Evaluation of impact of sewage irrigation on cytotoxicological potentialities of Chenopodium album in Allium assay

Chenopodium album is a weed commonly consumed by North Indian population as vegetable. Plants are known to accumulate toxins from their environment. Presently, the leaf homogenates of these plants growing in a tubewell irrigated field and a sewage irrigated field were evaluated for cytotoxicological effects in Allium root tip assay. Studies revealed that Chenopodium album was mildly mitodepressive in nature and was capable of inducing chromosomal aberrations. The leaf homogenate of the plants growing in sewage irrigated fields induced more quantum of aberrations than the plants from the control site. This has a direct bearing on consumability of sewage grown vegetables and fodder.     

Cybil induced hepatobiochemical changes in wistar rats

Cybil, 25%EC formulation of Cypermethrin, induces biochemical changes in the liver of wistar rats after oral intubation of the same at acute (one day) and subacute (7, 14 and 21 days) levels. The changes were tallied with the controls run simultaneously. LD50 of Cybil was estimated to be 622mg/kg body weight The acute dose is 80mg/kg body weight exposed for one day i.e. 24 hours and subacute dose is 4mg/kg body weight exposed for 7, 14 and 21 days. When compared with the control values, both the doses enhanced the level of glycogen, cholesterol, total lipid and acid phosphatase activities, while decreased activity of alkaline phosphatase. Alterations in glycogen, cholesterol, total lipid, acid phosphatase and alkaline phosphatase resulted in the impairement in liver physiology.     

Leaching of aluminium from cookwares -- a review

Concern over the possible relation between environmental aluminium exposure and Alzheimer's disease has prompted studies of all forms of human intake of this element including that from foods. Aluminium cookware, apart from other sources of dietary aluminium, is considered to be a potential source of this metal to human beings. Various research groups have carried out aluminium leaching experiments with food, beverages and water under different experimental conditions modified by varying the level of pH, chloride, fluoride, citrate, acetate etc. The results reported by different workers show marked discrepancies in levels of leached aluminum. The apparent reason for such discrepancy in levels of aluminum leached can be attributed to factors such as non-systematic and non-uniform experimental designs, non-standard conditions maintained during the experiments and choice of method for aluminium analysis. In order to assess accurately the contribution of aluminium ingestion by human beings through aluminium cookware, the present review emphasises the need of i) standard size aluminium plates obtained from the same lot for one set of experimentations; ii) real life cooking conditions to highlight the role of various complexing species present in food e.g. citrate, oxalate, acetate, tartrate etc.; iii) role of chemistry of aluminium in presence of acidic, basic and neutral cooking medium and iv) strict analytical control in the estimation of aluminium. Results of a systematic study by the authors conducted on the abovementioned lines are also described.     

The duckweed Wolffia globosa as an indicator of heavy metal pollution: Sensitivity to Cr and Cd

The potential of Wolffia globosa, a profusely occurring rootless duckweed, was evaluated as an indicator of metal pollution in the water bodies. Plants of W. globosa were cultured in 3% Hoagland's nutrient medium which was supplemented with 0.05, 0.1, 1.0 and 2.0 mg/L of Cr and Cd. Plants showed substantial accumulation of both the metals at lowest concentrations. For example, at 0.05 ppm, the concentration factor (Cf) value for Cr was significantly higher (5616) than for Cd (1018). A high level of tolerance was shown by the plants to both Cr and Cd. The results show that the plants are sensitive to the variations in metal concentration and are capable of high metal enrichment at very low ambient concentration of the metals. This information may be useful for detecting metals in the water.NBRI Research Publication No. 401 (N.S.)     

Statistical inferences from measured data on concentrations of naturally occurring radon,thoron, and decay products in Kumaun Himalayan belt

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - Regional averages of radon, thoron, and associated decay product concentration are reported to be higher than their respective global averages in...     

Comparing PFAS to other groundwater contaminants: Implications for remediation

Established groundwater contaminants such as chlorinated solvents and hydrocarbons have impacted groundwater at hundreds of thousands of sites around the United States and have been responsible for multibillion dollar remediation expenditures. An important question is whether groundwater remediation for the emerging contaminant class comprised of per‐ and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) will be a smaller, similar, or a larger‐scale problem than the established groundwater contaminants. A two‐pronged approach was used to evaluate this question in this paper. First, nine quantitative scale‐of‐remediation metrics were used to compare PFAS to four established contaminants: chlorinated solvents, benzene, 1,4‐dioxane, and methyl tert‐butyl ether. These metrics reflected the prevalence of the contaminants in the U.S., attenuation potential, remediation difficulty, and research intensity. Second, several key challenges identified with PFAS remediation were evaluated to see similar situations (qualitative analogs) that have been addressed by the remediation field in the past. The results of the analysis show that four out of nine of the evaluated quantitative metrics (production, number of potential sites, detection frequency, required destruction/removal efficiency) indicate that the scale of PFAS groundwater remediation may be smaller compared to the current scale of remediation for conventional groundwater contaminants. One attenuation metric, median plume length, suggests that overall PFAS remediation could pose a greater challenge compared to hydrocarbon sites, but only slightly larger than chlorinated volatile organic compounds sites. The second attenuation metric, hydrophobic sorption, was not definitive regarding the potential scale of PFAS remediation. The final three metrics (regulatory criteria, in‐situ remediation capability, and research intensity) all indicate that PFAS remediation might end up being a larger scale problem than the established contaminants. An assessment of the evolution of groundwater remediation capabilities for established contaminants identified five qualitative analogs for key PFAS groundwater remediation issues: (a) low‐level detection analytical capabilities; (b) methods to assess the risk of complex chemical mixtures; (c) nonaqueous phase dissolution as an analog for partitioning, precursors, and back diffusion at PFAS sites; (d) predictions of long plume lengths for emerging contaminants; and (e) monitored natural attenuation protocols for other non‐degrading groundwater contaminants. Overall the evaluation of these five analogs provided some comfort that, while remediating the potential universe of PFAS sites will be extremely challenging, the groundwater community has relevant past experience that may prove useful. The quantitative metrics and the qualitative analogs suggest a different combination of remediation approaches may be needed to deal with PFAS sites and may include source control, natural attenuation, in‐situ sequestration, containment, and point‐of‐use treatment. However, as with many chlorinated solvent sites, while complete restoration of PFAS sites may be uncommon, it should be possible to prevent excessive exposure of PFAS to human and ecological receptors.     

Assessment of the interactive effects of ambient O3 and NPK levels on two tropical mustard varieties (Brassica campestris L.) using open-top chambers

Rising O(3) concentrations in agricultural areas have been identified as a significant threat to crop production in Asia including India. The present work reports the results of a field study conducted to assess the usefulness of higher than recommended NPK dose in modifying the physiological, growth, yield, and seed quality responses of two mustard (Brassica campestris L. var. Vardan and Aashirwad) varieties under ambient ozone level at a rural site of India, using open-top chambers. Twelve hourly mean O(3) concentrations ranged between 27.7 and 59.04 ppb during the growth period. Plants in nonfiltered chambers (NFCs) showed reductions in photosynthetic rate, stomatal conductance, and growth parameters compared to the plants in filtered chambers (FCs), but reductions were of lower magnitude at 1.5 times recommended dose of NPK (1.5 RNPK) compared to recommended (RNPK). Yield and seed quality reduced significantly in plants of NFCs compared to FCs at RNPK, but no significant differences were recorded at 1.5 RNPK. There were higher N uptake and N uptake efficiency of plants in FCs compared to NFCs. Nitrogen utilization efficiency increased in Vardan, but decreased in Aashirwad in NFCs compared to FCs suggesting higher capability of N acquisition and utilization under ambient O(3), which led to a less pronounced reduction in the yield of the former than the latter variety. The differential nitrogen utilization efficiency in these varieties may be potentially used as measure of sensitivity characteristics in breeding programs for yield improvement in mustard under the present trend of increase in O(3) concentrations.     

Organ-wise accumulation of fluoride in Prosopis juliflora and its potential for phytoremediation of fluoride contaminated soil

Fluoride (F) contamination is a global environmental problem, as there is no cure of fluorosis available yet. Prosopis juliflora is a leguminous perennial, phreatophyte tree, widely distributed in arid and semi-arid regions of world. It extensively grows in F endemic areas of Rajasthan (India) and has been known as a “green” solution to decontaminate cadmium, chromium and copper contaminated soils. This study aims to check the tolerance potential of P. juliflora to accumulate fluoride. For this work, P. juliflora seedlings were grown for 75 d on soilrite under five different concentrations of F viz., control, 25, 50, 75 and 100 mg NaF kg⁻¹. Organ-wise accumulation of F, bioaccumulation factor (BF), translocation factor (TF), growth ratio (GR) and F tolerance index (TI) were examined. Plant accumulated high amounts of F in roots. The organ-wise distribution showed an accumulation 4.41 mg kg⁻¹dw, 12.97 mg kg⁻¹dw and 16.75 mg kg⁻¹dw F, in stem, leaves and roots respectively. The results indicated significant translocation of F from root into aerial parts. The bioaccumulation and translocation factor values (>1.0) showed high accumulation efficiency and tolerance of P. juliflora to F. It is concluded that P. juliflora is a suitable candidate for phytoremediation purpose and can be explored further for the decontamination of F polluted soils.     

Water quality analysis of surface water: a Web approach

The chemical, physical and biological characteristics of water with respect to its suitability describe its quality. Concentration of pesticides or fertilisers degrades the water quality and affects marine life. A comprehensive environmental data information system helps to perform and complete common tasks in less time with less effort for data verification, data calculations, graph generation, and proper monitoring, which helps in the further mitigation step. In this paper, focus is given to a web-based system developed to express the quality of water in the imprecise environment of monitoring data. Water samples were analyzed for eight different surface water parameters, in which four parameters such as pH, dissolved oxygen, biochemical oxygen demand, and fecal coliform were used for the water quality index calculation following MPCB Water Quality Standards of class A-II for best designated use. The analysis showed that river points in a particular year were in very bad category with certainty level of 0–38 % which is unsuitable for drinking purposes; samples in bad category had certainty level that ranged from 38 to 50 %; samples in medium to good category had certainty levels from 50 to 100 %, and the remaining samples were in good to excellent category, suitable for drinking purposes, with certainty levels from 63 to 100 %.     

A life cycle based multi-objective optimization model for the management of computer waste

The accelerating pace of waste generation from used electrical and electronic equipment is of growing global concern. Within this waste stream, computer hardware is quite significant in terms of both volume and risk to the environment because of the hazardous materials within it. The waste management hierarchy of prevention, reuse, recycle, treatment and disposal in landfill is accepted as a universal guideline for waste management. The contemporary concept of integrated solid waste management is very complex comprising of not only the environmental aspects or the technical aspects of the waste management hierarchy, but also incorporating economic, institutional, perceived risk and social issues in the context of complete life cycle of waste. Moreover, when to shift from one stage of hierarchy to another, is an involved decision warranting inclusion of several case specific issues. This paper presents a life cycle based multi-objective model that can help decision makers in integrated waste management. The proposed model has been applied to a case study of computer waste scenario in Delhi, India, which apart from having computer waste from its native population receives large quantities of imported second hand computers. The model has been used to evaluate management cost and reuse time span or life cycle of various streams of computer waste for different objectives of economy, perceived risk and environmental impact. The model results for different scenarios of waste generation have been analyzed to understand the tradeoffs between cost, perceived risk and environmental impact. The optimum life cycle of a computer desktop was observed to be shorter by 25% while optimizing cost than while optimizing impact to the environment or risk perceived by public. Proposed integrated approach can be useful for determining the optimum life cycle of computer waste, as well as optimum configuration of waste management facilities, for urban centers where computer waste related issues are of growing concern.