A study of the elemental leachability and retention capability of compost

In this work a comparison is made between the different approaches that can be taken to evaluate the mobility of elements in compost. The practical consequences of the results obtained are also discussed in terms of methods for cleaning up compost and using compost in environmental remediation. The mobility of potentially toxic elements in compost is evaluated by leaching with four selected eluents, i.e. diluted sulfuric acid, oxalate, citrate and EDTA. In contrast to the chelating agents, diluted sulfuric acid was found to generally have a low leaching capability for removal of heavy metals from compost. This implies that the risk of heavy metal leaching caused by natural rainfall is likely to be low. The results obtained in the leaching experiment were compared with previous results obtained from sequential fractionation. This comparison confirmed that both methods gave similar results for predicting the lability of elements in compost. A non-linear regression analysis of the leaching curves was also conducted. The leaching curves for elements with high lability could be fitted with a two components model. The labile components identified by the kinetic model are approximately in accordance with the fractions obtained from the first step of the sequential extraction method. The kinetic speciation method is shown to be a relatively rapid and simple procedure for compost which gives more information about element lability than simple leaching experiments. The leaching reagents used in this work were not effective enough to be used for cleaning up compost with a high metal content. Compost was however shown to have a high affinity for heavy metals, with the order of affinity of metal for the compost being very similar to that seen for humic acid. Compost may therefore prove to be a good remediation material for metal contaminated waste.     

Application of an indicator based on taxonomic relatedness of ciliated protozoan assemblages for marine environmental assessment

Introduction  

Ciliated protozoa play important roles in aquatic ecosystems especially regarding their functions in micro-food web and have many advantages in environmental assessment compared with most other eukaryotic organisms. The aims of this study were focused on analyzing the application of an indicator based on taxonomic relatedness of ciliated protozoan assemblages for marine environmental assessment.     

Assessment of fates of estrogens in wastewater and sludge from various types of wastewater treatment plants

We measured five estrogens in the wastewater samples from the municipal wastewater treatment plants (M-WWTPs), livestock wastewater treatment plants (L-WWTPs), hospital WWTPs (H-WWTPs) and pharmaceutical manufacture WWTPs (P-WWTPs) in Korea. The L-WWTPs showed the highest total concentration (0.195-10.4 μg L⁻¹) of estrogens in the influents, followed by the M-WWTPs (0.028-1.15 μg L⁻¹), H-WWTPs (0.068-0.130 μg L⁻¹) and P-WWTPs (0.015-0.070 μg L⁻¹). Like the influents, the L-WWTPs (0.003-0.729 μg L⁻¹) and the M-WWTPs (0.001-0.299 μg L⁻¹) also showed higher total concentration of estrogens in the effluents than the H-WWTPs (0.002-0.021 μg L⁻¹) and P-WWTPs (0.011 μg L⁻¹ in one sample). The L-WWTPs (37.5-543 μg kg⁻¹, dry weight) showed higher total concentrations in sludge than the M-WWTPs (3.16-444 μg kg⁻¹, dry weight) like the wastewater. The distribution of estrogens in the WWTPs may be affected by their metabolism in the human body, their transition through biological treatment processes, and their usage for livestock growth. Unlike the concentration results, the daily loads of estrogens from the M-WWTPs were the highest, which is related to the high capacities of WWTPs.     

Probability of intellectual disability is associated with soil concentrations of arsenic and lead

Background

The association between metals in water and soil and adverse child neurologic outcomes has focused on the singular effect of lead (Pb), mercury (Hg), and arsenic (As). This study describes the complex association between soil concentrations of As combined with Pb and the probability of intellectual disability (ID) in children.

Methods

We used a retrospective cohort design with 3988 mother child pairs who were insured by Medicaid and lived during pregnancy and early childhood in South Carolina between 1/1/97 and 12/31/02. The children were followed until 6/1/08, using computerized service files, to identify the diagnosis of ID in medical records and verified by either school placement or disability service records. The soil was sampled using a uniform grid and analyzed for eight metals. The metal concentrations were interpolated using Bayesian Kriging to estimate concentration at individual residences.

Results

The probability of ID increased for increasing concentrations of As and Pb in the soil. The Odds Ratio for ID, for one unit change in As was 1.130 (95% confidence interval 1.048-1.218) for Pb was 1.002 (95% confidence interval 1.000-1.004). We identified effect modification for the infants based on their birth weight for gestational age status and only infants who were normal size for their gestational age had increased probability of ID based on the As and Pb soil concentrations (OR for As at normal weight for gestational age = 1.151 (95% CI: 1.061-1.249) and OR for Pb at normal for gestational age = 1.002 (95% CI: 1.002-1.004)). For normal weight for gestational age children when As = 22 mg kg⁻¹ and Pb = 200 mg kg⁻¹ the risk for ID was 11% and when As = 22 mg kg⁻¹and Pb = 400 mg kg⁻¹ the probability of ID was 65%.

Conclusion

The probability of ID is significantly associated with the interaction between Pb and As for normal weight for gestational age infants.     

农田包气带土层的脱氮防护探讨

施用氮肥是农业增产的重要手段,广施氮肥易引起包气带土层和地下水中的氮素污染,开展有关包气带土层中的氮素转化、消散以及脱氮防护的相关工作具有重要意义.选择河北山前平原较典型的包气带土层,依托野外试验田区构建的原状渗透土层系统和室内构建的一系列移位原状土柱系统,探索采用向这些土层中施入一定的硝态氮溶液,及配合同步测定土壤的...     

V/Ce共掺杂TiO2光催化降解甲醛的实验研究

采用溶胶凝胶法制备了不掺杂、V 掺杂、Ce掺杂、V/Ce共掺杂纳米TiO₂光催化剂,并将其分别负载于瓷砖上,利用X射线衍射分析（XRD）和扫描电镜分析（SEM）技术对薄膜样品的结构和形貌进行了表征。通过对甲醛的降解实验评价光催化剂的光催化活性。实验结果表明,光催化剂的负载量、共掺杂离子的掺杂量、掺杂配比、煅烧温度影响纳米TiO₂的光催化活性。V/Ce共掺杂TiO₂光催化剂产生了协同效应,其光催化活性优于纯TiO₂和单掺杂TiO₂样品。     

西安市城市主干道路面径流污染及沉淀特性研究

在西安市城市主干道南二环路建立路面径流采样站,利用自制流量等比例采样装置,采集2009年3-11月的34场降雨径流,测试研究径流SS、COD事件平均浓度(EMC)、有机污染物赋存状态,并就降雨特征对径流污染的影响进行相关分析,还采用累积曲线法对16场径流水样进行沉淀实验,研究沉淀对径流中污染物的去除效果.结果表明,城市...     

电渗析在丙烯酸丁酯废水预处理中的应用

采用电渗析法预处理丙烯酸丁酯生产废水,可将废水中的有机酸盐浓缩回收,同时大大降低废水的污染物浓度.重点研究了淡水浓水初始体积比的影响,同时考察了电渗析过程中水的迁移.实验确定了淡水浓水的最佳初始体积比为5∶1,此时对COD为61 650 mg/L的废水,COD去除率可达99.5%,脱盐率在99.5%以上,同时可将废水的...     

Analysis of pesticide residues using the Quick Easy Cheap Effective Rugged and Safe (QuEChERS) pesticide multiresidue method in traditional Chinese medicine by gas chromatography with electron capture detection

The Quick Easy Cheap Effective Rugged and Safe multiresidue method (QuEChERS) has been validated for the extraction of 15 organochlorine pesticides (OCPs) in completely different matrices of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). The method employed a rapid, simple and cost-effective procedure. The spiking levels for the recovery experiments were 0.1, 0.5 and 2.0 mg kg⁻¹. Mean recoveries mostly ranged between 76.0% and 114.0% (96.0% on average), and relative standard deviations (RSD) were generally below 10% (4.72% on average). Based on these results, the methodology has been proven to be highly efficient and robust and thus suitable for monitoring the MRL compliance of a wide range of commodity. The contamination status of 15 OCPs on 80 different TCMs marketed in China, and a total of 400 samples were also performed using a previously validated method. 15 OCPs were benzene hexachloride (BHC, including α-BHC, β-BHC, γ-BHC, δ-BHC), hexachlorobenzene, heptachlor, heptachlor epoxide, aldrin, p, p′-DDE, p, p′-DDD, o, p′-DDT, p, p′-DDT, mirex, endrin, dieldrin. This study indicates that the proposed method is useful for analyzing OCPs in TCM.