Retraction Note: Environmental Science and Pollution Research (2021) 28:60019-60031

https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-021-14792-8

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 not been able to obtain a current email address for author Shahid Bashir. The authors Wasim Iqbal, Salman Ali, Yousaf Latif, Muhammad Ramzan and Ge Shunqi have not responded to correspondence regarding this retraction.