Mulberry-silkworm food chain--a templet to assess heavy metal mobility in terrestrial ecosystems

Assessment of the food chain mobility of heavy metals inthe natural ecosystem receives more attention nowadays. Inthe present study, mulberry-silkworm food chain has beenfocused as a templet to assess the biomobility of heavymetals in soil-higher plant-insect hierarchy. Both in thecase of Cd and Cu treatments, higher mobility wasobserved in the level-1 (soil–root) followed by level-3(leaf–larva), level-4 (larvae–faecal) and level-2(root–leaf). Consequently, roots accumulated more amountsof Cd and Cu, with a limited transport to the leaves.Among the two metals (Cd and Cu) tested, in the plant,the transfer potential of Cd exceeds that of Cu. Whereasin the case of leaf–larval transfer, Cu precedes overCd. Accumulation of Cd and Cu in all the levels (1–4)tested showed a concentration dependent increase, except inthe level 4 (larva–faecal) of Cd treatment where adeclining trend was noticed.     

A Watershed-based Cumulative Risk Impact Analysis: Environmental Vulnerability and Impact Criteria

Swine Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs) have received much attention in recent years. As a result, a watershed-based screening tool, the Cumulative Risk Index Analysis (CRIA), was developed to assess the cumulative impacts of multiple CAFO facilities in a watershedsubunit. The CRIA formula calculates an index number based on: 1) the area of one or more facilities compared to the area of the watershed subunit, 2) the average of the environmental vulnerability criteria, and 3) the average of the industry-specific impact criteria. Each vulnerability or impact criterion is ranked on a 1 to 5 scale, with a low rank indicating low environmental vulnerability or impact and a high rank indicating high environmental vulnerability or impact. The individual criterion ranks, as well as the total CRIA score, can be used to focus the environmental analysis and facilitate discussions with industry, public, and other stakeholders in the Agency decision-making process.     

Data needs for occupational epidemiologic studies

Data needs in an epidemiologic study can appear to be substantial in light of the other responsibilities of an industrial hygienist. Many of the data needed for this type of investigation, however, are already collected for other exposure assessment purposes. To increase understanding of this concept, the data needs for the major purposes for conducting an exposure assessment are identified. The purposes include determining compliance; implementing industrial hygiene programs, such as personal protective and respiratory equipment, hazard communication training, and medical surveillance; investigating health complaints and worker concerns; investigating tasks or engineering control effectiveness; investigating toxic tort or worker compensation claims; and conducting epidemiologic studies. A comprehensive exposure assessment system is then described that incorporates the data needs for all these purposes, including epidemiologic studies. The data needs of epidemiologic studies and how the data are used are then described and illustrated with examples taken from published epidemiologic studies.     

Air pollution exposure monitoring and estimation. Part VI. Ambient exposure of adults in an industrialised region

This paper presents methodology and results of a dynamic individual air pollution exposure model (DINEX) that calculates the hourly exposure for each adult in a panel study. Each of over 260 participants, through the use of a diary, provided information used in the model to calculate his/her personal, individualised exposure. The participants filled out the diary daily, hour by hour, over two, two month periods. The exposure assessment model coupled the diary information and results of an indoor/outdoor measurement program, with the results of dispersion modelling on an hourly basis for an industrial area in Norway. The estimated air pollution concentrations from the dispersion model, based on continuous meteorological measurements, were calibrated with air pollutant concentrations measured continuously.     

Summary of environment-related research areas developed in the frame of the 5th Framework Programme of the European Commission

Following the decision of the European Parliament and of the Council of 22 December 1998, The European Commission has launched its Fifth Framework Programme for Research, Technological Development and Demonstration (RTD) which will run from 1999 to 2002. The activities will be carried out in the frame of four thematic programmes and three horizontal ones. The first calls for proposals were published in March 1999. Detailed information on the work programme of each activity is available through the Internet at the following address http://www.cordis.lu/fp5 and through direct contact with the programme's help-desks. The present summary gives an outline of environment-related research activities covered by 5th FWP.     

Collaborative study to improve the quality control of rare earth element determinations in environmental matrices

In order to control the quality of rare earth determinations in environmental matrices, the Standards, Measurements and Testing Programme (formerly Community Bureau of Reference, BCR) of the European Commission has started a project, the final aim of which is to certify four types of matrices (tuna muscle, mussel tissue, aquatic plant and estuarine sediment) for their contents of a range of rare earth elements (Sc, Y and the lanthanides: La, Ce, Pr, Nd, Sm, Eu, Gd, Tb, Dy, Ho, Er, Tm, Yb and Lu). The elements U and Th were added to the study. The first part of this project consisted of an interlaboratory study which aimed to test the feasibility of preparation of environmental reference materials and to detect and remove most of the pitfalls observed in rare earth determinations. This paper presents the preparation of the four matrices for the intercomparison study and for the candidate reference material. The main results are presented of the interlaboratory study that was carried out prior to the certification campaign. This collaborative trial is the first attempt ever carried out at this scale to evaluate the state-of-the-art of rare earth determinations in the environment. Its impact on the improvement of chemical measurements will have positive effects on the comparability of data necessary for environmental monitoring.     

evaluation of a measurement method for forest vegetation in a large-scale ecological survey

We evaluate a field method for determining species richness andcanopy cover of vascular plants for the Forest Health MonitoringProgram (FHM), an ecological survey of U.S. forests. Measurementsare taken within 12 1-m² quadrats on 1/15 ha plots in FHM.Species richness and cover are determined for four height classes(strata) within each quadrat and aggregated by stratum over the entireplot. We estimated (1) the agreement between experienced trainers andinexperienced technicians who collected the data on this survey(accuracy) and (2) the agreement among the technicians (precision) forresults on species richness and cover from 3 test plots at 3 timeintervals. The methods appear to be highly precise, although somediscrepancies with the values obtained by the trainers were found.Trainers found significantly more species in the ground stratum (0–0.6 m) and measured significantly more cover in the uppermost stratum(>4.9 m). The proportion of variation due to measurement error andtemporal variability was less than 13% for species richness (all strata)and cover (all but one stratum). This indicates that the method issuitable for monitoring changes in species richness and canopy coverfor a large-scale synoptic monitoring project such as FHM.     

A Global Overview of Atmospheric Acid Deposition Fluxes

This paper presents a summary of globalacid deposition flux data taken from a globalassessment report on acid deposition prepared forUNEP/WMO (Whelpdale and Kaiser, 1996). There is a largevariation in the spacial coverage and reliability ofmonitoring around the world. Many more stationsmeasure wet deposition than collect appropriate datafor estimating dry deposition. The widespread regionswith highest precipitation concentrations anddeposition fluxes of sulphate and nitrate coincideclosely with the regions of highest density ofSO₂ and NO_x precursor emissions occurringprimarily in the mid-latitude, northern hemispherebelt where a large fraction of the worlds fossilfuels is consumed. Organic acids in precipitation makea minor contribution to acidity (<20%) inindustrial regions, but in the rest of the world theyare of same order, or even exceed, inorganic acids.Less is known about dry deposition, but it appears topredominate near strong emission sources with wetdeposition predominating farther downwind. The molarratio of the N/S contribution to acidic deposition isclose to 1.0 over large areas of Europe and NorthAmerica, but is highly variable elsewhere, beinghighest in equatorial regions due to biomass burningand lowest near smelters and other large sources of SO₂.     

Modeling rhizofiltration: heavy-metal uptake by plant roots

The discovery of phytoaccumulation potential of plant species has led to its application for remediation of heavy-metal-contaminated soil and wastewater, which is termed as phytoextraction/rhizofiltration. For prediction, analysis, planning and cost-effective design of such systems, mathematical models not only are used as a screening tool but also provide optimal parameters like harvesting time, irrigation schedule, etc. Several laboratory and field scale studies have been carried out in the past, and mathematical expressions have been developed by various researchers for different phenomena like metal adsorption in soil, plant root growth with time, moisture and metal uptake by plant root, moisture movement in unsaturated zone, soil moisture relationship, etc. The complete design of any such phytoremediation program would require the knowledge of behavior of heavy-metal movement in soil, water and plant root system. In this paper, a model for simulating heavy-metal dynamics in soil, water and plant root system is developed and discussed. The governing non-linear partial differential equation is solved numerically by implicit finite difference method using Picard's iterative technique, and the formulation has been illustrated using a characteristic example. The source code is written in MATLAB.