Quantifying Asian and biomass burning sources of mercury using the Hg/CO ratio in pollution plumes observed at the Mount Bachelor observatory

Total airborne mercury (TAM) and carbon monoxide (CO) were measured in 22 pollution transport “events” at Mt. Bachelor Observatory (MBO), USA (2.8 km asl) between March 2004 and September 2005. Submicron particulate scattering (${\sigma }_{\mathrm{sp}})$, ozone (${\mathrm{O}}_3)$, and nitrogen oxides (${\mathrm{NO}}_y)$ were also measured and enhancement ratios for each chemical and aerosol species with CO were calculated. Events were categorized based on their source regions, which were determined by a combination of back trajectories, satellite fire detections, chemical and aerosol enhancement ratios, and meteorology. The mean $\mathrm{\Delta }\mathrm{TAM}/\mathrm{\Delta }\mathrm{CO}$ values for each source region are: East Asian industrial ($0.0046\pm 0.0013\mathrm{ng}{\mathrm{m}}^{-3}{\mathrm{ppbv}}^{-1}$, $n=10$ events, 236 h), Pacific Northwest U.S. (PNW) biomass burning ($0.0013\pm 0.008\mathrm{ng}{\mathrm{m}}^{-3}{\mathrm{ppbv}}^{-1}$, $n=7$ events, 173 h), and Alaska biomass burning ($0.0014\pm 0.0006\mathrm{ng}{\mathrm{m}}^{-3}{\mathrm{ppbv}}^{-1}$, $n=3$ events, 96 h). The $\mathrm{\Delta }\mathrm{TAM}/\mathrm{\Delta }\mathrm{CO}$ means from Asian long-range transport (ALRT) and biomass burning events are combined with previous estimates of CO emissions from Chinese anthropogenic, global biomass burning, and global boreal biomass sources in order to estimate the emissions of gaseous elemental mercury (GEM) from these sources. The GEM emissions that we calculate here are: Chinese anthropogenic ($620\pm 180\mathrm{t}{\mathrm{y}}^{-1}$), global biomass burning $(670\pm 330\mathrm{t}{\mathrm{y}}^{-1})$, and global boreal biomass burning $(168\pm 75\mathrm{t}{\mathrm{y}}^{-1})$, with errors estimated from propagating the uncertainty in the mean enhancement ratios and CO emissions. A comparison of our results with published mercury (Hg) emissions inventories reveals that the Chinese GEM emissions from this study are higher by about a factor of two, while our estimate for global biomass burning is consistent with previous studies.     

Precipitation chloride at West Point,NY: Seasonal patterns and possible contributions from non-seawater sources

Chloride derived from the atmosphere can be a valuable tracer in ecosystem and watershed processes. For these purposes and other environmental studies, it is important to establish temporal patterns and sources for ${\mathrm{Cl}}^{-}$ in wet deposition. Weekly composite precipitation samples have been analyzed by the National Atmospheric Deposition Program/National Trends Network (NADP/NTN) at West Point, NY during 1981–2003, although systematic contamination of precipitation ${\mathrm{Na}}^{+}$ significantly perturbed data for ${\mathrm{Na}}^{+}$ prior to 1998. Chloride and sodium ion seasonal wet deposition were highest in winter and lowest in summer through most of the record, probably as a result of more frequent marine-trajectory storms in winter. During 1998–2003, the period of highest quality ${\mathrm{Na}}^{+}$ data, the ratio of $[{\mathrm{Cl}}^{-}]/[{\mathrm{Na}}^{+}]$ was significantly higher than average in summer and lower in winter. Higher summer $[{\mathrm{Cl}}^{-}]/[{\mathrm{Na}}^{+}]$ occurred consistently throughout the record, often reaching values four times the seawater ratio. Based on the ratio of $[{\mathrm{Cl}}^{-}]/[{\mathrm{Na}}^{+}]$ in seawater $(1.16)\sim 16\%$ of annual wet deposition of ${\mathrm{Cl}}^{-}$ during 1998–2003 was in excess of that for surface seawater. Additionally, a minor terrestrial dust ${\mathrm{Na}}^{+}$ component was approximated, which had the net effect of increasing annual excess ${\mathrm{Cl}}^{-}$ wet deposition to $\sim 22\%$ ($2.56\mathrm{mEq}{\mathrm{m}}^{-2}$ or $0.90\mathrm{kg}{\mathrm{ha}}^{-1}$) of the mean annual ${\mathrm{Cl}}^{-}$ wet deposition at West Point ($11.9\mathrm{mEq}{\mathrm{m}}^{-2}$ or $4.2\mathrm{kg}{\mathrm{ha}}^{-1}$). Consistent with plausible sources of non-seawater ${\mathrm{Cl}}^{-}$, we attribute excess ${\mathrm{Cl}}^{-}$ wet deposition to HCl emission from coal fired generating stations, HCl emissions from domestic and industrial waste incineration and to HCl formation in the regional atmosphere from reactions of sea-salt aerosols with S and N acidic gases.     

Determination of anti-anxiety and anti-epileptic drugs in hospital effluent and a preliminary risk assessment

In this study, an analytical methodology was developed for the determination of psycho-active drugs in the treated effluent of the University Hospital at the Federal University of Santa Maria, RS – Brazil. Samples were collected from point A (Emergency) and point B (General effluent). The adopted methodology included a pre-concentration procedure involving the use of solid phase extraction and determination by liquid chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry. The limit of detection for bromazepam and lorazepam was 4.9 ± 1.0 ng L⁻¹ and, for carbamazepine, clonazepam and diazepam was 6.1 ± 1.5 ng L⁻¹. The limit of quantification was 30.0 ± 1.1 ng L⁻¹, for bromazepam, clonazepam and lorazepam; for carbamazepine was 50.0 ± 1.8 ng L⁻¹ and was 40.0 ± 1.0 ng L⁻¹ for diazepam. The mean concentrations in the Emergency and General effluent treated currents were as follows: for bromazepam, 195 ± 6 ng L⁻¹ and 137 ± 7 ng L⁻¹; for carbamazepine, 590 ± 6 ng L⁻¹ and 461 ± 10 ng L⁻¹; for diazepam, 645 ± 1 ng L⁻¹ and 571 ± 10 ng L⁻¹; for lorazepam, 96 ± 7 ng L⁻¹ and 42 ± 4 ng L⁻¹; and for clonazepam, 134 ± 10 ng L⁻¹ and 57 ± 10 ng L⁻¹. A preliminary risk assessment was conducted: carbamazepine and diazepam require considerable attention owing to their environmental toxicity. The occurrence of these psychoactive-drugs and the environmental risks that they pose demonstrated the need for a more efficient treatment system. As far we are aware, there have been no comparable studies to this on the hazards of hospital effluents in Brazil, and very few that have carried out a risk assessment of psycho-active drugs in hospital effluent in general.