Search results for "Chemical Industry"
showing 10 items of 27 documents
Perfluorinated Compounds’ Analysis, Environmental Fate and Occurrence: The Llobregat River as Case Study
2012
Perfluorinated compounds are industrial chemicals widely used for more than 60 years. However, during the last decade, due to their high resistance to degradation, bioaccumulation attached to proteins, biomagnification to the food chain and their relation to toxicological effects of these compounds have gained scientific and regulatory attention.
Chemical Aspects of Human and Environmental Overload with Fluorine
2021
Over the last 100-120 years, due to the ever-increasing importance of fluorine-containing compounds in modern technology and daily life, the explosive development of the fluorochemical industry led to an enormous increase of emission of fluoride ions into the biosphere. This made it more and more important to understand the biological activities, metabolism, degradation, and possible environmental hazards of such substances. This comprehensive and critical review focuses on the effects of fluoride ions and organofluorine compounds (mainly pharmaceuticals and agrochemicals) on human health and the environment. To give a better overview, various connected topics are also discussed: reasons an…
Heavy metal pollution disturbs immune response in wild ant populations
2005
Concern about the effects of environmental contaminants on immune function in both humans and wildlife is growing and practically nothing is known about this impact on terrestrial invertebrates, even though they are known to easily accumulate pollutants. We studied the effect of industrial heavy metal contamination on immune defense of a free-living wood ant (Formica aquilonia). To find out whether ants show an adapted immune function in a polluted environment, we compared encapsulation responses between local and translocated colonies. Local colonies showed higher heavy metal levels than the translocated ones but the encapsulation response was similar between the two groups, indicating tha…
Risk of childhood leukaemia and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma after parental occupational exposure to solvents and other agents: the SETIL Study
2013
AIM: In the context of the Italian Multicentric Epidemiological Study on Risk Factors for Childhood Leukaemia and Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma (SETIL), the risk of childhood cancer was investigated in relation to parental occupational exposures. METHODS: All cases of childhood leukaemia and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL) in children aged 0-10 years were identified. Controls were chosen at random from the local population in each region. Parents were interviewed using a structured questionnaire. The collected data were blindly reviewed by expert industrial hygienists in order to estimate exposure to a list of agents. Statistical analyses were performed for each agent using unconditional multivariabl…
Green composites of organic materials and recycled post-consumer polyethylene
2004
International audience; Addition of organic fillers to post‐consumer recycled plastics can give rise to several advantages. First of all, the cost of these fillers is usually very low, the organic fillers are biodegradable contributing to an improved environmental impact and, last but not least, some mechanical and thermomechanical properties can be enhanced. Organic fillers are not widely used in the plastic industry although their use is increasing. Bad dispersion into the polymer matrix at high‐level content and poor adhesion with the matrix are the more important obstacles to this approach. In this work various organic fillers have been used with a post‐consumer plastic material origina…
Metal-organic framework-activated carbon composite materials for the removal of ammonia from contaminated airstreams
2019
L.N.M and R.E.M wish to acknowledge the financial support from the EPSRC industrial CASE award (grant EP/N50936X/1). A.T and G.B would like to thank the financial support from the Fondo per il finanziamento delle attività base di ricerca (grant PJ-RIC-FFABR_2017). Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) are a class of porous materials that show promise in the removal of Toxic Industrial Chemicals (TICs) from contaminated airstreams, though their development for this application has so far been hindered by issues of water stability and the wide availability and low cost of traditionally used activated carbons. Here a series of three MOF-activated carbon composite materials with different MOF to carb…
Sustainable metabolic engineering for sustainability optimisation of industrial biotechnology
2021
Industrial biotechnology represents one of the most innovating and labour-productive industries with an estimated stable economic growth, thus giving space for improvement of the existing and setting up new value chains. In addition, biotechnology has clear environmental advantages over the chemical industry. Still, biotechnology’s environmental contribution is sometimes valued with controversy and societal aspects are frequently ignored. Environmental, economic and societal sustainability of various bioprocesses becomes increasingly important due to the growing understanding about complex and interlinked consequences of different human activities. Neglecting the sustainability issues in th…
The scent of Mare Nostrum : medicinal and aromatic plants in Mediterranean soils
2012
In the Mediterranean area, the simultaneous occurrence of pedological, climatic and economic constraints often sets a limit on the profitability of agriculture, and farmers are forced to grow a reduced number of species, dealing with a secure—albeit low—market income. The introduction of medicinal and aromatic plants (MAPs) inside the current farming systems could represent a useful means to meet the multifunctional role of agriculture: producing safe food, in respect of the environment, and contributing to the development of rural areas. The study of the relationships between MAPs and the soils in which they may be grown may have two approaches: (1) the evaluation of yield and qualitative …
Supported Liquid Membranes and Their Modifications
2010
Publisher Summary This chapter discusses the principle, kinetic and transport mechanisms, stability of supported liquid membrane (SLM) design followed by thier configuration. In the examples of SLM applications presented in this chapter, the possibility to separate high quantities of compounds using small volumes of organic phases shows that this method is still a very attractive choice when an efficient and selective method is necessary. Also, as a result of the development and commercialization of hydrophobic hollow-fiber membrane contactors, SLM might be applied successfully for industrial purposes. This is due to the high-membrane surface per unit of volume with satisfactory liquid memb…
The influence of organic production on food quality - research findings, gaps and future challenges
2014
Although several meta-analysis studies have been published comparing the quality of food derived from organic and non-organic origin, it is still not clear if food from organic production per se can guarantee product-related added value to consumers. This paper aims to summarize the status quo in order to identify research gaps and suggest future research challenges. Organic food is described according to a quality model already published. The influence of organic production on food quality is structured in primary production and processing. Furthermore, organic food authentication is discussed. Organic food seems to contain fewer pesticide residues and statistically more selected health-re…