Search results for " Pollution"

Unconventional Reducing Gases Monitoring in Everyday Places

2017

Abstract Air pollution, be it indoors or outdoors, is a major environmental health concern as it can lead to serious health effects, such as respiratory diseases, including asthma and lung cancer. Much progress has been made in Europe in improving outdoor air quality and limit values have been set for several pollutants. However, indoor air quality also requires attention because this is where we spend most of our time. Measurements at appropriate spatial and temporal scales are essential for understanding and monitoring heterogeneous environments with complex and highly variable emission sources, such as in urban areas. However, the costs and complexity of conventional air quality measurem…

Formaldehyde: Catalytic Oxidation as a Promising Soft Way of Elimination

2013

International audience; Compared to other molecules such as benzene, toluene, xylene, and chlorinated compounds, the catalytic oxidation of formaldehyde has been studied rarely. However, standards for the emission level of this pollutant will become more restrictive because of its extreme toxicity even at very low concentrations in air. As a consequence, the development of a highly efficient process for its selective elimination is needed. Complete catalytic oxidation of formaldehyde into CO2 and H2O using noble-metal-based catalysts is a promising method to convert this pollutant at room temperature, making this process energetically attractive from an industrial point of view. However, th…

Ecotoxicity assessment of natural attenuation effects at a historical dumping site in the western Baltic Sea.

2005

During the late 1950s and early 1960s of the past century, industrial waste material highly enriched in various contaminants (heavy metals, PAHs) was dumped in the inner Mecklenburg Bay, western Baltic Sea. Large-scale shifts in the spatial distribution of heavy metals in surface sediments were mapped by geochemical monitoring in the mid-1980s and 12 years later in 1997. A further study in 2001 was designed to investigate the small-scale spatial distribution of contaminants inside, on top of, and around the historical dumping ground and to examine possible effects to benthic organisms (Arctica islandica, microbiological toxicity tests). The site is located within an area characterized by a …

Occurrence of acidic pharmaceuticals and personal care products in Turia River Basin: From waste to drinking water

2014

The occurrence of 21 acidic pharmaceuticals, including illicit drugs, and personal care products (PPCPs) in waste, surface and drinking water and in sediments of the Turia River Basin (Valencia, Spain) was studied. A liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) method was developed for the determination of these PPCPs with electrospray (ESI) in negative ionization (NI) mode. Ammonium fluoride in the mobile phase improved ionization efficiency by an average increase in peak area of 5 compared to ammonium formate or formic acid. All studied compounds were detected and their concentration was waste water>surface water>drinking water. PPCPs were in waste water treatment plants (WWT…

The bioremediation potential of the Priolo Harbour (SR, Italy): isolation, identification and catabolic ability of hydrocarbonoclastic bacteria

2013

The petrochemical site of Priolo-Augusta-Melilli (Sicily, Italy), is a Site of National Interest (SIN) due to high levels of contamination of the coastline and its remediation is urgently needed. Successful remediation strategies relying on the catabolic potential of marine hydrocarbonoclastic bacteria (HCB) have been described. HCB are specialised hydrocarbon (HC)-degrading marine bacteria that use HC almost exclusively as unique carbon and energy source and become dominant in oil-impacted environments. In order to identify the key hydrocarbon degraders and explore the natural bioremediation potential of the contaminated area, sediment cores and sea water were collected inside the Priolo H…

La qualità dell’aria indoor: una priorità ambientale e sanitaria

2009

Improving the solid-phase extraction of “quat” pesticides from water samples

1998

A novel strategy, based on the addition of a cationic surfactant, for preventing the interferences associated with a diminution in the efficacy of solid-phase extraction (SPE) with silica cartridges of diquat, paraquat and difenzoquat in water is developed. Conditions for extraction are optimised with respect to pH, cationic surfactant and its concentration. Humic acids, anionic surfactants, inorganic salts and other organic contaminants like pesticides, phenols, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and polychlorinated biphenyls produce the studied interferences. The best performance is shown in the improvement of the "quats" recovery from waters with high levels of humic acids and anionic surf…

The use of fish bile metabolite analyses as exposure biomarkers to pulp and paper mill effluents

1998

The exposure of caged one-year-old whitefish (Coregonus lavaretus) to wood extractives and chlorophenolics from pulp and paper mill effluents in Lake Saimaa (SE Finland) was investigated. Whitefish were exposed at 17 locations affected by effluents from pulp and paper mills and at 5 reference areas. Resin and fatty acids and chlorophenolics in bile were analysed by GC and GC-MS. Cholesterol concentration in bile was also measured. Results show that despite of process changes to ECF and waste water treatment improvements employed by the pulp and paper industry in the study area, it is still possible to detect elevated concentrations of these substances in the bile of fish exposed in the vici…

Effect of indoor nitrogen dioxide on lung function in urban environment

2015

BACKGROUND: High levels of indoor NO2 are associated with increased asthma symptoms and decreased expiratory peak flows in children. We investigated the association of exposure to domestic indoor NO2, objectively measured in winter and spring, with respiratory symptoms and lung function in a sample of adolescents from a southern Mediterranean area. METHODS: From a large school population sample (n=2150) participating in an epidemiological survey in the urban area of the City of Palermo (southern Italy), a sub-sample of 303 adolescents was selected which furnished an enriched sample for cases of current asthma. All subjects were evaluated by a health questionnaire, skin prick tests and spiro…

Risk of bone tumors in children and residential proximity to industrial and urban areas: New findings from a case-control study

2017

Few epidemiologic studies have explored risk factors for bone tumors in children, and the role of environmental factors needs to be analyzed. Our objective was to ascertain the association between residential proximity to industrial plants and urban areas and risk of bone tumors in children, taking into account industrial groups and toxic pollutants released. A population-based case-control study of childhood bone cancer in Spain was carried out, covering 114 incident cases obtained from the Spanish Registry of Childhood Tumors (between 1996 and 2011), and 684 controls individually matched by sex, year of birth, and autonomous region of residence. Distances from the subject's residences to …