Diagnostic study of critical circuits of the Kraft pulp production process considering the environmental aspects

This paper describes systematic work undertaken in the field of atmospheric emissions from Portuguese Kraft pulp mills. The study led to the determination of emission factors from stationary sources, which proved to be an important tool for assessing the need for investment in air pollution abatement equipment, specifically for malodorous gases.     

Traffic congestion and ozone precursor emissions in Bilbao (Spain)

GOAL. SCOPE. BACKGROUND: In urban environments, the measured levels of ozone are the result of the interaction between emissions of precursors (mainly VOCs and NOx) and meteorological effects. In this work, time series of daily values of ozone, measured at three locations in Bilbao (Spain), have been built. Then, after removing meteorological effects from them, ozone and traffic data have been analyzed jointly. The goal was to identify traffic situations and link them to ozone levels in the area of Bilbao. METHODS: To remove meteorological effects from the selected ozone time series, the technique developed by Rao and Zurbenko was used. This is a widely used technique and, after its application, the fraction obtained from a given ozone time series represents an ozone forming capability attributable to emissions of precursors. This fraction is devoid of any meteorological influence and includes only the apportion of periodicities above 1.7 years. In the case of Bilbao, the ozone fractions obtained at three locations have been compared on that time scale with traffic data from the area. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION: For the 1993-1996 period, a regression analysis of the ozone and traffic fractions due to periodicities above 1.7 years (long-term fractions), shows that traffic is the main explanatory factor for ozone with R2 ranging from 0.916 to 0.996 at the three locations studied. Analysis of these longterm fractions has made it possible to identify two traffic regimes for the whole area, associated to different profiles of ozone forming capability. The first one favors low ozone forming capability, and is associated with a situation of fluent traffic. The second one shows high ozone forming capability and represents congestion. Joint analysis of raw data of ozone and traffic do not show any clear pattern due to the strong masking effects that seasonal-meteorological effects (mainly radiation) have on the measured ozone signal. If only immission data of ozone are available, as in this case, a comparison between ozone and traffic can only be made on the long-term time scale, since that is the only fraction embedded in the ozone time series that can exclusively be attributed to emissions of precursors. This fact stresses the need to study the different fractions embedded in the time series of ozone measured levels separately. CONCLUSION: Though the coefficients obtained in the regression are only valid for the 1993-1996 period, these traffic regimes represent long-term targets (congestion or fluent traffic) that can inspire policies for a joint management of the traffic and pollution by ozone in the area of Bilbao beyond that period. RECOMMENDATIONS AND OUTLOOK: The results of this work show the need of a joint management of ozone and traffic in Bilbao. Since an accurate knowledge of traffic was not available, the use of emission factors to relate traffic and actual ozone levels has not been possible. For this reason, this study has focused on the long-term fractions of traffic and ozone. In the future, if a more accurate knowledge of traffic is available, it will be possible to find relationships between traffic and ozone on all time scales.     

Ozone pollution and ozone biomonitoring in European cities. Part I: Ozone concentrations and cumulative exposure indices at urban and suburban sites

In the frame of a European research project on air quality in urban agglomerations, data on ozone concentrations from 23 automated urban and suburban monitoring stations in 11 cities from seven countries were analysed and evaluated. Daily and summer mean and maximum concentrations were computed based on hourly mean values, and cumulative ozone exposure indices (Accumulated exposure Over a Threshold of 40 ppb (AOT40), AOT20) were calculated. The diurnal profiles showed a characteristic pattern in most city centres, with minimum values in the early morning hours, a strong rise during the morning, peak concentrations in the afternoon, and a decline during the night. The widest amplitudes between minimum and maximum values were found in central and southern European cities such as Düsseldorf, Verona, Klagenfurt, Lyon or Barcelona. In the northern European cities of Edinburgh and Copenhagen, by contrast, maximum values were lower and diurnal variation was much smaller. Based on ozone concentrations as well as on cumulative exposure indices, a clear north–south gradient in ozone pollution, with increasing levels from northern and northwestern sites to central and southern European sites, was observed. Only the Spanish cities did not fit this pattern; there, ozone levels were again lower than in central European cities, probably due to the direct influence of strong car traffic emissions. In general, ozone concentrations and cumulative exposure were significantly higher at suburban sites than at urban and traffic-exposed sites. When applying the newly established European Union (EU) Directive on ozone pollution in ambient air, it was demonstrated that the target value for the protection of human health was regularly surpassed at urban as well as suburban sites, particularly in cities in Austria, France, northern Italy and southern Germany. European target values and long-term objectives for the protection of vegetation expressed as AOT40 were also exceeded at many monitoring sites.     

Bioaccumulation and elimination of 14C-lindane by Enchytraeus albidus in artificial (OECD) and a natural soil

Bioaccumulation and elimination of 14C-lindane in Enchytraeus albidus was studied in artificial OECD soil and a silty loam from an agricultural field in Central West Portugal. Results showed that enchytraeids were able to bioaccumulate the chemical with a kinetic pattern similar to that of earthworms: fast uptake within a few days and a biphasic elimination pattern. A 10 day period to study uptake was sufficient, but a few more days were probably necessary for elimination. Bioaccumulation was influenced by soil type. The authors suggest that higher organic matter (OM) content and also the higher content on sand particles in the OECD soil may have led to a faster elimination: hydrophobic chemicals tend to adsorb to OM being in this way less bioavailable and therefore less bioaccumulated having bioaccumulation factor value around 6 while in natural soil is 10; the sand could act as abrasive particles (helpers) in the elimination process leading to an elimination of 90% of the chemical in two days while in natural soil 67% was eliminated in the same period of time.     

Influence of air pollution on the incidence of respiratory tract neoplasm

To evaluate the possible influence of air pollutants on the incidence of respiratory tract neoplasm we studied 12 S?o Paulo City districts where air pollution is observed. We collected data on pollutants from 1981-1990 and correlated it with the incidence of larynx and lung neoplasms in 1997. Ozone was the pollutant that best correlated with the incidence of neoplasm. The correlation coefficients were 0.7234 (p=0.277) and 0.9929 (p=0.007) for lung and larynx cancer, respectively. There may be a relationship between air pollution and the incidence of respiratory tract neoplasm. This study, however, does not allow us to conclude that there is a causal relationship.     

Evaluation of soil temperature effect on herbicide leaching potential into groundwater in the Brazilian Cerrado

The effect of annual variations in the daily average soil temperatures, at different depths, on the calculation of pesticide leaching potential indices is presented. This index can be applied to assess the risk of groundwater contamination by a pesticide. It considers the effects of water table depth, daily recharge net rate, pesticide sorption coefficient, and degradation rate of the pesticide in the soil. The leaching potential index is frequently used as a screening indicator in pesticide groundwater contamination studies, and the temperature effect involved in its calculation is usually not considered. It is well known that soil temperature affects pesticide degradation rates, air-water partition coefficient, and water-soil partition coefficient. These three parameters are components of the attenuation and retardation factors, as well as the leaching potential index, and contribute to determine pesticide behavior in the environment. The Arrhenius, van't Hoff, and Clausius-Clapeyron equations were used in this work to estimate the soil temperature effect on pesticide degradation rate, air-water partition coefficient, and water-soil partition coefficient, respectively. The relationship between leaching potential index and soil temperature at different depths is presented and aids in the understanding of how potential pesticide groundwater contamination varies on different climatic conditions. Numerical results will be presented for 31 herbicides known to be used in corn and soybean crops grown on the municipality of S?o Gabriel do Oeste, Mato Grosso do Sul State, Brazil.     

Sustainable watershed management: an international multi-watershed case study

Global freshwater resources are being increasingly polluted and depleted, threatening sustainable development and human and ecosystem health. Utilizing case studies from 4 different watersheds in the United States, Japan, Switzerland, and Brazil, this paper identifies the most relevant sustainability deficits and derives general vectors for more sustainable water management. As a consequence of the demographic and economic developments experienced in the last few decades, each watershed has suffered declines in water quality, streamflow and biotic resources. However, the extent and the cultural perception of these water-related problems vary substantially in the different watersheds, leading to specific water-management strategies. In industrialized countries, exemplified by the US, Switzerland, and Japan, these strategies have primarily consisted of finance- and energy-intensive technologies, allowing these countries to meet water requirements while minimizing human health risks. But, from a sustainability point of view, such strategies, relying on limited natural resources, are not long-term solutions. For newly industrialized countries such as Brazil, expensive technologies for water management are often not economically feasible, thus limiting the extent to which newly industrialized and developing countries can utilize the expertise offered by the industrialized world. Sustainable water management has to be achieved by a common learning process involving industrialized, newly industrialized, and developing countries, following general sustainability guidelines as exemplified in this paper.     

Did the Romans introduce the Egyptian mongoose (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Herpestes ichneumon</Emphasis>) into the Iberian Peninsula?

New finds of bones of the Egyptian Mongoose (Herpestes ichneumon), one from Portugal and one from Spain, were directly ¹⁴C dated to the first century AD. While the Portuguese specimen was found without connection to the Chalcolithic occupation of the Pedra Furada cave where it was recovered, the Spanish find, collected in the city of Mérida, comes from a ritual pit that also contained three human and 40 dog burials. The finds reported here show that the Egyptian mongoose, contrary to the traditional and predominant view, did not first arrive in the Iberian Peninsula during the Muslim occupation of Iberia. Instead, our findings are consistent with the hypothesis that the species was first introduced by the Romans, or at least sometime during the Roman occupation of Hispania. Therefore, radiocarbon dating of new archaeological finds of bones of the Egyptian Mongoose (Herpestes ichneumon) in the Iberian Peninsula push back the confirmed presence of the species in the region by approximately eight centuries, as the previously oldest dated record is from the ninth century. With these new dates, there are now a total of four ¹⁴C dated specimens of Egyptian mongooses from the Iberian Peninsula, and all of these dates fall within the last 2000 years. This offers support for the hypothesis that the presence of the species in Iberia is due to historical introductions and is at odds with a scenario of natural sweepstake dispersal across the Straits of Gibraltar in the Late Pleistocene (126,000–11,700 years ago), recently proposed based on genetic data.