Water,sanitation, hygiene and waste disposal practices as COVID-19 response strategy: insights from Bangladesh

Environment, Development and Sustainability - The COVID-19 pandemic has caused a global emergence, and the absence of a proven vaccine or medicine has led to the implementation of measures to...     

Impact of green trust and green perceived quality on green purchase intentions: a moderation study

Environment, Development and Sustainability - The current study explores the role of green trust, green perceived risk and green perceived quality in changing green purchase intention....     

Long-term Dynamics of Pike Infection by Parasites Triaenophorus crassus and T. nodulosus (Plathelminthes,Cestoda) in the Rybinsk Reservoir: Effect of Hydraulic Construction and Climate Warming

Russian Journal of Ecology - The long-term dynamics (over more than 70 years) of pike infection by cestodes Triaenophorus crassus and T. nodulosus in the Rybinsk Reservoir (the Volga River) has...     

Demonstration of a high field electrostatically enhanced venturi scrubber on a magnesium furnace fume emission

A 566 m³/m (20,000 acfm) permanent installation demonstration system, consisting of the Air Pollution Systems' High Intensity Ionizer and a variable throat venturi scrubber (called the Scrub-E) has been installed on a magnesium recovery furnace. The furnace produces submicron fume particles of MgO, MgCl₂, and ZrCl₄. The system is designed to demonstrate the effectiveness of the High Intensity Ionizer versus high venturi pressure drop on the furnace emissions. The High Intensity Ionizer array operates stably at field strengths of 10–15 kV/cm and at velocities in excess of 18 m/sec (60 fps) while maintaining high charging efficiencies. The report covers the system design, technology, applications, and project developments. An Environmental Protection Agency proposed charged droplet Scrub-E is also discussed covering the design, technology, and proposed demonstration program.     

Application of slipstreamed air pollution control devices on waste-as-fuel processes

The recovery of energy from the combustion of municipal solid wastes is becoming an attractive alternative as landfill space becomes scarce and the availability of fossil fuels decreases. Particulate emissions from “waste-as-fuel” processes, however, may differ significantly in chemical and physical properties from particulate emissions produced by firing only coal. Such differences can affect the design and operation of air pollution control equipment. Presented in this paper are the results of a 2-month test program at Ames, Iowa, with a mobile electrostatic precipitator (ESP) and a mobile scrubber supplied by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Industrial Environmental Research Laboratory (IERL), Research Triangle Park. PEDCo Environmental, Inc., and Acurex Corporation jointly conducted the test program to examine the effect of burning refuse-derived fuel (RDF) on particulate and heavy metal control efficiencies. The mobile ESP was used only as a primary control device, whereas the mobile scrubber was tested both upstream and downstream of the existing full-scale ESP. This paper also presents a status report on a PEDCo test program with a pilot fabric filter at Ames.     

High velocity fabric filtration for control of coal-fired boilers

As a follow-up to a pilot study, a full scale investigation of applying high velocity fabric filtration to coal-fired boiler fly ash control was conducted. Two filter systems were separately applied to two 60,000 lb/h coal-fired boilers. Performance evaluations conducted over the course of a year included total mass removal efficiency and fractional efficiencies. One filtration system employed Teflon felt as the filter media while the second system employed Gore-Tex, a Polytetrofluorethylene (PTFE) laminate on PTFE woven backing. During the course of the year, a limited number of glass felt and woven glass bags were introduced into the house containing Gore-Tex. As a separate option, the second system was outfitted entirely with woven glass bags. Preliminary results indicate acceptable performance at air-to-cloth ratio of 6 to 1. Future plans call for utilizing one of the baghouse systems for SO₂ removal.     

Mutagenic and carcinogenic potency of extracts of diesel and related environmental emissions: Study design, sample generation, collection, and preparation

A major diesel emissions research program has been initiated by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to assess the human health risk associated with increased use of diesel automobiles. This program is intended to establish the mutagenic and carcinogenic potency of complex organics associated with diesel particles as well as comparative particle-bound organics from other environmental emissions for which human epidemiological data are available. The mobile source samples selected for this study were collected from a heavy-duty diesel engine, a series of light-duty diesel passenger cars, and a gasoline catalyst automobile. The comparative source samples incorporated into the study were cigarette smoke condensate, coke oven emissions, roofing tar emissions, and benzo(a)pyrene. The samples were tested using three mutagenic assays and four carcinogenic assays as prescribed by a test matrix. This report describes the study design, particle generation, and sample collection and preparation. A brief summary of the bioassays is also included.     

Mutagenic and carcinogenic potency of extracts from diesel related environmental emissions: Simultaneous morphological transformation and mutagenesis in BALB/c 3t3 cells

Particulate extracts from six different environmental emission sources were assayed for genotoxic activity in mouse BALB/c 3T3 clone A31-1 cells. All compounds were tested simultaneously for both transforming and mutagenic (induction of ouabain-resistance) potential with and without exogenous metabolic activation in the form of a 9000 × g postmitochondrial hepatic supernatant fraction from Aroclor-1254 induced Fischer 344 rats. Dichloromethane particulate extracts from the exhaust of two light duty diesel engines (Oldsmobile and Nissan), one heavy duty diesel engine (Caterpillar) and one late model gasoline engine (Mustang II) were assayed in an identical manner to particulate extracts from the emissions of a roofing tar pot and a coke oven. No clear dose-dependent responses were observed, but several of the samples showed significant transforming and mutagenic activity. A qualitative ranking system showed the activity of these particulate extracts for either mutagenesis or transformation was: coke oven = Mustang II gasoline engine > Nissan diesel engine > roofing tar. Particulate extracts from the Oldsmobile diesel engine and the Caterpillar diesel engine showed essentially no activity.     

An elemental rationing technique for assessing concentration data from a complex water system

Water samples have been collected at the surface and bottom layers at 51 locations throughout Chesapeake Bay. The suspended particulate and dissolved fractions of these samples have been analyzed for Cd, Ce, Co, Cu, Fe, Mn, Mo, Ni, Pb, Sc, Sn, Th, U, and Zn using neutron activation analysis and atomic absorption spectrometry. Special chemical procedures were used to preconcentrate the elements of interest in the dissolved samples and separate them from the salt water matrix. The elemental concentrations observed in the dissolved samples were evaluated by direct comparison to those found in coastal seawater; however, the elemental concentrations in the particulate samples (mass per volume of water) were strongly influenced by the total amount of particulate material suspended in the water at time of collection. A double normalization procedure was used to calculate crustal enrichment factors for each sample, and these enrichment factors provided both a means to observe sample-to-sample variations, and also allowed a crude comparison with the natural levels occurring in the earth's crust.     

Fertility and air pollution: Some empirical findings

This paper attempts to explain regional differences in fertility rates in the standard metropolitan statistical areas of the United States through socioeconomic factors and air pollution. An important feature of this study is that it uses the most recent data pertaining to a homogeneous sample of observations within a country rather than using data for different countries. Statistical results suggest that given other factors, fertility and the level of air pollution have an inverse relationship. This quantitative effect is statistically significant but the absolute impact is rather low. Our results also suggest that an increase in the level of income, relative education of females, temperature, and the availability of physicians would in the long run reduce fertility rates in the urban areas of the United States.