Vanadium Concentrations in Settled Outdoor Dust Particles

Atmospheric dustfall is an important aspect of urban dust studies. Vanadium is considered as the marker element of air pollution emitted from residual oil and coal combustion. In this study, vanadium levels of outdoor dust particles are determined. The studied area covers the six sites located in Adapazarí (Turkey), which represents an earthquake-hit environment. The mass deposition rate was calculated for each sampling plate over the 30-days collection periods. The deposition rates for the six places in Adapazarí ranged from 20.5 to 84.9 μg/cm²/day. The arithmetic mean deposition rate for all places was 45.3 μg/cm²/day. Total dust deposition and vanadium loadings typically increased in magnitude according to the area order: Kampus > Serdivan > Çark C. > Ozanlar > Erenler > Ye?iltepe and Kampus > Serdivan > Çark C. > Ozanlar > Erenler > Ye?iltepe, respectively. The results suggested that vanadium may be useful for assessing the level of environmental pollution.     

Determination of noise induced hearing loss in mining: an application of hierarchical loglinear modelling

The levels of noise arise from mining industry seem to be higher when compared to other industries. For this reason, noise exposure and noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL) are prevalent in mining. Assessment of noise emission levels that arise from various mining operations is required to prevent and minimize the NIHL. Because the studies for preventing occupational hearing loss among miners are inadequate, a quarry and stone crushing-screening plant was selected to generate site-specific data. The noise levels of the environments in which workers work were measured and also a hearing test centre applied hearing tests to the workers. According to the hearing test results, it was determined that the part of workers have hearing loss. The main factors affecting the NIHL were assumed as experience, noise level, miners’ age and occupation, and by taking into account the sub factors of the main factors, multi way contingency tables were prepared. Then hierarchical loglinear analysis method was implemented to categorized data; thus, the probabilities might effect NIHL was investigated. At the end of this study, it was found that the most risky occupation group was the drivers, and additionally, these workers were mostly exposed to 70–79 dB(A) noise level. When the important interactions are evaluated, it is determined that 4–11 years experienced crusher workers have high probability of NIHL because of high exposure to 90–99 dB(A) noise level. Moreover, the most important interactions which may affect the NIHL were identified and the precautions to reduce hearing loss were presented.     

Determination of potential allergenic fungal flora and its clinical reflection in suburban elementary schools in Izmir

In this research, in order to determine mean fungus counts, indoor and outdoor air samples were taken in five elementary school buildings located in the city center of Seferihisar, Izmir (45 km from Izmir) within a 1-year period between March and April 2004, and between January and February 2005 representing similar climatic characteristics. Five samples, three from three classes where 5–8, 10–12, and 12–15 age group students attended, one from the corridors, and one from outside the buildings in all the schools, were taken for each period. Within the period of the study, in indoor and outdoor air samples, 7,122 microfungus colonies were counted. Sixty-four species were identified that belong to 17 genera as a result of the identification of isolates obtained. Skin prick tests were applied to 55 out of a total of 117 teachers by the clinicians. According to these test results, 24 teachers were sensitive to at least one agent. Results revealed that, in terms of mold counts, the difference between the schools and the difference between the times (periods) were statistically significant (p?< 0.05).     

Levels of heavy metals in tissues of shingi fish (Heteropneustes fossilis) from Buriganga River, Bangladesh

Heavy metal pollution was reported in commercially valuable freshwater edible fish in the Buriganga River, Bangladesh. The concentrations of As, Pb, Cd, Cr, Zn, and Cu were investigated in the muscle, gill, stomach, intestine, and liver of Heteropneustes fossilis caught at three stations to assess the degree of fish pollution by heavy metals. Significant differences in concentrations of analyzed elements were observed among different tissues, but not among the stations. The ranges of the measured concentrations (μg/g dry weight) in the tissues of H. fossilis were as follows: arsenic concentration was (0.2–0.4), (0.82–0.90), (3.29–3.99), (2.20–2.80), and (2.41–2.90), that of lead was (1.79–2.20), (4.95–6.55), (10.36–13.38), (5.74–9.70), and (18.20–18.79), that of cadmium was (0.3–0.4), (2.87–4.27), (1.03–1.63), (1.55–4.59), and (2.25–5.50), that of chromium was (1.40–1.70), (3.52–3.72), (2.28–5.29), (2.77–3.79), and (4.25–8.65), that of zinc was (24.47–28.82), (16.82–18.80), (20.22–22.20), (22.86–26.68), and (60.82–67.80), and that of copper was (7.80–8.50), (6.22–6.81), (38.21–44.25), (17.07–21.03), and (43.24–47.30) in the muscle, gill, stomach, intestine, and liver, respectively. This research showed that the liver appeared to be the main heavy metal storage tissue, while the muscle had the lowest levels of analyzed metals. The concentrations of metal in the muscles not exceeded the acceptable levels for a food source for human consumption.     

Application of multivariate statistical approach to identify heavy metal sources in bottom soil of the Seyhan River (Adana), Turkey

In this study, freshly deposited soils were sampled from the Seyhan River (Turkey) from the exit of the Seyhan Dam to the Adana exit. Heavy metal contents were measured with X-ray fluorescence spectrometer. Multivariate statistical approach is used to identify the sources of heavy metals and other elements in soil samples. Considering the size of anomalies, metals are ranked as Co>Pb>Cr>Zn>Al. Based on the hierarchical cluster analysis results, three clusters were observed. P, Mg, Ti, Fe, Ca, Na, K, Al, Si, and Nb form the first cluster, Zn, Sr, Pb, and Cr associated as the second cluster, and Ba and Co form the third cluster. Three factors computed from principal component analysis are explained with a cumulative variance of 95%. The first factor is defined with “high background lithogenic factor” Co, the second factor with “local industrial factor” Pb, Cr, Ba, and Mg, and the third factor with “natural factor” Cr and Pb.     

Heavy metal contents of organically produced, harvested, and dried fruit samples from Kayseri, Turkey

Organically produced, harvested, and dried fruit samples bought at organic markets in Kayseri, Turkey have been analyzed for their trace element contents. In the determinations, flame atomic absorption spectrometer (FAAS) was used. This pilot study is the first to be performed for organically produced, harvested, and dried fruit samples from Kayseri, Turkey. The copper, iron, manganese, and zinc concentrations were found to be 1.6–15.5, 10.3–144, 23.0–211, and 23.3–91.6 μg/g, respectively. The cobalt, lead, cadmium, chromium, and nickel concentrations in all analyzed organic fruit samples were below the quantification limits of FAAS. SRM 1570A spinach leaves and SRM 1515 apple leaves were used to check the accuracy of the procedure. The results for the dried fruit samples found in this work were compared with the values from some studies from the world. The results found in the presented work may also be useful for future studies about organically produced, harvested, and dried fruit samples.     

Trace metal levels and some chemical parameters in herby cheese collected from south eastern Anatolia-Turkey

Due to the consumption of the herby cheese in south eastern Anatolia-Turkey is at high ratio, chemical parameters such as dry matter, pH, acidity, aCl, protein, fat and trace metal contents in 50 different herby cheeses produced at this region have been determined in the presented study. The content of lead, copper, cobalt, nickel, chromium, cadmium, and iron have been analyzed by flame atomic absorption spectrometer in air/acetylene flame after combination ash digestion method and wet digestion method. The mean concentration of lead, copper, cobalt, nickel, chromium and cadmium in our samples are higher than literature values except iron.     

Variation of heavy metal and micro and macro element concentrations of bread and durum wheats and their relationship in grain of Turkish wheat cultivars

The 64 varieties displayed a large variation for all mineral elements, investigated Fe, Mn and Zn, ranging from 24.2 to 43.1 mg/kg, 27.6 to 64.8 mg/kg and 10.4 to 38.2 mg/kg, respectively. The mean Ca, K, Mg, Na, P and S concentrations in wheat rain varieties amounted to 378, 4,266, 1,183, 317, 3,513 and 1,542 mg/kg, respectively. Ca, K, Mg, Na, P and S contents of wheat varieties changed at the levels between 266 and 531 mg/kg, 3,029 and 5,566 mg/kg, 972 and 1,525 mg/kg, 277 and 368 mg/kg, 2,422 and 4,610 mg/kg and 1,241 to 2,052 mg/kg, respectively. The concentrations of Al, Cu, Fe, Mn and Zn of durum wheat samples were found at high levels. The mean Al, Cr, Mo, Ni, Cu, Fe, Mn and Zn concentrations in durum wheat varieties amounted to 10.93, 0.47, 0.72, 0.72, 5.37, 34.9, 37.28 and 20.88 mg/kg, respectively.     

Evaluation of metal contents of household detergent samples from Turkey by flame atomic absorption spectrometry

The concentrations of cadmium, copper, chromium, cobalt, iron, lead, manganese, nickel, and zinc in detergent samples from Kayseri, Turkey were determined by flame atomic absorption spectrometry. HClO₄ (10 mL)/HNO₃ (10 mL) mixture was used for the digestion of household detergent samples. The correctness of the analytical procedures was checked with standard addition–recovery tests in different detergent samples for the investigated metal ions. The concentration ranges of the elements in the detergent samples were found as 17.2–60.1, 11.1–40.1, 2.5–32.3, 8.1–10.5, 7.2–21.6, 9.8–17.9, 1.7–3.8, 12.5–22.5, and 2.0–5.8 μg/g for iron, manganese, zinc, copper, lead, cobalt, cadmium, nickel, and chromium, respectively. The values found in this work were compared with some other studies around the world conducted on detergent samples.