Predicting geogenic groundwater fluoride contamination throughout China

Endemic fluorosis exists in almost all provinces of China. The long-term ingestion of groundwater containing high concentrations of fluoride is one of the main causes of fluorosis. We used artificial neural network to model the relationship between groundwater fluoride concentrations from throughout China and environmental variables such as climatic, geological. and soil parameters as proxy predictors. The results show that the accuracy and area under the receiver operating characteristic curve of the model in the test dataset are 80.5% and 0.86%, respectively, and climatic variables are the most effective predictors. Based on the artificial neural network model, a nationwide prediction risk map of fluoride concentrations exceeding 1.5 mg/L with a 0.5 × 0.5 arc minutes resolution was generated. The high risk areas are mainly located in western provinces of Xinjiang, Tibet, Qinghai, and Sichuan, and the northern provinces of Inner Mongolia, Hebei and Shandong. The total number of people estimated to be potentially at risk of fluorosis due to the use of untreated high fluoride groundwater as drinking water is about 89 million, or 6% of the population. The high fluoride groundwater risk map helps the authorities to prioritize areas requiring mitigation measures and thus facilitates the implementation of water improvement and defluoridation projects.     

Monitoring method for airborne glymes and its application in fuel exhaust emission measurement.

A monitoring method based on solvent extraction of adsorbed target glymes followed by gas chromatograph-mass spectrometry GC-MS analysis was developed for seven glymes, namely ethylene glycol dimethyl ether, propylene glycol dimethyl ether, ethylene glycol diethyl ether, diethylene glycol dimethyl ether, diethylene glycol diethyl ether, triethylene glycol dimethyl ether, and tetraethylene glycol dimethyl ether. The best recoveries of target glymes were achieved when using a combination of sample collection medium of graphitised carbon black (GCB) with a solvent mixture of methylene chloride and methanol (95/5, v/v). Method detection limits ranged from 1.5 microg/m3 for diethylene glycol diethyl ether to 13.2 microg/m3 for ethylene glycol diethyl ether based on a sample volume of 3.4 1. Using this method, diethylene glycol dimethyl ether and diethylene glycol diethyl ether were detected and measured successfully in diluted vehicle exhausts in diesel fuel engine tests.     

Bioanalytical and instrumental analysis of estrogenic activities in drinking water sources from Yangtze River Delta

The estrogenic activities of source water from Yangtze River, Huaihe River, Taihu Lake and groundwater in Yangtze River Delta in the dry and wet season were determined by use of reporter gene assays based on African green monkey kidney (CV-1) cell lines. Higher estrogenic activities were observed in the dry season, and the estrogenic potentials in water samples from Taihu Lake were greater than other river basins. None of the samples from groundwater showed estrogen receptor (ER) agonist activity. The 17β-Estradiol (E2) equivalents (EEQs) of water samples in the dry season ranged from 9.41 × 10^?1 to 1.20 × 10¹ ng E2 L^?1. In the wet season, EEQs of all the water samples were below the detection limit as 9.00 × 10^?1 ng E2 L^?1 except for one sample from Huaihe River. The highest contribution of E2 was detected in Yangtze River as 99% of estrogenic activity. Nonylphenol (NP, 100% detection rate) and octylphenol (OP, 100% detection rate) might also be responsible for the estrogenic activities in water sources. Potential health risk induced by the estrogenic chemicals in source water may be posed to the residents through water drinking.     

用代处置手段加强危险废物的管理

代处置是危险废物管理的强制手段，是行政代执行的具体表现形式之一。行政代执行作为一项间接强制措施，在国外立法中已被广泛采用。本文从危险废物代处置的概念、条件、要求、程序等方面进行了分析，为环保部门运用代处置措施进行危险废物管理提供参考。     

中国石灰生产和能源消耗分析

基于全国涉及石灰生产的企业全口径统计数据,分析中国2007年石灰生产的基本特征,探讨了石灰产量统计的不确定性和来源。2007年,中国石灰生产的企业共6 154家,涉及9 327座石灰窑。总产能为2.27亿t,共生产石灰1.06亿t,企业平均产量为4 000 t/a,企业生产每吨石灰平均能耗水平为163 kg标准煤。中国约有两千八百多万吨的石灰生产很难通过正规渠道统计上来,也意味着这些产量很可能是基于非常简易和高能耗的石灰土窑生产的。     

有机氯农药污染土壤的Fenton氧化修复研究

研究了Fenton氧化对某实际有机氯农药污染场地土壤的修复效果。结果显示:Fenton氧化能够快速有效地降解污染土壤中的六氯和DDTs。当Fe2+浓度为80 mmol/L,Fe2+与H2O2的摩尔浓度比为1∶5,水土比10∶1时,反应6 h,土壤中六氯和总DDT的去除率分别为:96.7%和78.2%。每方土的修复成本估算为951元。     

SBR在高校中水回用领域的工程应用研究

采用SBR工艺对高校校园废水进行了处理,运行结果表明:废水中COD含量从200～360mg/L降至60mg/L以下,BOD5含量从70～110mg/L降至20mg/L以下,氨氮含量从60～80mg/L降至10mg/L以下,SS含量从75～160mg/L降至50mg/L以下,达到了北京市DB11307—2005《水污染物排放标准》的二级排放标准。     

Photodegradation of amoxicillin by catalyzed Fe3+/H2O2 process

Three oxidation processes of UV-Fe³⁺(EDTA)/H₂O₂ (UV: ultraviolet light; EDTA: ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid), UV-Fe³⁺/H₂O₂ and Fe³⁺/H₂O₂ were simultaneously investigated for the degradation of amoxicillin at pH 7.0. The results indicated that, 100% amoxicillin degradation and 81.9% chemical oxygen demand (COD_Cr) removal could be achieved in the UV-Fe³⁺ (EDTA)/H₂O₂ process. The treatment efficiency of amoxicillin and COD_Cr removal were found to decrease to 59.0% and 43.0% in the UV-Fe³⁺/H₂O₂ process; 39.6% and 31.3% in the Fe³⁺/H₂O₂ process. Moreover, the results of biodegradability (biological oxygen demand (BOD₅)/COD_Cr ratio) revealed that the UV-Fe³⁺ (EDTA)/H₂O₂ process was a promising strategy to degrade amoxicillin as the biodegradability of the effluent was improved to 0.45, compared with the cases of UV-Fe³⁺/H₂O₂ (0.25) and Fe³⁺/H₂O₂ (0.10) processes. Therefore, it could be deduced that EDTA and UV light performed synergetic catalytic effect on the Fe³⁺/H₂O₂ process, enhancing the treatment efficiency. The degradation mechanisms were also investigated via UV-Vis spectra, and high performance liquid chromatography-mass spectra. The degradation pathway of amoxicillin was further proposed.     

Water incubation-induced fluctuating release of heavy metals in two smelter-contaminated soils

The soil moisture regime can affect the release of heavy metals in soil. In the previous studies, slightly polluted soils or artificially contaminated soil samples were considered to investigate the effect of soil moisture. We used highly smelter-contaminated and aged soils to study the release of typical heavy metals(Cu, Zn, Cd and Pb) induced by water incubation in batch experiments with characterization via speciation and X-ray diffraction analyses(XRD). The results show that the leachable concentrations of the heavy metals increased slightly in the first 30 days, decreased drastically between 30 and 90 days, and immobilized relatively constant thereafter. The fluctuation was ascribed to the changes of soil Eh and pH, the reductive dissolution of crystalline iron oxides, the formation of new amorphous iron oxides, the absorption of dissolved organic matter and the precipitation of metal sulfide. Speciation analysis indicated that a proportion of the soil heavy metals was transformed from an exchangeable fraction to a less labile fraction after water incubation. And the presence of a lead iron oxide phase and the peak increasing of zinc sulfide were observed via XRD analyses. Finally, water incubation restrained the release of heavy metals after 180 days of incubation, and reduced the leachability of Cu, Zn, Cd and Pb by as much as 1.61%–7.21% for soil A and 0.43%–3.36% for soil B, respectively. The study findings have implications for the formulation of risk control and management strategies for heavy metals in smelter-contaminated soils.