Increase in Hair Lead, but not Blood Lead Content of Occupationally-Exposed Workers

This study attempted to investigate whether increased hair lead concentrations due to environmental exposure are accompanied by parallel increases in blood lead concentrations. A sample set consisting of both occupationally-exposed individuals and persons from the general population was investigated. The lead content of scalp and pubic hair from the general population (n=189), traffic police personnel (n=27) and battery workers (n=22) were analysed. The hair samples were taken from the nape of the neck by cutting 23 cm closest to the scalp and cleaned using a washing procedure developed in our laboratory. The effectiveness of the washing procedure was partly determined by examining the scanning electron micrographs of the hair samples. Venous samples of blood were taken from each volunteer's arm.The traffic police and battery plant operators sampled had significantly higher average scalp hair and pubic hair lead levels than the non occupationally-exposed general population. No significant differences were found between the blood lead values of these workers and the general population. Compared to the general population both occupationally-exposed groups had significantly more symptoms of lead toxicity.Lead particles were still observed on the hair shafts after the washing procedure. The amount of such lead contamination was difficult to quantify, the problem being further exacerbated by the difference in hair texture of the persons sampled. This exogenous contamination therefore detracts from the usefulness of hair as an indicator of lead exposure.     

An easy method to design gas/vapor relief system with rupture disk

Tank discharge gas/vapor flow problems are frequently encountered in both practice and design. To perform this type of design calculation, the first step is to identify whether the flow is choked or not through a trial-and-error solution of an equation for adiabatic flow with friction from a reservoir through a pipe. Developing a direct method without any trial-and-error to identify a choking condition would be helpful for expediting the flow calculations. This paper presents an easy and quick method to identify the choking of gas flow for an emergency relief system consisting of a rupture disk and vent piping. This greatly simplifies the design calculations. The proposed method for validating the venting adequacy of existing ERS circumvents the iteration calculation and the use of Lapple charts. Three case studies for the design of vent piping for rupture disks support the proposed method.     

Gas flame acceleration in long ducts

In many practical situations, a flame may propagate along a pipe, accelerate and perhaps transform into a devastating detonation. This phenomenology has been known, more or less qualitatively, for a long time and mitigation techniques were proposed to try and avoid this occurrence (flame arresters, vents,...). A number of parameters need to be known and in particular the “distance to detonation” and more generally the flame acceleration characteristic scales. Very often, the ratio between the detonation run-up distance and the pipe diameter is used without any strong justification other that using a non-dimensional parameter (L/D). In this paper, novel experimental evidence is presented on the basis of relatively large scale experiments using 10 cm and 25 cm inner diameter duct with a length between 7 and 40 m. Homogeneous C₂H₄-air, CH₄-air, C₃H₈-air and H₂-air mixtures were used and different ignition sources. The interpretation suggests that the self-acceleration mechanism of the flame may be much better represented by flame instabilities than by turbulence build-up. One consequence would be that the maximum flame velocity and, following, the maximum explosion overpressure, would be rather linked with the run-up distance than with the L/D ratio.     

Applying a new method for direct collection, volume quantification and determination of N2 emission from water

The emission of N₂ is important to remove excess N from lakes, ponds, and wetlands. To investigate the gas emission from water, Gao et al. (2013) developed a new method using a bubble trap device to collect gas samples from waters. However, the determination accuracy of sampling volume and gas component concentration was still debatable. In this study, the method was optimized for in situ sampling, accurate volume measurement and direct injection to a gas chromatograph for the analysis of N₂ and other gases. By the optimized new method, the recovery rate for N₂ was 100.28% on average; the mean coefficient of determination (R²) was 0.9997; the limit of detection was 0.02%. We further assessed the effects of the new method, bottle full of water, vs. vacuum bag and vacuum vial methods, on variations of N₂ concentration as influenced by sample storage times of 1, 2, 3, 5, and 7 days at constant temperature of 15°C, using indices of averaged relative peak area (%) in comparison with the averaged relative peak area of each method at 0 day. The indices of the bottle full of water method were the lowest (99.5%-108.5%) compared to the indices of vacuum bag and vacuum vial methods (119%-217%). Meanwhile, the gas chromatograph determination of other gas components (O₂, CH₄, and N₂O) was also accurate. The new method was an alternative way to investigate N₂ released from various kinds of aquatic ecosystems.     

Analysis of trace dicyandiamide in stream water using solid phase extraction and liquid chromatography UV spectrometry

An improved method for trace level quantification of dicyandiamide in stream water has been developed. This method includes sample pretreatment using solid phase extraction. The extraction procedure (including loading, washing, and eluting) used a flow rate of 1.0 mL/min, and dicyandiamide was eluted with 20 mL of a methanol/acetonitrile mixture (V/V = 2:3), followed by pre-concentration using nitrogen evaporation and analysis with high performance liquid chromatography–ultraviolet spectroscopy (HPLC–UV). Sample extraction was carried out using a Waters Sep-Pak AC-2 Cartridge (with activated carbon). Separation was achieved on a ZIC^®-Hydrophilic Interaction Liquid Chromatography (ZIC-HILIC) (50 mm × 2.1 mm, 3.5 μm) chromatography column and quantification was accomplished based on UV absorbance. A reliable linear relationship was obtained for the calibration curve using standard solutions (R² > 0.999). Recoveries for dicyandiamide ranged from 84.6% to 96.8%, and the relative standard deviations (RSDs, n = 3) were below 6.1% with a detection limit of 5.0 ng/mL for stream water samples.     

气相分子吸收光谱法测定氨氮校准曲线斜率、截距参考值研究

主要阐述了气相分子吸收光谱法测定氨氮的校准曲线斜率、截距参考值的分析.文章收集了临安市环境监测站实验室自2012年以来气相分子吸收光谱法氨氮校准曲线制作的一系列原始数据,并通过数理统计方法对校准曲线、残余标准偏差、斜率扩展不确定度、截距扩展不确定度开展了详细讨论,得出气相分子吸收光谱法氨氮校准曲线截距a值、斜率b值实验室参考值.此结果对实验室分析人员判定氨氮项目校准曲线制作是否合格具有一定的参考价值.     

鱼体中多氯联苯的气相色谱/质谱分析研究

建立了鱼体中共平面多氯联苯(co-PCBs)和指示性多氯联苯(indicator PCBs)残留量的快速溶剂萃取气相色谱质谱分析方法.结果表明,18种多氯联苯在20 μg/L～500 μg/L范围内线性良好(r＞0.998),方法的检出限为0.2 ng/kg～0.5 ng/kg.当添加浓度为100 ng/kg时,多氯联苯的回收率为70.2％～113.5％.该方法前处理简便快速,准确性高,满足鱼体痕量多氯联苯残留的分析要求.     

高效液相色谱-电感耦合等离子体质谱联用测定生物样品中的有机汞

建立了酸提取-高效液相色谱-电感耦合等离子体质谱联用技术(HPLC-ICP-MS)测定生物样品中甲基汞、乙基汞、苯基汞等3种有机汞的分析方法。鱼肉和贝类样品经盐酸消解,苯萃取,硫代硫酸钠溶液反萃取后,采用醋酸铵/L-半胱氨酸缓冲盐及甲醇体系组成的流动相按一定比例进行梯度洗脱,经前处理的生物样品在液相色谱中经C18柱分离后,进入电感耦合等离子体质谱检测其甲基汞、乙基汞和苯基汞的浓度。3种有机汞化合物均在0.50~50.0μg/L范围内呈现良好的线性关系,线性相关系数(r)均大于0.9998。方法检出限为0.010~0.038mg/kg;3种有机汞样品加标的RSD均小于12.2%;两个水平的加标回收率在50.8~129%。