Pollution

In this work, radon concentration in the 22 air positions and 8 water samples of Neyshabur Turquoise (Firoozeh) mine has been measured with PRASSI system.
Turquoise is an opaque, blue-to-green mineral that is a hydrous phosphate of copper and aluminum, with the chemical formula CuAl₆(PO₄)₄(OH)₈+4H₂O. It is rare and valuable in finer grades and has been prized as a gem and ornamental stone for thousands of years because of its unique hue.
Radon is a radioactive gas with two radioisotopes- 220 and 222 mass number- has short decay half-life produced form ²³⁸U natural series and ²³²Th natural series. The radon gas can enter to the body via respiring, drinking and eating. The alpha emitted by this gas and other radiation emitted by its daughters increase the effective absorbed dose in respiratory and digestion systems.
We have measured and evaluated the effective radon dose rate from the air for the workers who cave in the mine effective dose per liter of drinking water samples. The result shows that the mean effective doses for air per hour and from water per liter are 1.2 ?Sv/h and 63 nSv/l, respectively.

Estimating the design flood is one of the main steps in designing and measuring different structures and hydraulic facilities which could be conducted in different ways. In cases where the saving capacity of the system would be significant or period of the design flood would be long (For example in designing the overflow of dams), using mathematical models for converting the design rain into the design flood is a common option. The selected design rain which will generate the design flood should possess some characteristics among which would be the way of rain distribution during raining time which is expressed as the temporal pattern of the design rain. In this study, this method has been employed in order to extract the pattern of the design rain by means of the data related to the stability rain gauge in Jashlobar region and by being supported by pilgrim method in Australia which has had good compatibility and agreement with the climate conditions in Iran and had publicity. According to temporal changes in the intensity of the flood rains, recognizing the precise temporal patterns of the rain in a region is of great importance. In this research, in order to extract the most appropriate temporal patterns, cloudbursts were divided into continuities of 1, 3, 6, 9, 12, 18, 24 and 48 hours. Initially, all data and information related to the occurred cloudburstsin the region and the runoff and precipitates samples were taken from the research center of Semnan and the data were categorized through an exact investigation of the status of each cloudburst which led to a division into data related to runoff and the ones without runoff. Thereafter, the suspicious data were omitted and in the next step, the characteristics of the rains were extracted which required the graph of all cloudbursts to be created. At first the characteristics of the cloudbursts and the pattern of the rains distribution through pilgrim method and then the amount of rain in the area in each quarter was specified. Then, the average between the census obtained from both sites were calculated and the graphs of the rain patterns, with and without runoff, were provided and the intersection point of two graphs of erosion and precipitation threshold limit has been determined through adapting the graphs with and without runoff.

Concentrations of eight heavy metals: Cd, Cr, Cu, Fe, Mn, Ni, Pb and Zn were determined and used to evaluate the heavy metal pollution index (HPI) adopting two different approaches. In the first instant heavy metals that were not detected by the instrument is assigned zero concentration. In the second instance, these heavy metals were assigned the limit of detection of the instrument as if they were present to that extent. The two approaches used in the computation of HPI for the groundwater based on the mean concentrations of the selected heavy metals and the limit of detection of the instrument gave similar results. The HPI of the groundwater was generally below the critical value of 100 with the exception of one point which has an overcritical HPI value of 102.97.

Jhansi is located in the plateau of central India, an area dominated by rocky reliefs and minerals underneath the soil. Barua Sagar is a historical place located about 25 km from Jhansi in Uttar Pradesh, India.  It is situated on the bank of the Betwa River; the place is named after the Barua Sagar Taal, a large lake created about 260 years ago when Raja Udit Singh of Orchha built the embankment. Present study has been undertaken to investigate the physico-chemical properties of Barua Sagar lake water to assess the utility of lake water for fish production, irrigation, drinking and aesthetic purposes etc. Water Quality Index (WQI) was applied in Barua sagar  Lake,  using different water quality parameters ( Temperature, pH, Dissolved Oxygen, Turbidity, Conductivity, Hardness, Alkalinity, Sodium, Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD), Chemical  Oxygen Demand(COD), Nitrate, Chloride, Iron, Free residual Chlorine, Fluoride, TS, TDS and TSS). The water body is divided in to five sites for proper sampling and collection of water sample from whole lake. The impact of various anthropogenic activities was evident on some parameters such as the EC, BOD and DO. It is suggested that regular monitoring of the lake water quality is necessary for proper management.

The aim of this study was to determine the types and levels of organochlorine pesticide residues in the breast milk of some first birth mothers in Ada, a rural community in the greater Accra region of Ghana. Liquid-liquid extraction procedure was employed and extract clean-up was done using silica gel solid phase extraction. Thirteen different organochlorine pesticides residues namely p,p’-DDT, p,p’-DDE, gamma-HCH, delta-HCH, heptachlor, aldrin, endrin, endrin-ketone, alpha-endosulphan, endosulphan-sulphate, gamma-chlordane, dieldrin, and methoxychlor were identified and quantified in the individual breast milk samples using a Gas Chromatograph (GC) with an Electron Capture detector. The GC recoveries of spiked samples were between 89 to 97%. Gamma-HCH recorded the highest incident ratio of 95.2% and p, p’-DDE, endosulphan sulphate, delta-HCH and dieldrin also recorded incidence ratios of 90.5%, 81.0%, 66.7% and 57.1% respectively in the twenty-one individual human breast milk samples. The mean concentrations of organochlorine pesticide residues in the human breast milk samples ranged from 0.682 to 63.803 µg/kg fats. Endosulphan-sulphate recorded the highest concentration of 63.803 µg/kg fats which is about three times greater than the Australian Maximum Residue Limit (MRL) of 20 µg/kg for milk. The mean concentrations for all the other organochlorines detected were below their respective maximum residue limits.

Banda is the easternmost district of Bundelkhand region. It lies between latitude 24º 53' and 24º 55' North and longitude 80º 27' and 81º 34' East with an area of 7,624 sq.km. The western boundary of Banda touches Chhatarpur and Hamirpur districts separated by river Ken for certain distance. In present investigation the physicochemical characteristic of Ken River were studied. Water samples were collected quarterly from ten different sites of Ken River during the year January 2009 to December 2010. Preservation and analysis of water samples were based on standard method proposed by American Public Health Association (APHA, 2005). In cationic abundance sodium is followed by calcium, magnesium and potassium (Na>Ca>Mg>K) in the river through out the year. The tolerance limit for TDS, SAR and % Na of water use for irrigation has been found to be excellent for TDS and % Na, fair for SAR. Nitrate, Sulphate and Phosphate were found to below the permissible limit of WHO (1993).

Recently the sediment tracing has been increasingly employed as a means of establishing sediment source information. The first step of this approach is the selection of diagnostic properties, which distinguish potential sediment sources in an unequivocal manner. However the selection of the most effective properties is required in the design of cost-effective catchment management strategies. This contribution reports an attempt to address this issue by testing the discrimination of sediment source within two small drainage basins in Iran using four base cations (Na, K, Ca and Mg). By field investigation, 10 representative samples were collected from each sediment sources per catchments. Several statistical methods were applied to the data including the Kruskal-Wallis, discrimination function analysis (DFA) and multivariate stepwise selection algorithm. The results indicate that in the case of the Amrovan basin, K is the most sensitive discriminator of source type (65 %), followed in decreasing order by Na (60 %), Mg (55 %) and Ca (45 %).  In the case of the larger and more complex Atary drainage basin, Na and Mg are the best individual properties which successfully classify 54% of source material samples into the correct categories, followed in decreasing order by Ca (52 %) and K (45 %).

Over population created sudden rise in energy demand, as a result of which the depletion of fossil fuels has started. In aspect to meet the energy crisis renewable energies in all forms are available in abundance on the earth. Modern era paved a way for the Plant Biomass to satisfy the needs. Major out- come of this project is “Production of Green Energies through Physico-chemical process, biological fermentation process and thermo-chemical process which results in obtaining liquid, gaseous and solid fuel. This project emphasize on the scrubbing of the pollutants like CO2, Soot particles emitted during combustion of fossil fuels and green fuels using the Activated Carbon which is obtained as a by-product of the end process. In this project a scrubber is designed; fabricated and it is filled with the catalyzed activated carbon in different proportions. Carbon adsorbing capacity is tested. The result of the project is plotted as graph and discussed. The efficiency of scrubber over various gas parameters was estimated. This enhances net Carbon emission and Carbon footprint maintenance by waste harvesting and energy conversion process for sustainable future.

Air pollution is one of the serious environmental problem now-a-days, particularly in urban areas of all over the world. Pollution of air is broadly due to particulate matter dispersed in it or gaseous pollutant like CO, NOx, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), completely miscible with it in various proportions. PAHs are one of the carcinogenic compound observed in environment due to automobile exaust and other sources. In this work PAHs samplings were done by collection of particulate matter (PM) with the help of cascade impactor. Cascade impactor collect the respirable PM. The effect of these particulate matters were also observed on the basis of size of PM. For this purpose three sampling sites were selected at various petrol pump of Hissar city. Both indoor and outddor sampling were done for this . PAHs analysis were done with the help of high pressure liquid chromatography.

Effect of different heavy metals on Vibrio harveyi, V. fischeri, Photobacterium phosphoreum and P. leiognathi were examined. Checkerboard assay used for the detection of the natural metal tolerance levels of a large number of marine luminous eubacteria. In this purpose, we surveyed 57 strains of luminous bacteria for their natural patterns of heavy metal tolerance. The behaviors of these strains were not homogeneous with respect to all metals tested, even within the strains belonging to the same genus. At least 1 to 4 different MICs were detected for every metal except barium and cobalt. Isolated bacteria were tested for the presence of plasmids using the modified alkaline lysis method was effective for identification of plasmids of different sizes. This study revealed that the frequency of the occurrence of plasmids in heavy metal resistance bacteria and suggested that plasmids are highly ubiquitous and predominant in most heavy metal resistant bacteria.