Retraction Note: Environmental Science and Pollution Research (2019) 26:16923-16938

https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-019-04998-2

The Publisher has retracted this article in agreement with the Editor-in-Chief. An investigation by the publisher found a number of articles, including this one, with a number of concerns, including but not limited to compromised peer review process, inappropriate or irrelevant references, containing nonstandard phrases or not being in scope of the journal. Based on the investigation's findings the publisher, in consultation with the Editor-in-Chief therefore no longer has confidence in the results and conclusions of this article.

The publisher has been unable to obtain a current email address for authors Hafiz Mohkum Hammad and Muhammad Zaffar Hashmi. The other authors have not responded to correspondence from the publisher regarding this retraction.