Medical ozone therapy as a potential treatment modality for regeneration of damaged articular cartilage in osteoarthritis

Osteoarthritis (OA) is the most common degenerative joint disease and a growing health problem affecting more than half of the population over the age of 65. It is characterized by inflammation in the cartilage and synovium, resulting in the loss of joint structure and progressive damage to the cartilage. Many pro-inflammatory mediators are elevated in OA, including reactive oxygen species (ROS) such as nitric oxide (NO) and hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂). Damaged articular cartilage remains a challenge to treat due to the limited self-healing capacity of the tissue and unsuccessful biological interventions. This highlights the need for better therapeutic strategies to heal damaged articular cartilage. Ozone (O₃) therapy has been shown to have positive results in the treatment of OA; however the use of O₃ therapy as a therapeutic agent is controversial. There is a perception that O₃ is always toxic, whereas evidence indicates that when it is applied following a specified method, O₃ can be effective in the treatment of degenerative diseases. The mechanism of action of O₃ therapy in OA is not fully understood and this review summarizes the use of O₃ therapy in the treatment of damaged articular cartilage in OA.     

Review: life cycle assessments in Nigeria,Ghana, and Ivory Coast

Purpose

Life cycle assessments (LCAs) are considered common quantitative environmental techniques to analyze the environmental impact of products and/or services throughout their entire life cycle. A few LCA studies have been conducted in West Africa. This study aimed to discuss the availability of LCA (and similar) studies in Nigeria, Ghana, and Ivory Coast.

Methods

An online literature review of reports published between 2000 and 2016 was conducted using the following keywords: “life cycle assessment,” “carbon footprinting,” “water footprinting,” “environmental impact,” “Nigeria,” “Ghana” and “Ivory Coast.”

Results and discussion

A total of 31 LCA and environmental studies in Nigeria, Ghana, and Ivory Coast were found; all but one were conducted after 2008. These were mainly academic and most were publicly available. The industries studied included energy sector, waste management, real estate, food sector, and others such as timber and gold. The minimal number of studies on LCAs and environmental impacts in these West African states could be because companies are failing to promote quantitative environmental studies or studies are kept internally for the use of other assessment techniques. Furthermore, it could be that academic research institutions lack cutting-edge research resources for LCA, environmental impact, carbon, and water footprinting studies.

Conclusions

Further quantitative environmental studies should be conducted in Nigeria, Ghana, and Ivory Coast to increase the understanding of environmental impacts. In these countries, the existence of LCA studies (and by association the localized life cycle inventory (LCI) datasets) is crucial as more companies request this information to feed into background processes.

     

Assessing the availability of life cycle assessments in Austria

The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment - This study aims to present the availability of studies that are related to life cycle assessments (LCA) in Austria since 2000. This study also...     

A discussion on the availability of life-cycle assessment studies in New Zealand

Purpose

In order to understand the environmental impacts of various products, processes, or services, it should be possible to obtain life-cycle assessment (LCA) reports quickly and easily without having to delve into restricted access or hidden databases. The aim of this study is to assess the availability of environmental LCAs, water footprinting, and carbon footprinting studies conducted in New Zealand.

Methods

To review the quantitative availability of life-cycle assessment studies for New Zealand, simple online searches were performed using the Google and Google Scholar search engines. Additionally, ScienceDirect and Scopus were used to determine the availability of other peer-reviewed LCA-related reports.

Results and discussion

For the period under review, 20 documents were publicly available. Additionally, other searches conducted via ScienceDirect, Scopus and Google Scholar yielded a further 15 restricted documents. The results included data carbon- and water footprinting studies. The number of LCAs and carbon footprinting reports both exceeded those of water footprinting.

Conclusions

Over 35 studies were available through Internet searches. This number excludes wool which had six results (Scopus only) and many more through Google. These were not included due to possible repetition and miscounting of results.

     

Review: life-cycle assessment,water footprinting,and carbon footprinting in Portugal

Purpose

A review of readily available quantitative environmental data was conducted in order to determine the state of sustainability reporting and identify possible future research areas in Portugal.

Methods

Internet searches of articles written in English and published between 2001 and 2015 were conducted using the keywords “life-cycle assessment,” “LCA,” “water footprint,” “carbon footprint,” and “Portugal.” Additionally, reports from the Global Reporting Initiative (2015 only) were included in the search.

Results and discussion

It was found that 79% of reports found were published in the period 2011–2015. Several reports were found for the forestry, paper and pulp, food and beverage, energy and electricity, waste management, and automotive industries, while no reports were found for the textile, footwear and clothing, and base metal and mineral industries. As such, these are industries on which future studies might focus. No reports found were published by governmental organizations, although it is thought that expanding the search to include Portuguese language results would yields more results. The majority (68%) of companies reporting to the GRI adhered to the relevant guidelines.

Conclusions

A total of 72 reports were found (41 LCAs, water- or carbon footprints, and 31 GRI reports). It is unclear if there are other reports that may be restricted to “hidden” datasets or company specific archives. The aim of this report was to highlight those that were available to a non-specialist or international audiences trying to gain a greater understanding of the LCA space in Portugal.

     

Review: the availability of life-cycle studies in Sweden

The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment - An online review was conducted on the availability of life-cycle assessment (LCA), water, and carbon footprinting studies in Sweden. The main...