Search results for " pollutant"

Heterotrophic bacteria community and pollution indicators of mussel--farm impact in the Gulf of Gaeta (Tyrrhenian Sea).

2001

Field studies were carried out to determine and compare the impact of organic loads due to the biodeposition of a mussel farm on the water quality and sediment in a coastal area of the Tyrrhenian Sea (Western Mediterranean). A total of five environmental and five microbial parameters were examined from March, 1997 to February, 1998 on a monthly basis at three stations: the first was located under the mussel farm, the second located at about 40 m away from the mussel farm, while the third designed as a control was at about 1-km. No clear changes in the physical characteristics of the water masses were observed, comparing the three sampling sites and the water column generally showed homogene…

Modelling hydrology and water quality in a Mediterranean catchment

2010

In this study the SWAT model has been used in order to analyse and quantify pollution dynamics at basin scale depending on concentrated and diffuse sources. Nowadays, the receiving water bodies quality safeguarding is of growing importance due to the promulgation of recent laws as well as the growing sensitivity regarding the environment issues by the scientific and practitioner committee. Recently the EU 2000/60 (Water Framework Directive) makes the analysis of receiving water bodies even more complex by integrating the pollution in urban areas in a framework of the pollution sources at catchment scale. and making necessary further integration of environmental impacts associated with disch…

Estimation of Air Pollutant Emissions in “Turbo” and in Conventional Roundabouts

2013

The road pollutant emissions, above all in urban context, are correlated to many infrastructural parameters and to traffic intensity and typology. The research work on road junction geometry, carried out in European research centres, has recently allowed to design new road intersection types which are of undoubted interest, especially in terms of traffic functionality and safety, like the turbo roundabouts (in which right-turn manoeuvres do not conflict with the circulating flow). The main objective of this paper is to propose a model for the estimation the performances and the pollutant emissions into turbo roundabouts. A comparative analysis between conventional roundabout and turbo round…

A simplified method for the indirect evaluation of the “embodied pollution” of natural stones (marble) working chain to be applied for achieving the …

2022

The constant push toward higher energy and environmental quality buildings makes the acquisition of excellence marks for products and materials, of which the building envelope is constituted, increasingly urgent. The recent European (EU) Commission Decision 2021/476 is applicable to marble used in construction. It sets out criteria that companies producing marble have to accomplish to obtain the EU Ecolabel brand. Unfortunately, some criteria such as, for example, those that refer to the application of the Environmental Management System, ISO 14001 and EMAS certifications, or those that concern the ISO 14067 as well as the Product Environment Footprint procedure, are difficult to apply for …

Photocatalytic Membrane Reactors: Case Studies and Perspectives

2009

Photocatalysis by polycrystalline semiconductor oxides is being successfully applied to the abatement of organic and inorganic pollutants both in gas and in liquid phase. In order to increase the efficiency of this method, the coupling of this technology with the membrane separation process has been the object of sound investigation. In this combination, the membrane may act in different ways: to confine the photocatalytic powder in the reacting suspension, to selectively separate the photoreaction products, or to be the support of photocatalyst. This article reports recent studies in which different types of membranes (such as distillation, dialysis, nanofiltration, pervaporation and osmos…

Electrochemical treatment of wastewater containing NaCl. Methods to increase the removal of organic pollutants and minimize the formation of toxic by…

In many cases, wastewater can contain both organic pollutants and NaCl. Electrochemical methods allow to treat very effectively organic pollutants in the presence of NaCl. However, the utilization on an applicative scale of this route is limited by the fact that usually the high removals of organics is coupled with the generation of significant amounts of chlorinated by-products. The role of several operative parameters on the performances of the process was systematically evaluated using phenol as a model organic pollutant. It was shown that the removal of phenol and TOC and the generation of many by-products including chlorophenols, chloroacetic acids, chlorate and perchlorate dramaticall…

An aggregate air quality index considering interactions among pollutants

2009

Several countries provide an Air Quality Index (AQI) to communicate air pollution, but there is not a unique and nternationally accepted methodology for constructing it. The most of the proposed indices are based on the USA AQI by EPA and are defined by the value of the pollutant with the highest concentration. For each pollutant, a sub-index is computed by linear interpolation according to the grid in a table, but the breakpoints of such a table may differ from one country to another, as well as the descriptors of each category, the air quality standards, the functions chosen as daily synthesis to aggregate hourly values at each site for each pollutant, and so on. Anyway the main drawback …

The organic carbon derived from sewage sludge as a key parameter determining the fate of trace metals.

2007

8 pages; International audience; In a sandy agricultural soil of south-west of France, continuously cultivated with maize and amended with sewage-sludge over 20 years, the behavior of three trace metals (Cu, Pb, and Zn) was studied during the sludge applications (1974-1993) and after its cessation (1993-1998). Using the delta13C analysis, the dynamics of different sources of organic matter were followed in order to elucidate the influence of the sludge-derived organic matter on the fate of trace metals in the soil and its particle size fractions. This study revealed that sludge-derived organic matter contributed to the formation of macroaggregates through the binding of preexisting microagg…

Effects of silver sulfide nanoparticles on the earthworm Eisenia andrei

2022

The massive production and use of silver nanoparticles (Ag NPs) have led to their increasing release into the environment. Even though the antimicrobial and cytotoxic effects of native nanoparticles have been well studied, the environmental impacts of transformation products such as silver sulfide nanoparticles (Ag

The joint adverse effects of aged nanoscale plastic debris and their co-occurring benzo[α]pyrene in freshwater mussel (Anodonta anatina)

2021

Although the presence of small-scale plastics, including nanoscale plastic debris (NPD, size1 μm), is expected in the environment, our understanding of their potential uptake and biodistribution in organisms is still limited. This mostly is because of the limitations in analytical techniques to characterize NPD in organisms' bodies. Moreover, it is still debatable whether aged NPD can sorb and transfer chemicals into organisms. Here, we apply iron oxide-doped polystyrene nanoparticles (Fe-PS NPs) of 270 nm size to quantify the uptake and biodistribution of NPD in freshwater mussels (Anodonta anatina). The Fe-PS NPs were, first, oxidized using heat-activated potassium persulfate treatments t…