As such, it is clear that the contribution that microbes make to the ecosystems functioning in extreme environments, such as mine waste disposal environments is vastly underrated.
The abundance of naturally-occurring pyrite in environments such as coal mines, where fine dust particles are frequently inhaled by workers, introduces the potential risk of human exposure to mineral-induced ROS.
Schwertmannite and jarosite are two of the main secondary iron III) minerals commonly found in acidic, iron and sulfate-rich environments such as acid mine drainage and coastal acid sulfate soils (CASS).
Radon (222Rn), thoron (220Rn), and their decay products contribute a major fraction (more than 50%) of doses received from ionisation radiation in public domain indoor environments and occupation environments such as uranium mines, thorium plants, and underground facilities, and are recognised as important radiological hazardous materials, which need to be controlled.
Although some of the techniques described above may be suitable for routine use in special environments such as underground mines where diesel exhaust is the chief contaminant, the abundance of secondary PAH sources in most occupations and community environments precludes the use of PAH or its primary hydroxylated metabolites as measures of diesel exposure in the vast majority of situations.
19 The first metagenomic studies were focused on low- diversity environments, such as an acid mine drainage, 20 human gut microbiome, 21 and water samples from the Sargasso Sea, 22 mainly due to the unavailability of both high-throughput sequencing technologies at that time and relevant software for the scaffolds' assembly.
As of today, 210 microbial metagenomes sampled from diverse environments such as the ocean, acid mine drainage, soil, bovine rumen and the human body have been reported (http://www.genomesonline.org/).org/
Bacteria of the genus Thermus inhabit both natural and man-made thermal environments such as hot springs, deep mines, compost manure, sewage sludge and domestic hot water [ 1, 2].
However, at present, they are often used for research in radon surveys in unique environments, such as in the bathrooms, underground areas, mines, caves and tunnels.
Radon emitted from the ground surface or from materials of crustal origin in outdoor air is rapidly dispersed leading to low atmospheric concentration levels, while in confined environments, such as buildings, dwellings, tunnels, caves and mines, radon accumulates leading to potentially hazardous indoor concentration levels in the absence of mitigation actions.
