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When the Turin incinerator went into operation in 2013, it was accompanied by surveillance of health effects that included a human biomonitoring survey of 394 residents. They responded to items investigating their awareness of environmental and health issues and perception of environmental health risks. In this study, we compared the questionnaire responses before plant startup and at 3 years of operation. To accomplish this, we investigated changes in perceived risk and evaluated the efficacy of communication strategies. A total of 344 participants equally distributed in an exposed and an unexposed group responded to the follow-up questionnaire. Survey items investigated the perception of a relationship between illness and exposure to environmental pollution, feeling at risk of developing an illness, and concern about natural and anthropogenic hazards. The proportion of 'certain' and 'very probable' responses was compared to the total using the difference-in-differences method. Analyses showed an overall decrease in the differences between the two groups, which suggests that the communication actions undertaken for the exposed group were effective. Future communication plans should also include initiatives targeting the unexposed group.

The organic⁻inorganic hybrid materials have attracted great attention due to their improved or unusual properties that open promising applications in different areas such as optics, electronics, energy, environment, biology, medicine and heterogeneous catalysis. Different types of silicodactyl platforms grafted on silica inorganic supports can be used to synthesize hybrid materials. A careful evaluation of the dactyly of the organic precursors, normally alkoxysilanes, and of the type of interaction with the inorganic supports is presented. In fact, depending on the hydrophilicity of the silica surface (e.g., number and density of surface silanols) as well as on the grafting conditions, the hydrolysis and condensation reaction of the silylated moieties can involve only one or two out of three alkoxysilane groups. The influence of silicodactyly in the preparation of organic-inorganic silica-based hybrids is studied by TGA, 29 Si, ¹H and 13 C solid-state NMR and FTIR spectroscopies, with the support of Molecular Dynamics calculations. Computational studies are used to forecast the influence of the different grafting configurations on the tendency of the silane to stick on the inorganic surface.

CO₂ hydrogenation to dimethyl ether (DME) is a promising strategy to drive the current chemical industry towards a low-carbon scenario since DME can be used as an eco-friendly fuel as well as a platform molecule for chemical production. A Cu‒ZnO‒ZrO₂/ferrierite (CZZ/FER) hybrid grain was recently proposed as a catalyst for CO₂-to-DME one-pot conversion exhibiting high DME productivity thanks to the unique shape-selectivity offered by ferrierite zeolite. Nevertheless, such a catalyst deactivates but no direct evidence has been reported of activity loss over time. In this work, CZZ/FER catalysts with different acidity levels were characterized with the FTIR technique before and after reactions, aiming to give new insights about catalyst deactivation. Results show that activity loss can be related to both (i) copper particle sintering, which decreases CO₂ activation towards methanol, and (ii) acidity loss due to H⁺/Cu 2+ ion exchange.