210Po and 210Pb in water Column of Pulau Redang, Terengganu, Peninsular of Malaysia: Southern South china Sea

Che Abd. Rahim Mohamed*, Tee Lee Theng and Zaharuddin Ahmad

Vertical profiles of 210Po and 210Pb in dissolved and particulate phases were determined at six stations around the Pulau Redang, Terengganu, Peninsular of Malaysia on September 2002. Results of 210Po and 210Pb in both phases have showed the differences in distribution and chemical behaviors, where both nuclides were found more dominant in the particulate phase with a ratio of 210Po/210Pb >1.0. The distribution coefficient (Kd) values of 210Po and 210Pb were varied between 6.87 X 105 L/g to 6433 X 105 L/g, and between 6.07 X 105 L/g to 28351 X 105 L/g, respectively. High Kd values indicated a strong adsorption of 210Po and 210Pb onto suspended particles with dominantly appearance by planktonic organisms and biogenic particles.

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Raman Spectroscopic Study for Characterization of hydrophobized and silver doped Clinoptilolites vs. Chromate and Arsenate Interactions

Eva Chmielewská* and Marián Vojs

FT Raman spectroscopy enables to characterize a broad analytical structure of solids up-to-dated by biological, pharmaceutical, medical or chemical producers and composed from a variety of recent biopolymers or chemical complexes. The scope of our current study is to define the type of chromate and arsenate oxyanions bounds on the surface of two differently modified clinoptilolite dominated zeolites from inland repositories, i.e. surfactant loaded and silver exchanged ones, using the Fourier Transform Raman spectroscopy. Moreover, the spectral analytical results are supported by conventional laboratory desorption trials. Surfactant loaded clinoptilolite seems to have much higher toxic anions adsorption potential in some water purification processes than the silver doped species.

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Polynuclear Aromatic Hydrocarbons Content in Bitumen Derivatives: an Environmental Risk?

Carla Boga, Erminia Del Vecchio, Luciano Forlani* and Roberto Vaccari

Bitumen and the bitumen part of asphalt are analysed mainly by GC-MS method. The content of polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) is 0.2 % of the bitumen part of asphalt. This amount decreases in old manufactured asphalt. Some quantitative data about the heating of asphalt in air reveals the formation of large amounts of asphaltene during the asphalt preparation immediately before the application, and of some oxidised derivatives of PAHs. By considering the extension of surfaces covered by bitumen derivatives, the authors pose the question of whether the PAHs of bitumen are really dangerous for asphalt workers and for citizens.

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A Comparative Analysis of the Toxic Action of two Industrial Mixtures on Laboratory Mice

M. Topashka-Ancheva and S. E. Teodorova*

Two types of polymetal industrial dusts, ferrous and non-ferrous, were studied as representative of emissions to the environment and their toxic effects on laboratory mice were compared. Animal responses to both mixtures showed an essential difference depending on the mixture chemical composition and on metal concentrations. The levels of Cd and Pb were high in non-ferrous dust and relatively low in ferrous one. The ferrous mixture contained however, other metals in toxic concentrations as Al, Ni, Mn. The polymetal dusts, emitted from the industrial plants, were mixed with conventional animal food. White mice BALB/c were exposed to non-ferrous dust but white mice ICR - to ferrous dust, containing 10 and 12 times less Pb and Cd, respectively, significant alterations of the chromosome status, hematopoiesis and body weight gain of the laboratory mice were observed. In BALB/c mice chromosomal aberration frequency was an average of 2.5 times higher and breaks were of 4.6 times higher compared with those in ICR mice. Significant differences in RBC number, hematocrit, and mean body weight between BALB/c and ICR mice were established after day 60. Significant decreases of thymidine and mitotic indices (about 3 times) were observed in exposed ICR mice. No dependence was established between the frequency of chromosomal aberrations and duration of the exposure.

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Rapid and Inexpensive Surrogate Parameter for Evaluating the Removal of Target Synthetic Organic Chemicals by Activated Carbon Adsorption

Akinori Ishizuka*, Motoi Machida and Hideki Tatsumoto

Detection of various types of hazardous organic compounds needs the use of expensive analytical tools such as gas chromatography /mass spectrometry (GC/MS) and liquid chromatography /mass spectrometry (LC/MS) which require hours to days to provide the results. Since naturally occurring ultraviolet (UV) active organic compounds are commonly present in almost all sources waters for water supply and can be rapidly and inexpensively monitored by UV absorbance at 260 nm (E260), the extent of correlation between the removal of E260 and the removal of target synthetic organic chemicals (SOCs) by activated carbon adsorption was investigated. Percentage removal of E260 was well correlated to those of SOCs. Almost 100 % removal of SOCs was possible when around 50 % background E260 removal was achieved in the experimental runs, probably because the aqueous solubility of background organic matter caused by E260 is much greater than that of SOCs. In addition, activated carbon unadsorbable background dissolved organic carbon (DOC) was estimated by use of DOC/E260 of the source water. Excellent agreement between estimated activated carbon unadsorbable background DOC and measured values was achieved.

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Preparation and Adsorption Properties of Different Forms of Chitosan for Mercury(II)

Caihua Ni*, Zhiyun Feng and Liangchao Li

Chitosan has been made into different forms of piece, powder, dilute acetic solution and water soluble solution. Adsorbing capacities (AC) and adsorbing percentage (AP) of these forms of chitosan for Hg2+ in dilute solutions were investigated. It was found by comparison that water soluble chitosan exhibited the highest adsorbing capacities ( 5.5 mmol/g) and adsorbing percentage (99%) among the different forms. Some factors such as chitosan forms, adsorbing time, adsorbing temperature, concentration of Hg2+ and pH value affected the adsorbing behavior. The conditions for removing Hg2+ have been optimized.

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Synthesis and Characterization of Mixed Ligand Nickel(ii) Complexes of Nitrilotriacetic Acid and Hippuric Acid

G. Kumar* and M. N. Srivastava

Mixed ligand nickel (II) complexes, Na2 [Ni ( C6H5 CO NH CH2 COO){N ( CH2 COO)3 }].8H2O and Na2 [Ni ( C6H5 CO NH CH2 COO ) { N ( CH2 COO)3}].2H2O formed with nitrilotriacetic acid and hippuric acid have been synthesized and characterized by elemental analysis, magnetic measurements and spectral (IR and electronic spectra) studies. In both complexes, nitrilotriacetic acid acts as a tetradentate ligand and hippuric acid as a bidentate ligand. With nitrilotriacetic acid, the coordination occurs through three carboxylate oxygen atoms and the nitrogen atom. Hippuric acid coordinates through the carboxylate oxygen atom and the nitrogen atom of the amido group. Nickel(II) complexes have been suggested to show six fold octahedral structure.

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Variation in Microbial Population in a Mangrove Ecosystem in Parangipettai Coast (Southeast Coast of India): Effect of Tsunami?

Surajit Das*, P. S. Lyla and S. Ajmal Khan

Microbial population in the developing mangrove ecosystem along the Parangipettai coast was studied. Sediment samples were collected three days after the tsunami disaster. Total heterotrophic bacteria and actinomycetes count were estimated and compared with the previous data available. Two fold increase in total heterotrophic bacterial count and one fold increase in actinomycetes count were observed.

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Fluorinated Organic Chemicals: A Review

Kurunthachalam Senthil Kumar

Recent studies reveal accumulation potential of environmentally peculiar, recalcitrance and emerging chemicals namely “fluorinated organic chemicals (FOCs)” in un-occupationally exposed human blood, serum, liver, wildlife from aquatic and terrestrial environment, human food-stuff samples, drinking water and even in biota from Arctic and Antarctic regions. Particularly, perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) is an important surfactant itself as well as a precursor to other fluorinated surfactants and pesticides. Consequently, they are considered as major representative chemicals for future work. PFOS exposure results in lowered food intake, body-weight (BW) and further estrous cyclicity in rats. PFOS treatment also increased norepinephrine concentrations in the paraventri-cular nucleus of the hypothalamus in rats. Other fundamental studies with perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) elucidated peroxisome proliferation in humans. A numbers of studies demonstrated that PFOS, PFOA and other FOCs can alter brain monoamines, serum corticosterone and leptin levels in rodents and primates. Therefore, FOCs are an important class of specialty chemicals that have physio-chemical properties that differentiate them from chlorinated hydrocarbon surfactants. Little is known about the occurrence, transport, bio-degradation, and toxicity of FOCs in environment. Considering these facts, in this study, various aspects regarding FOCs have been reviewed and highlighted.

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