Should tobacco products’ waste be considered as hazardous in India?

Tobacco and its associated products are known to be harmful for health. Moreover, the waste emanating out of the production, processing, packaging, and consumption of these products is equally harmful for humans as well as other biotic/abiotic agencies. Taking into account the toxic nature of these waste products, it is necessary to have a well-defined approach to deal with this waste. Consideration of tobacco products’ waste as municipal solid waste has serious implications in the long-term as it results in dumping of these wastes mixed-up with domestic waste in landfills. With time, toxic components become part of the leachate which contaminates water and soil, further leading to the contamination in food chain. Therefore, many countries are now considering this waste under the hazardous category and evolving various measures to safely dispose it off. In the light of recent researches and policies, it is time to re-consider this important public health issue.     

Land-use planning for sustainable resource development in Kumaon Lesser Himalaya—a study of the Gomti watershed

SUMMARY

The Lesser Himalaya, as the most densely populated part of the tectonically active and ecologically sensitive Himalayan mountain ranges, deserves specific attention to the conservation of the environment and the sustainable development of natural resources. Rapid growth of the human population during recent years, and the absence of any viable means of livelihood other than uneconomic crop farming have led to the uncontrolled exploitation of land areas and the consequent degradation and depletion of critical biophysical resources in the region. The need for sustainable development in Himalaya, therefore, makes it imperative to adopt a comprehensive land-use policy based on land capacity analysis that is scientific and practical. The main objective of this paper is to evolve an optimal land-use framework for the Gomti Watershed, situated in Kumaon, Lesser Himalaya. A detailed study of the traditional land use, regional agricultural system and the areas prone to environmental hazards was made throughout the watershed, through the preparation of large scale topographical forest and land record maps, field surveys and mapping. The average slope was considered as the principal parameter of land capacity, the potential for landslides and the intensity of erosion. Recognising the drastic changes that have taken place in the traditional land use, the watershed area has been proposed to be defined as protected forests (33.41%), community forests (32.86%), cultivation (23.33%) and horticulture (8.30%).     

Evaluation of the strength characteristics of cement-stabilized clay–crumb rubber mixtures for its sustainable use in geotechnical applications

The proper disposal of discarded waste tires is becoming a serious matter of concern worldwide as huge proportion of this waste is being generated which makes the proper disposal virtually infeasible. About 1000 million of waste tires are discarded every year, and by the year 2030, it will turn up to 1200 million per year. If this enormous quantum of waste remains unattended, it would led to serious health and environmental problems. The investigation aims at appraising the compaction and strength characteristics of clayey soil incorporated with waste crumb rubber and cement for its sustainable use in geotechnical application. A series of unconfined compression strength and split tensile strength tests were carried out on clayey soil incorporated with two percentages of cement (3 and 6%) by weight and four percentages of crumb rubber (2.5, 5.0, 7.5, and 10.0%) by weight. Moreover, scanning electron microscope analysis was also carried out to get better intuition about the behaviour of the composite. Test results suggested that crumb rubber (up to 5%) could be mixed with uncemented/cemented clay soil with the congruent impression. The inclusion of discarded waste tires in cemented clay would be one of the congenial methods for the disposal of this waste as it substantially reduces the deleterious influence of waste tire disposal on human health and ecology.     

Current trends in diagnosis and treatment strategies of COVID-19 infection

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - Coronaviruses are terrifically precise and adapted towards specialized respiratory epithelial cells, observed in organ culture and human volunteers...     

Recent innovation in clean conversion technologies,carbon capture and utilization,advance treatment for energy,air, water,biomass and soil for green and sustainable development 2021 (ICheEC 2021)

Environmental Science and Pollution Research -     

Control of common freshwater predatory fish, Channa punctatus, through Nerium indicum leaf extracts

The diethyl ether, chloroform, acetone and methanol extract of Nerium indicum leaf were evaluated for their piscicidal activity against common freshwater air breathing predatory fish Channa punctatus. The rank of order of toxicity (LC50) of the leaf extract was, diethyl ether extract (17.34 mg/l)>acetone (40.01 mg/l)>chloroform (40.61 mg/l)>and methanol (106.37 mg/l). There was a significant negative correlation between LC50 values and exposure periods. Thus increase in exposure period, LC50 decreases from 17.34 mg/l (24 h) to >13.58 mg/l (96 h) in the diethyl ether extract. Similar trends were also observed in acetone, chloroform and methanol extracts. Exposure of sub-lethal doses (40% and 80% of LC50) of the diethyl ether extract of N. indicum leaf (which has maximum piscicidal activity) for 24 or 96 h caused significant alteration in the level of total protein, total free amino acid, nucleic acid, glycogen, pyruvate, lactate and activity of enzyme protease, phosphatases, alanine aminotransferase, aspartate aminotransferase and acetylcholinesterase in liver and muscle tissue. The alterations in all the above biochemical parameters were significantly (P<0.05) time and dose dependent. There was a significant recovery in all the above biochemical parameters, in both liver and muscle tissues of fish after the seventh day of the withdrawal of treatment. Thus, the leaf extracts of N. indicum have potent piscicidal activity against fish C. punctatus and also significantly affect both aerobic and anaerobic pathway of respiration in fish.     

Impact of urbanization on the groundwater regime in a fast growing city in central India

This paper describes the impact of urbanization on the groundwater regime in a fast growing city, Solapur, in central India, giving special emphasis on the management of the present and ultimate demand of water in 2,020 AD. The objective is to apprise the city planners and administrators of the effects of urbanization on the groundwater regime in a fast growing medium-sized city in a developing country where the infrastructure developments are not in conformity with the rapid growth in population. Solapur city with an area of 178.57 km2 receives a recharge of about 24 million m3 of groundwater from various sources annually. Reduction in recharge, as conventionally assumed due to the impact of urbanization, could not, however, be well established. Instead, there was a rise in recharge as water use in the city grew from time to time and more and more water was supplied to satisfy the human needs. Compared to mid-1970s, groundwater levels have increased within the main city area due to increased recharge and decreased groundwater abstraction. However, outside the main city area, there is a general decline in groundwater levels due to increased groundwater utilization for irrigation purposes. Groundwater quality deterioration has been highly localized. Water quality has deteriorated during the last 10 years, especially in dugwells, mainly due to misuse and disuse of these structures and poor circulation of groundwater. However, in case of borewells, comparison of the present water quality with that in mid-1970s and early 1980s does not show any perceptible change. Deeper groundwater tapped by borewells can still be used for drinking purposes with caution.     

Assessment of groundwater quality: a fusion of geochemical and geophysical information via Bayesian neural networks

Deplorable quality of groundwater arising from saltwater intrusion, natural leaching and anthropogenic activities is one of the major concerns for the society. Assessment of groundwater quality is, therefore, a primary objective of scientific research. Here, we propose an artificial neural network-based method set in a Bayesian neural network (BNN) framework and employ it to assess groundwater quality. The approach is based on analyzing 36 water samples and inverting up to 85 Schlumberger vertical electrical sounding data. We constructed a priori model by suitably parameterizing geochemical and geophysical data collected from the western part of India. The posterior model (post-inversion) was estimated using the BNN learning procedure and global hybrid Monte Carlo/Markov Chain Monte Carlo optimization scheme. By suitable parameterization of geochemical and geophysical parameters, we simulated 1,500 training samples, out of which 50 % samples were used for training and remaining 50 % were used for validation and testing. We show that the trained model is able to classify validation and test samples with 85 % and 80 % accuracy respectively. Based on cross-correlation analysis and Gibb’s diagram of geochemical attributes, the groundwater qualities of the study area were classified into following three categories: “Very good”, “Good”, and “Unsuitable”. The BNN model-based results suggest that groundwater quality falls mostly in the range of “Good” to “Very good” except for some places near the Arabian Sea. The new modeling results powered by uncertainty and statistical analyses would provide useful constrain, which could be utilized in monitoring and assessment of the groundwater quality.