Search results for "Hazardous Substance"

Refractory organic pollutants and toxicity in pulp and paper mill wastewaters

2015

This review describes medium and high molecular weight organic material found in wastewaters from pulp and paper industry. The aim is to review the versatile pollutants and the analysis methods for their determination. Among other pollutants, biocides, extractives, and lignin-derived compounds are major contributors to harmful effects, such as toxicity, of industrial wastewaters. Toxicity of wastewaters from pulp and paper mills is briefly evaluated including the methods for toxicity analyses. Traditionally, wastewater purification includes mechanical treatment followed by chemical and/or biological treatment processes. A variety of methods are available for the purification of industrial w…

Non-target and suspected-target screening for potentially hazardous chemicals in food contact materials: investigation of paper straws

2020

A non-target screening strategy was developed for the safety evaluation of potentially hazardous chemicals in paper food contact materials (FCMs). A tentative list of suspect analytes was generated using publicly available FCM substance inventories, the presence of contaminants in paper straws was confirmed by high-resolution Orbitrap mass spectrometry. Data-independent and data-dependent MS and MS/MS results for candidate compounds were processed using a workflow including peak detection by deconvolution, blank subtraction, retention time alignment, formula assignment and fragmentation spectra search against spectral libraries followed by

Improved accuracy of environmentally relevant parameter estimates derived from biodegradation assays.

2019

Biodegradation assays involve both biodegradation and analytical processes which can be affected by systematic errors, among others. These errors can affect all the environmentally relevant parameters related to biodegradability, enantioselectivity (in the case of chiral compounds), kinetic parameters and persistence of chemicals. However, such impacts have never been well-characterized. In this work, calculations and models used for a long time are studied by simulating systematic errors at the 5% level, which affect independently the analytical calibration step and the biodegradation process. The impact of these errors is also compared with those obtained from an alternative approach: rec…

Sleep under exposure to high-frequency electromagnetic fields.

2004

The controversy about potential health hazards associated with the exposure to electromagnetic fields (EMF) has been recently stimulated by the increasing use of mobile telecommunication devices. Attention has focused here on non-thermal effects of low-level high-frequency radiation, which does not lead to a heating of tissue. Scientific literature on the effects of high-frequency EMFs on sleep is reviewed. The epidemiological studies provide no evidence that sleep disturbances are a relevant complaint under exposure to such fields. Recent sleep laboratory studies have revealed a number of slight effects. Despite their heterogeneity, there seems to be some consistency regarding a slight sle…

Third-hand smoke exposure and health hazards in children

2013

Smoking still represents a huge public health problem. Millions of children suffer the detrimental effects of passive smoking. An increasing number of countries have recently issued laws to regulate smoking in public places. Instead, homes remain a site where children are dangerously exposed to environmental tobacco smoke (ETS). The combination of tobacco smoke pollutants which remain in an indoor environment, the so-called ‘third-hand smoke’ (THS), represent a new concept in the field of tobacco control. THS consists of pollutants that remain on surfaces and in dust after tobacco has been smoked, are re-emitted into the gas-phase, or react with other compounds in the environment to form se…

CFD Simulation of Dense Cloud Dispersion in Urban Areas

2004

Occurrence of priority pollutants in WWTP effluents and Mediterranean coastal waters of Spain

2011

A comprehensive study aimed at evaluating the occurrence, significance of concentrations and spatial distribution of priority pollutants (PPs) along the Comunidad Valenciana coastal waters (Spain) was carried out in order to fulfil the European Water Framework Directive (WFD). Additionally, PP concentrations were also analysed in the effluent of 28 WWTPs distributed along the studied area. In coastal waters 36 organic pollutants of the 71 analysed, including 26 PPs were detected although many of them with low frequency of occurrence. Only 13 compounds, which belong to four different classes (VOCs, organochlorinated pesticides, phthalates and tributyltin compounds (TBT)) showed a frequency o…

RAVITA Technology : new innovation for combined phosphorus and nitrogen recovery

2018

Abstract Present phosphorus (P) recovery technologies mainly contain P recovery from sludge liquor or ash. These types of technologies are suitable for large wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) with enhanced biological phosphorus removal (EBPR), digestion and/or incineration. In Finland and other Nordic countries, strict P discharge limits require chemical precipitation, thus EBPR alone is not sufficient. Ammonium recovery from wastewater, on the other hand, is not so often discussed. However, recovery from WWTP reject waters would decrease the energy demand of ammonium synthesis by Haber-Bosh technology and the energy demand of the WWTP's biological process. Helsinki Region Environmental S…

Identification of microbial taxa involved in cultural heritage deterioration and able to produce health hazardous substances by molecular techniques.

2008

Fungi and bacterial, wide-spread in biosphere environments, are the main microorganisms related to the deterioration of cultural assets but, moreover, complex microbial communities may emit mixed aerosol into indoor air. In this study the microbial colonization is investigated from to point of view, conservation of cultural heritage and related potential illness to visitors or professionals. The sampling was performed by non-destructive procedures on works of art surfaces, and by the gelatin membrane filter method (Sartorius) for aerosol. The identification of microbial taxa was performed by molecular analyses based on PCR, sequencing, sequence comparison techniques and, particularly for fu…