Monitoring and identification of airborne asbestos in unorganized sectors, India

Rajasthan state in India is credited to cater more than 90% of total production of asbestos in this country, of which around 60% is processed there in unorganized sectors including milling and manufacturing of asbestos-based products. Unorganized asbestos units particularly mills showed unhealthy occupational conditions, therefore industrial hygiene study was carried out focusing on the prevalence of asbestos fibres in air at work zone area of asbestos milling units. Fibre levels were in the range of 2.00-5.09f/cm(3) and 4.07-15.60f/cm(3) in unorganized asbestos mills of Rajasthan located at Beawer and Deogarh districts, respectively. Like asbestos concentration, fibre type and length are also vital factors in the health risk assessment of industrial workers. Phase contrast and polarized light microscopic study of asbestos fibres showed their amphibole nature registering about 90% as tremolite and rest as anthophyllite. Fibre length measured micrometrically were sub-grouped in <10microm, 11-20microm, 21-30microm and >30microm. About 30-40% fibres belonged to sub-group <10microm. It is concluded that unorganized asbestos mills bear poor industrial unhygienic conditions reflected specifically from their manyfold higher fibre concentrations than the Indian and International standards. Poor industrial unhygienic conditions are attributable to obsolete milling technology, lack of pollution control devices and escape from regulatory control.     

Source Apportionment of Particulate Matter (PM10) and Indoor Dust in a University Building

A study on source apportionment of indoor dust and particulate matter (PM₁₀) composition was conducted in a university building by using chemometrics. The objective of this study was to investigate the potential sources of selected heavy metals and ionic species in PM₁₀ and indoor dust. PM₁₀ samples were collected using a low-volume sampler (LVS) and indoor dust was collected using a soft brush. Inductively coupled plasma spectrometry (ICP-MS) was used to determine the concentration of heavy metals, while the concentration of cations and anions was determined by atomic absorption spectrometer (AAS) and ion chromatography (IC), respectively. The concentration of PM₁₀ recorded in the building throughout the sampling period ranged from 20 ± 10 μgm^?3 to 80 ± 33 μgm^?3. The composition of heavy metals in PM₁₀ and indoor dust were dominated by zinc (Zn), followed by lead (Pb), copper (Cu), and cadmium (Cd). Principle component analysis (PCA) and multiple linear regression (MLR) showed that the main sources of pollutants in PM₁₀ came from indoor renovations (73.83%), vehicle emissions (16.38%), earth crust sources (9.68%), and other outdoor sources (0.11%). For indoor dust, the pollutant source was mainly earth crust. This study suggests that chemometrics can be used for forensic investigation to determine the possible sources of indoor contaminants within a public building.     

Examining the effectiveness of low-carbon strategies in South Asian countries: the case of energy efficiency and renewable energy

Environment, Development and Sustainability - This paper examines the impact of energy efficiency (EE) and renewable energy (RE) on carbon emissions, using a panel data of South Asian countries...     

Using process stream index (PSI) to assess inherent safety level during preliminary design stage

In the current practice, safety assessment is conducted once the process design has been completed. At this stage of design, the freedom to change the conceptual design is very limited and whatever strategies to be implemented will only control the hazard. This paper reports on the development of inherent safety index known as a process stream index (PSI) for inherent safety level assessment at preliminary design stage from the perspective of an explosion. The aim for PSI is to calculate, compare and prioritize the level of inherent safety of process streams during simulation work that influences the explosion. By prioritizing the streams based on the potential for the explosion, the design engineers can easily identify the critical streams to be considered for improvement in order to avoid or minimize explosion hazards. An enhancement technique to reflect the contribution of the individual components in the mixture is introduced, which provide significant contribution to the ranking of inherent safety level of process streams. The assessment of inherent safety level using PSI is demonstrated by case studies of HYSYS simulation for Acrylic Acid Plant and Natural Gas Liquid (NGL) plant.     

Psychosocial safety climate: Conceptual distinctiveness and effect on job demands and worker psychological health

Psychosocial safety climate is an emerging construct that refers to shared perceptions regarding policies, practices, and procedures for the protection of worker psychological health and safety. The purpose of the research was to: (1) demonstrate that psychosocial safety climate is a construct distinct from related climate measures (i.e., physical safety climate, team psychological safety, and perceived organizational support); and (2) test the proposition that organizational psychosocial safety climate determines work conditions (i.e., job demands) and subsequently worker psychological health. We used samples from two different cultures; an Australian sample (N = 126 workers in 16 teams within a primary health care organization) and a Malaysian sample (N = 180 workers in 31 teams from different organizations and diverse industries). In both samples confirmatory factor analysis verified that psychosocial safety climate is a construct distinct from related climate measures. Using hierarchical linear modeling, psychosocial safety climate was superior to other team level climate measures in its negative relationship to both job demands and psychological health problems. Results supported a mediation process, psychosocial safety climate → job demands → psychological health problems, corroborating psychosocial safety climate as a preeminent stress risk factor, and an efficient target for intervention. We found both physical and psychosocial safety climates were stronger in the Australian, compared with the Malaysian work context. Levels of psychosocial safety climate were significantly lower than those of physical safety climate in both countries indicating a ‘universal’ lack of attention to workplace psychological health.     

At-risk behaviour analysis and improvement study in an academic laboratory

Academic laboratories contain inherently substantial risk conditions that students could expose to chemical and physical hazards. Procedures and guidelines related to laboratory safety are commonly available for students to adhere. However, many injuries and accidents or even fatalities are reported due to students’ violated safety practices while working in the laboratory. There was no reported proactive method or systematic technique to monitor and control students’ at-risk behaviour in the laboratory. This paper presented a program known as laboratory at-risk behaviour and improvement system (Lab-ARBAIS) to monitor and control students’ at-risk behaviours in the laboratory. Lab-ARBAIS used computer database for data acquisition and analysis on students’ at-risk behaviours observed. Pre-program questions on students’ at-risk behaviours that frequently violated safety regulations were utilized by observers to give observation feedback. The collected feedback was analysed and the results were posted in students’ portal to allow everyone to acknowledge their safety habits and practices. The routine observations and posted results are to instill a psychology effect in student’s habitual safety practices by reminding them on their frequently violated safety regulations. The implementation of the Lab-ARBAIS program to chemical engineering laboratory as a case study had shown a significant improvement on students’ frequent at-risk behaviours. The Lab-ARBAIS can easily be adopted in any academic laboratories to manage students’ at-risk behaviours to ensure safe work environment. With minor enhancement, the Lab-ARBAIS can easily be extended to be used in industrial laboratories.     

Dry reforming of methane over oil palm shell activated carbon and ZSM-5 supported cobalt catalysts

In this study, cobalt supported oil palm shell activated carbon (Co/OPS-AC) and ZSM-5 zeolite (Co/ZSM-5) catalysts have been prepared for dry reforming of methane. Cobalt ratios of 6.0 and 14.0 wt% were deposited via wet impregnation method to the OPS-AC and ZSM-5 catalysts. The catalysts were characterized by XRD, N₂ adsorption--desorption isotherms, BET surface area, SEM, FESEM-EDX, TPR-H₂, and TPD-NH₃. The dry reforming of methane was performed using a micro reactor system under the condition of 10,000 ml/h.g-cat, 3 atm, CH₄/CO₂ ratio of 1.2:1.0 and temperature range from 923 K to 1023 K. The gaseous products were analyzed by gas chromatography (GC) with thermal conductivity detector (TCD) and further quantified to determine the conversions of CH₄ and CO₂, and the yields of CO and H₂. Experimental results revealed both catalysts exhibited lower conversions of CO₂ and CH₄ with the increase in temperature from 923 K to 1023 K. The reduced conversions may be due to the formation of carboneous substance on the catalyst known as coking. Comparatively, Co/OPS-AC gave higher conversions of CO₂ and CH₄ as well as higher yields of H₂ and CO as it has a higher surface area than Co/ZSM-5 which subsequently rendered higher activity for the reforming of methane. With the increasing cobalt loadings and reaction temperature, OPS-AC(14) catalyst exhibited improved activity and H₂/CO ratio. Based on these results, cobalt supported OPS activated carbon catalyst was suggested to be more effective for CO₂ and CH₄ conversions.     

Evaluating multispecies landscape connectivity in a threatened tropical mammal community

Habitat corridors are important tools for maintaining connectivity in increasingly fragmented landscapes, but generally they have been considered in single‐species approaches. Corridors intended to facilitate the movement of multiple species could increase persistence of entire communities, but at the likely cost of being less efficient for any given species than a corridor intended specifically for that species. There have been few tests of the trade‐offs between single‐ and multispecies corridor approaches. We assessed single‐species and multispecies habitat corridors for 5 threatened mammal species in tropical forests of Borneo. We generated maps of the cost of movement across the landscape for each species based on the species’ local abundance as estimated through hierarchical modeling of camera‐trap data with biophysical and anthropogenic covariates. Elevation influenced local abundance of banded civets (Hemigalus derbyanus) and sun bears (Helarctos malayanus). Increased road density was associated with lower local abundance of Sunda clouded leopards (Neofelis diardi) and higher local abundance of sambar deer (Rusa unicolor). Pig‐tailed macaque (Macaca nemestrina) local abundance was lower in recently logged areas. An all‐species‐combined connectivity scenario with least‐cost paths and 1 km buffers generated total movement costs that were 27% and 23% higher for banded civets and clouded leopards, respectively, than the connectivity scenarios for those species individually. A carnivore multispecies connectivity scenario, however, increased movement cost by 2% for banded civets and clouded leopards. Likewise, an herbivore multispecies scenario provided more effective connectivity than the all‐species‐combined scenario for sambar and macaques. We suggest that multispecies habitat connectivity plans be tailored to groups of ecologically similar, disturbance‐sensitive species to maximize their effectiveness. Evaluación de la Conectividad de Terrenos Multiespecie en una Comunidad Tropical de Mamíferos     

Causes of salinity and plant manifestations to salt stress: a review

Salinity in agricultutal terms is the excess of salts above the level plant require. Most often it poses constrains in the growth hence productivity of the category of plants called glycophytes, wherein falls major crops, therefore is a serious concern. It is often recognized as excess of sodium ions (sodicity) that imparts life threatening consequences in plant due to mal-textured soil hindered porosity and aeration leads to physiological water deficit. Mingling with other edaphic/environmental factors viz. precipitation, temperature, flooding, soil profile, water table exaggerates the catastrophe synergistically. Improper irrigations system, leaching fraction added with land clearing and deforestation have been marked as the major cause. The present review underlines the different sources of salinity stress and their physiological manifestations, toxicity responses alongwith tolerance in plants and management strategies in affected landscapes.