The role of disinfectants and sanitizers during COVID-19 pandemic: advantages and deleterious effects on humans and the environment

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - Disinfectants and sanitizers are essential preventive agents against the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic; however, the pandemic crisis...     

Urbanization and sustainability: challenges and strategies for sustainable urban development in Bangladesh

Like other developing countries, urbanization in Bangladesh is a growing phenomenon, which is steady in nature but fretfully affects urban sustainability in the wake of lacking in good governance. Despite urban authorities are concerned about this issue, they often fail to address the problems due to the fact of uncontrollable and unpredictable rural to urban migration, and negligence of urban poor’s sustainable living and access to basic services. Virtually the rural poverty problem has been transposed to urban areas, particularly in Dhaka City, Bangladesh. Inadequacy of infrastructural services, basic amenities and environmental goods; environmental degradation; traffic jam and accidents; violence and socioeconomic insecurity are the major challenges which are created through rapid urbanization. This paper provides a general understanding of urbanization in Bangladesh and tries to embrace related sustainability issues and challenges hindrance to sustainable urban development in Dhaka city. In addition, it presents a brief case study of water supply in Dhaka city which introduces an issue of ‘system hijack’. The paper concludes providing some strategies that might be helpful to the policy makers in formulating development policies for sustainable urban services.     

Use of water spray curtain to disperse LNG vapor clouds

Effective safety measures to prevent and mitigate the consequences of an accidental release of flammable LNG are critical. Water spray curtain is currently recognized as an effective technique to control and mitigate various hazards in the industries. It has been used to absorb, dilute and disperse both toxic and flammable vapor cloud. It is also used as protection against heat radiation, in case of fighting vapor cloud fire. Water curtain has also been considered as one of the most economic and promising LNG vapor cloud control techniques. Water curtains are expected to enhance LNG vapor cloud dispersion mainly through mechanical effects, dilution, and thermal effects. The actual phenomena involved in LNG vapor and water curtain interaction were not clearly established from previous research. LNG spill experiments have been performed at the Brayton Fire Training Field at Texas A&M University (TAMU) to understand the effect of water curtain in controlling and dispersing LNG vapor cloud. This paper summarizes experimental methodology and presents data from two water curtain tests. The analysis of the test results are also presented to identify the effectiveness of these two types of water spray curtains in enhancing the LNG vapor cloud dispersion.     

Harnessing fertilizer potential of human urine in a mesocosm system: a novel test case for linking the loop between sanitation and aquaculture

Human urine (HU) is a biogenic fertilizer which has raised immense interest owing to its capacity of combining sanitation and nutrient recovery. In search of an alternative organic fertilizer for fish culture, the nutrient potential of HU was evaluated. Fries of Indian carps and larvae of freshwater prawn were reared for 120 days under six conditions: (a) aerated and (b) non-aerated fresh HU (0.01%), (c) cattle manure (CM; 1.8 kg tank⁻¹), mixed treatment with CM and HU under (d) iso-phosphorus and (e) iso-nitrogenous condition and (f) control. Monitoring of water quality and biological parameters revealed that total fish yield was the highest in CM (621.5 g tank⁻¹) followed by mixed treatments under iso-nitrogenous (428 g tank⁻¹) and iso-phosphorus (333 g tank⁻¹) conditions, aerated HU (321 g tank⁻¹) and HU (319 g tank⁻¹). The gross primary productivity (GPP) in HU was satisfactory (601.8 mg C m⁻² h⁻¹) and superior to all but CM treatment. The abundance of heterotrophic bacteria (HB) was highest in CM and lowest in HU. Both GPP and HB population were correlated positively with fish yield per tank. Although pH in all treatments remained high (pH 8.4–8.9), no ammonia toxicity was observed. No E. coli infestation in any fish muscle was encountered. The concentrations of cadmium and lead in fish muscle were within respective safe level. The study established that high fertilizer potential of HU could be exploited as an alternative organic fertilizer or as a candidate to be blended with cattle manure.

     

Challenges and needs for process safety in the new millennium

Process industries have made quite a bit of progress in process safety since the tragic night of December 2, 1984 in Bhopal. Nonetheless, incidents continue to occur on a regular basis due to insufficient understanding of the urgency to identify best practices and drive for process safety improvements in the organization. This paper addresses some of the critical challenges in implementing effective safety programs: (a) failure to learn from past incidents and to capture those lessons into process design, procedures, training, maintenance, and other programs, (b) insufficient attention to leading indicators, and (c) an increase in complexity of process operations and lack of communication. In the presence of these challenges, there is a great need to develop better solutions by utilizing good science based approaches and best practice studies. Potential research areas include, but are not limited to, incident database analysis, reactive chemicals, inherently safer design, combustible dust explosion, facility siting, and the flammability of fuel mixtures and aerosols. In addition, an example was presented on LNG industry safety to illustrate that science-based research is needed to ensure the safe operation and to avoid or mitigate unintended consequences.     

Indoor aerobiological pollution in certain indian domestic environments

The paper deals with bacterial and fungal populations and other pollutants in the indoors of slums, middle class, and upper class dwellings. Both allergenic and nonallergenic organisms have been observed to be higher in slums than in other dwellings. Further, females were more susceptible to various kinds of allergies than males.     

ESTIMATES OF THE ECONOMIC VALUE PRODUCTIVITY OF IRRIGATION WATER IN PAKISTAN FROM FARM SURVEYS1

Data from two cross-sectional surveys totaling over 2000 farmers in Pakistan are analyzed with regression techniques to estimate the value productivity of irrigation water and related resources. Returns to irrigation water vary by province, but in general are found to be high relative to estimated costs of obtaining water. Salinity of water supplies is an important productivity depressant. The results will be useful in determining the economic feasibility of various means for augmenting supplies and for improving delivery and application efficiencies.     

The relationship between daylight and happiness for women in residential districts of Isfahan,Iran

This study explores the relationship between daylight exposure in urban residential units and the mood/happiness of nonworking female residents (housewives) in Isfahan, Iran. A growing body of evidence points to the physiological and psychological benefits of daylight, yet few studies have focused on the relationship between residential daylight and women's mental health. A cross‐sectional study was conducted using two‐stage random cluster sampling of nonworking female occupants of buildings in four residential districts. Mood/happiness was determined using the Oxford Happiness Inventory and the Fordyce Happiness Inventory. Spearman's rank correlation analysis was used to determine the relationship between the variables. A significant relationship was found between residents’ happiness and the amount of daylight in their residential units (Oxford Inventory, r = 0.68, P < 0.05; Fordyce Inventory, r = 0.53, P < 0.05). The findings suggest that features of physical residential environments, such as daylight, may be linked to the happiness of housewives. Persons belonging to various demographic groups who spend the majority of their time indoors (e.g., housewives, children, elderly individuals, and people with disabilities) are most dependent on architecture and environmental design for their well‐being, and therefore, are most affected by design decisions.