 to 2198 Bq kg−1 and 210Pb from 17.1 to 534 Bq kg−1. Activity concentration index (ACI) results in all-natural radionuclides below the permissible limit (<1). Still, the significant abundance of 210Pb and 40K, coupled with their complex behaviour, calls for new and continuous evaluation of long-term emissions and the radiological hazard related to MSWI systems. 

The red seaweed Palmaria palmata is a promising candidate for sustainable food production due to its unique nutritional and sensory properties. Using side streams from the seafood industry to cultivate seaweed is an innovative circular approach to return otherwise lost nutrients back into the food chain. Our study investigates the use of herring production process water (HPPW) as a cultivation medium to improve the growth and nutritional quality of P. palmata in land-based systems. We identified the most favorable salinity and irradiance conditions (22.5PSU and 180 μmol photons m⁻² s⁻¹) as well as the dilution level of HPPW (40 μM NH₄⁺) to establish optimal cultivation conditions. When P. palmata was cultivated under these optimized conditions, it significantly improved growth rates, tissue nitrogen content, pigments, and total amino acid levels, including all essential amino acids in levels exceeding dietary recommendations. The toxic and potentially toxic elements arsenic, inorganic arsenic, mercury, lead, and cadmium did not limit the safe daily intake of the biomass, instead, iodine was the limiting factor restricting safe daily consumption of HPPW-cultivated P. palmata to 23 g dry weight. A portion of this size could make a valuable contribution to macro- and trace element intake, providing approximately 63 % of the recommended daily intake for potassium, 22 % for magnesium, and 17 % for copper. Together, these findings show that P. palmata has a strong potential as an alternative food source in sustainable food systems when cultivated under optimized land-based conditions and supplemented with repurposed liquid seafood industry side streams.

While vegetable uptake of traditional metal contaminants is a well-studied pathway to human exposure and risk, a paucity of information exists on the uptake of emerging metal contaminants. This study evaluated the uptake of the Technology-critical elements (TCEs) gallium (Ga), germanium (Ge), niobium (Nb), tantalum (Ta), thallium (Tl), and rare earth elements (REEs) into lettuce cultivated in 21 European urban soils. For comparison, the uptake of cadmium (Cd) was also analysed. First, the uptake was predicted by multiplying soil concentrations with previously established bioconcentration factors (BCFs). Subsequently, multiple regression models incorporating geochemical variables as predictors were used to determine whether prediction accuracy could be improved. A "3-predictor model" incorporated soil TCE concentration, pH, and organic matter (OM), and a "7-predictor model" added data on clay content and the soil concentrations of Fe, Al, and Mn as well. With the exception of Cd, Ge, and Tl, the BCF approach provided unsatisfactory predictions (R2 < 0.5), while the 7-predictor models yielded the best predictions, even when accounting for the greater number of predictors. While the most important predictors of uptake varied somewhat between the TCEs, the concentrations of TCEs in the soil generally explained the largest proportion of the variation. The least influential predictors in our dataset were [Mnsoil], [Fesoil], and soil OM. Incorporating geochemical data generally improved the predictions of uptake by lettuce, and these findings underscore the need for more detailed characterisations of the uptake potential of TCEs by food plants and subsequent consequences for human health.

Increased demand for rare earth elements (REE) has resulted in their increased exploitation and the need to better understand their cycling in aquatic environments. Thus far much of the research in boreal areas focused on REE cycling in larger rivers, while relatively little is known regarding their mobilization in smaller headwater streams. Here we used the Krycklan Catchment Study in northern boreal Sweden to investigate how REE are mobilized from diverse boreal headwaters and how their catchment exports are influenced by processes such as weathering, hydrology, and complexation with other solutes. We found that wetland dominated headwaters were source limited and prone to dilution during high discharge, while forested headwaters had considerably higher total REE concentrations and were less affected by discharge fluctuations. Larger downstream catchments showed clear discharge driven seasonal patterns, with high concentrations during spring flood and low concentrations during base flow. While the proportion of mineral soils and water travel time in the catchment were important predictors of REE mobilization, complexation with organic matter appears to play a greater role in higher-order streams with higher pH and a larger contribution from deeper groundwater sources. Overall, we highlight the stark differences between REE cycling in the headwaters and in higher order streams, which can provide important information on the processes that mobilize REE from catchments.

The Chicxulub asteroid impact event at the Cretaceous-Paleogene (K-Pg) boundary ~66 Myr ago is widely considered responsible for the mass extinction event leading to the demise of the non-avian dinosaurs. Short-term cooling due to massive release of climate-active agents is hypothesized to have been crucial, with S-bearing gases originating from the target rock vaporization considered an important driving force. Yet, the magnitude of the S release remains poorly constrained. Here we empirically estimate the amount of impact-released S relying on the concentration of S and its isotopic composition within the impact structure and a set of terrestrial K-Pg boundary ejecta sites. The average value of 67 ± 39 Gt obtained is ~5-fold lower than previous numerical estimates. The lower mass of S-released may indicate a less prominent role for S emission leading to a milder impact winter with key implications for species survival during the first years following the impact.