Sanitary conditions in three creeks in Dubai,Sharjah and Ajman Emirates on the Arabian gulf (UAE)

A one-year monitoring program was carried out to assess the degree of pollution in three creeks on the northern coast of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), through measuring for chemical nutrients such as phosphate, ammonium, nitrate, nitrite and dissolved oxygen, in addition to enumerating selected microbial communities such as the heterotrophic bacteria, salt tolerant heterotrophic bacteria, Gram-negative bacteria, total coliform and faecal coliform bacteria. The results indicated that Dubai and Sharjah creeks have occasional unusually high nutrients levels with sharp fluctuations and wide spatial and temporal variations, suggesting the presence of an anthropogenic sources of pollution, creating these conditions, near the sampling sites. These sources includes several wastewater outlets and recreational facilities. Ajman creek had much less nutrients levels. The microbial counts in the three creeks had a distinct pattern where numbers peaked in mid spring (May) and autumn (October) and were relatively low during the summer and winter months. Total and faecal coliform fluctuated depending on several factors including the presence of nearby recreation and commercial areas, but were at no time consistently high. It was concluded that there is no major pollution problem in these creeks and recommendation were made to prevent it in the future.     

Removal of heavy metals through adsorption using sand

ＩｎｔｒｏｄｕｃｔｉｏｎＷａｔｅｒｃｏｎｔａｍｉｎａｎｔｓｉｎｃｌｕｄｅａｌａｒｇｅｎｕｍｂｅｒｏｆｃｈｅｍｉｃａｌｓｒａｎｇｉｎｇｆｒｏｍａｒｏｍａｔｉｃｈｙｄｒｏｃａｒｂｏｎｓ,ｏｒｇａｎｉｃｓｏｌｖｅｎｔｓ,ｐｅｓｔｉｃｉｄｅｓａｎｄｍｅｔａｌｓ.Ｈｅａｖｙｍｅｔａｌｃｏｎｔａｍｉｎａｔｉｏｎｉｓｃｏｍｍｏｎｌｙｆｏｕｎｄｉｎａｒｅａｓｗｈｅｒｅｉｎｄｕｓｔｒｉａｌｅｆｆｌｕｅｎｔｓａｒｅｄｉｓｃｈａｒｇｅｄｉｎｔｏｎａｔｕｒａｌｗａｔｅｒｓ .Ｔｈｅｈａｒｍｆｕｌｅｆｆｅｃｔｓｏｆｓｕｃｈｍ…     

Speciation of arsenic and chromium metal ions by reversed phase high performance liquid chromatography

The speciation of arsenic [As(III) and As(V)] and chromium [Cr(III) and Cr(VI)] was carried out by high performance liquid chromatography. The column used was Econosil C18 (250 x 4.6 mm i.d., particle size 10 microm). The mobile phases consisted of water-acetonitrile (80:20, v/v) for arsenic and 10 mM ammonium acetate buffer (6.0 pH)-acetonitrile (10:90, v/v) for chromium speciation separately and respectively. The detection was carried out by UV-Vis at 410 nm and atomic absorption spectrometer (AAS) respectively and separately. The values of alpha and Rs of As(III) and As(V) species were 1.4 and 1.5 respectively while the values of alpha and Rs for Cr(III) and Cr(VI) were 1.35 and 0.2 respectively. The effect of the acetonitrile percentages was also carried out on the speciation of arsenic only. The relative standard deviation and limit of detection were in the range of 0.01-0.02 and 0.4-1.0 microg/ml respectively.     

Elemental analysis of some Egyptian ores and industrial iron samples by neutron activation analysis

ＩｎｔｒｏｄｕｃｔｉｏｎＮｏｗａｄａｙｓ,ｍｏｒｅｉｎｔｅｒｅｓｔｈａｓｇｒｏｗｎｉｎｔｈｅｄｅｔｅｒｍｉｎａｔｉｏｎｏｆｔｈｅｅｌｅｍｅｎｔａｌｃｏｎｓｔｉｔｕｅｎｔｓｏｆｍｏｓｔｉｎｄｕｓｔｒｉａｌｍａｔｅｒｉａｌｓｓｕｃｈａｓｉｒｏｎｗｈｅｒｅｓｅｖｅｒａｌｄｉｆｆｅｒｅｎｔｍｅｔｈｏｄｓａｒｅｕｓｅｄ(Ｈａｓｓａｎ ,1982 ;Ａｂｄｕｌ,1990 ;Ｆａｉｌｅｙ ,1979;Ａｎｄｅｒｓｏｎ ,1981) .Ｒｅｃｅｎｔｌｙ ,ｔｈｅｒｅｗｅｒｅｍａｎｙｉｎｖｅｓｔｉｇａｔｉｏｎｓｏｎｅｌｅｍｅｎｔａｌａｎａｌｙｓｉ…     

Energy policies and environmental security: A multi-criteria analysis of energy policies of Pakistan

Access to affordable and efficient energy is a basic human right and an imperative for human development. The energy policies usually ponder technical, economic, environmental, and social aspects for successful procurement of energy and endowment of energy resources. The objectives of this paper are to analyze energy policies in Pakistan and assess their relationship with environmental security and development. An empirical and multi-criteria decision analysis was used to unfold the strong interactions of energy security with development and environment. The energy policies in Pakistan are more equipped with economic and technical aspects, fairly framed with social aspects and poorly pampered with environmental facets. The dearth of environmental aspects will not only results in environmental degradation but also lag the development and achievement of Sustainable Development Goals.     

Hand-arm vibration disorder among grass-cutter workers in Malaysia

Introduction. Prolonged exposure to hand-transmitted vibration from grass-cutting machines has been associated with increasing occurrences of symptoms and signs of occupational diseases related to hand–arm vibration syndrome (HAVS). Methods. A cross-sectional study was carried out using an adopted HAVS questionnaire on hand–arm vibration exposure and symptoms distributed to 168 male workers from the grass and turf maintenance industry who use hand-held grass-cutting machines as part of their work. The prevalence ratio and symptom correlation to HAVS between high and low–moderate exposure risk groups were evaluated. Results. There were positive HAVS symptoms relationships between the low–moderate exposure group and the high exposure group among hand-held grass-cutting workers. The prevalence ratio was considered high because there were indicators that fingers turned white and felt numb, 3.63, 95% CI [1.41, 9.39] and 4.24, 95% CI [2.18, 8.27], respectively. Less than 14.3% of workers stated that they were aware of the occupational hand–arm vibration, and it seemed to be related to the finger blanching and numbness. Conclusion. The results suggest that HAVS is under-diagnosed in Malaysia, especially in the agricultural sectors. More information related to safety and health awareness programmes for HAVS exposure is required among hand-held grass-cutting workers.     

Treatment of dynamic mixture of hexane and benzene vapors in a Trickle Bed Air Biofilter integrated with cyclic adsorption/desorption beds

One of the main challenges that face successful biofiltration is the erratic loading pattern and long starvation periods. However, such patterns are common in practical applications. In order to provide long-term stable operation of a biofilter under these conditions, a cyclic adsorption/desorption beds system with flow switching was installed prior to a biofilter. Different square waves of a mixture containing n-hexane and benzene at a 2:1 ratio were applied to the cyclic adsorption/desorption beds and then fed to a biofilter. The performance of this integrated system was compared to a biofilter unit receiving the same feed of both VOCs. The cyclic adsorption/desorption beds unit successfully achieved its goal of stabilizing erratic loading even with very sharp peaks at the influent concentration equalizing influent concentrations ranging from 10-470 ppmv for n-hexane to 30-1410 ppmv for benzene. The study included different peak concentrations with durations ranging from 6 to 20 min. The cyclic beds buffered the fluctuating influent load and the followed biofilter had all the time a continuous stable flow. Another advantage achieved by the cyclic adsorption/desorption beds was the uninterrupted feed to the biofilter even during the starvation where there was no influent in the feed. The results of the integrated system with regard to removal efficiency and kinetics are comparable to published results with continuous feed studies at the same loading rates. The removal efficiency for benzene had a minimum of 85% while for n-hexane ranged from 50% to 77% according to the loading rate. The control unit showed very erratic performance highlighting the benefit of the utilization of the cyclic adsorption/desorption beds. The biofilter was more adaptable to concentration changes in benzene than n-hexane.     

Amelioration of toxicopathological effects of cadmium with silymarin and milk thistle in male Japanese quail (Coturnix japonica)

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - Cadmium is an important widely distributed heavy metal in the environment due to its several industrial uses, while milk thistle is an important herb...