8,449 research outputs found

    Extremely cold and hot temperatures increase the risk of ischaemic heart disease mortality: epidemiological evidence from China.

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    OBJECTIVE: To examine the effects of extremely cold and hot temperatures on ischaemic heart disease (IHD) mortality in five cities (Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, Wuhan and Guangzhou) in China; and to examine the time relationships between cold and hot temperatures and IHD mortality for each city. DESIGN: A negative binomial regression model combined with a distributed lag non-linear model was used to examine city-specific temperature effects on IHD mortality up to 20 lag days. A meta-analysis was used to pool the cold effects and hot effects across the five cities. PATIENTS: 16 559 IHD deaths were monitored by a sentinel surveillance system in five cities during 2004-2008. RESULTS: The relationships between temperature and IHD mortality were non-linear in all five cities. The minimum-mortality temperatures in northern cities were lower than in southern cities. In Beijing, Tianjin and Guangzhou, the effects of extremely cold temperatures were delayed, while Shanghai and Wuhan had immediate cold effects. The effects of extremely hot temperatures appeared immediately in all the cities except Wuhan. Meta-analysis showed that IHD mortality increased 48% at the 1st percentile of temperature (extremely cold temperature) compared with the 10th percentile, while IHD mortality increased 18% at the 99th percentile of temperature (extremely hot temperature) compared with the 90th percentile. CONCLUSIONS: Results indicate that both extremely cold and hot temperatures increase IHD mortality in China. Each city has its characteristics of heat effects on IHD mortality. The policy for response to climate change should consider local climate-IHD mortality relationships

    Public health and landfill sites

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    Landfill management is a complex discipline, requiring very high levels of organisation, and considerable investment. Until the early 1990’s most Irish landfill sites were not managed to modern standards. Illegal landfill sites are, of course, usually not managed at all. Landfills are very active. The traditional idea of ‘put it in the ground and forget about it’ is entirely misleading. There is a lot of chemical and biological activity underground. This produces complex changes in the chemistry of the landfill, and of the emissions from the site. The main emissions of concern are landfill gases and contaminated water (which is known as leachate). Both of these emissions have complex and changing chemical compositions, and both depend critically on what has been put into the landfill. The gases spread mainly through the atmosphere, but also through the soil, while the leachate (the water) spreads through surface waters and the local groundwater. Essentially all unmanaged landfills will discharge large volumes of leachate into the local groundwater. In sites where the waste accepted has been properly regulated, and where no hazardous wastes are present, there is a lot known about the likely composition of this leachate and there is some knowledge of its likely biological and health effects. This is not the case for poorly regulated sites, where the composition of the waste accepted is unknown. It is possible to monitor the emissions from landfills, and to reduce some of the adverse health and environmental effects of these. These emissions, and hence the possible health effects, depend greatly on the content of the landfill, and on the details of the local geology and landscape. There is insufficient evidence to demonstrate a clear link between cancers and exposure to landfill, however, it is noted that there may be an association with adverse birth outcomes such as low birth weight and birth defects. It should be noted, however, that modern landfills, run in strict accordance with standard operation procedures, would have much less impact on the health of residents living in proximity to the site

    Mercury Contamination in Soil, Water, Plants, and Hydrobionts in Kyiv and the Kyiv Region

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    In this paper, there was investigated the content of mercury in soil, plant, water, and hydrobionts in Kyiv and in the Obukhiv district of the Kyiv region. Studied territory is characterized by high anthropogenic load. The solid waste landfill in the Obukhiv district of the Kyiv region was characterized by the highest content of Hg in soil. Hg concentration in Taraxacum officinale L. was the highest among all studied plants, hence the possibility of recommending this species for phytoremediation of mercury-polluted soils. Mercury bioaccumulation of aquatic organisms (Blicca bjoerkna L., Esox lucius L., Ceratophyllum demersum L.) was much higher than in terrestrial organisms, which indicates the significantly prevailing level of availability and accumulation of mercury for aquatic species in the water environment

    Unequal Exposure to Ecological Hazards 2005: Environmental Injustices in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts

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    Unequal Exposure to Ecological Hazards 2005 documents Massachusetts residents' unequal exposure to environmental hazards. More specifically, the report analyzes both income basedand racially-based disparities in the geographic distribution of some 17 different types ofenvironmentally hazardous sites and industrial facilities in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. This report provides evidence that working class communities and communities of color are disproportionately impacted by toxic waste disposal, incinerators, landfills, trash transfer stations, power plants, and polluting industrial facilities. In some cases, not only are new toxic facilities and dump sites located in poorer neighborhoods and communities of color, but as in the case of the public housing development and playgrounds near the Alewife station in Cambridge, housing for people of color and low income populations is sometimes located on top of preexisting hazardous waste sites and/or nearby polluting facilities. We conclude that striking inequities in the distribution of these environmentally hazardous sites and facilities are placing working class families and people of color at substantially greater risk of exposure to human health risks. We advocate the adoption of a number of measures, including a comprehensive environmental justice act, to reduce pollution and address unequal exposure to ecological threats

    Determination of physiochemical properties and metal levels in soil, water, and plant from Alice landfill site

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    The state of soil is of great significance because it is a common medium for plant growth, which provides important nutrients to plants. Water pollution is the build-up of harmful substances in water bodies to the level that results in health problems for people and animals. Heavy metal pollution (of soil, water, and plants) and their health effects on people is a persistent social issue, and several types of research have recognized health risks of residents living close to open dumpsites. Dump sites are sources of heavy metal impurity and toxicity to the surrounding environment. Analyses were done on water and soil samples for temperature, pH, Electrical conductivity (EC), Total dissolved solids (TDS), alkalinity, organic matter, organic carbon and total hardness. The pH results range from slightly acidic (6.79) to neutral soil pH (7.09), and have been recorded within the normal range from WHO. All the determined physicochemical properties in soil and water have been recorded within the normal range, except for EC in water which was found to be above the permissible limits by WHO. The heavy metals concentration was determined using the AAS technique. The results obtained shows that the dumpsite‘s soil consists of high metal concentration when compared to control site. The concentration in dumpsites ranges between 1.2783 ± 0.83 mg/kg to 26.3213 ± 6.37 mg/kg. The descending order for selected metal concentrations were in this following order Mn> Cu>Hg>Pb. The Pb and Hg mean concentration was recorded above permissible limits, while the Mn and Cu were within the normal range suggested by WHO. In both water and Acacia karroo samples the Cu was not detected. The trend of metal concentration in water sample was found to be in this order Hg> Mn > Pb> Cu, while in Acacia karroo metal concentration is Hg> Mn> Pb> Cu. The one-way ANOVA test was used to compare the mean concentration of selected metals in each sampling site. The results show that there is a statistically significant difference between the mean concentrations of selected metals; this is supported by the value of F-static and p-value (p <0.05

    Leachate characterization and assessment of surface and groundwater water qualities near municipal solid waste dump site at Okuvo, Delta State, Nigeria

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    The paucity of standard engineered landfills in Nigeria has given rise to the proliferation of open waste dumpsites. The environment can be impacted negatively by leachates from these dumpsites if not properly managed. This study aimed at assessing the characteristics of municipal solid waste leachate and its contamination potential on surface and groundwater. Leachate, groundwater and surface water samples were collected from refuse dump site, saver pit, borehole and river in the vicinity of the Okuvo refuse dump site. Physical parameters, oxygen demanding parameters, nutrients and heavy metals were investigated using standard laboratory procedures. Results obtained were compared with standards from national regulatory agencies. The BOD/COD ratio for the leachates varied from 0.34 to 0.52, indicating high organic content.  Surrounding water bodies show low pollution from the discharged leachates as indicated by unobjectionable odour and colour, pH (6.55-7.20), DO (3.02-6.60mgl-1), BOD (0.55-2.90mgl-1), COD (1.98-7.45mgl-1), phosphate (0.18-0.52mgl-1) and nitrate (0.06-0.24mgl-1) results. Heavy metals concentrations range from 0.011-0.028mgl-1, 0.005-0.018mgl-1, 0.032-0.096mgl-1, 0.001-0.008mgl-1, 0.001-0.003mgl-1 and 0.010-0.018mgl-1 for Ni, Cr, Fe, Pb, Cd and Mn. Concentrations values for Arsenic and mercury were &lt;0.001mgl-1. These were all within the country’s regulatory limits except few recorded concentrations of nickel where concentrations were observed to be slightly higher. These observed results may be as a result of the young age of the dumpsite. Some proactive remedial actions were suggested to curtail future environmental and health implications posed by the dumpsite. The study concludes that in spite of absence of pollution, the groundwater beneath the landfill has the tendency of being polluted in the distant future except the refuse dump site is upgraded to an engineered standard landfill with effective monitoring protocols put in place.Keywords: Landfills, Solid waste, Contamination, Surface and Water pollutio

    Distribution of heavy metals from tailings ponds and landfills into underground and surface waters

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    Heavy metals contaminate underground and surface waters from illegally constructed industrial and municipal landfills. Numerous papers on the subject contain undeniable evidence, and they have determined heavy metal migration into nature by measuring concentrations in underground and surface waters near tailings ponds and landfills. Heavy metal measured values exceed the WHO limit quota. The characteristics of heavy metals and their negative impact on the environment and people's health have prompted a large number of investigations into this global problem. This paper provides an overview of the literature on the subject, with the goal of emphasizing the anthropogenic influence of heavy metal pollution as a critical issue, particularly in developing countries

    Next-generation sequencing showing potential leachate influence on bacterial communities around a landfill in China

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    The impact of contaminated leachate on groundwater from landfills is well known but specific effects on bacterial consortia are less well-studied. Bacterial communities in landfill and an urban site located in Suzhou, China were studied using Illumina high-throughput sequencing. A total number of 153944 good quality reads were produced and sequences assigned to 6388 operational taxonomic units (OTUs). Bacterial consortia consisted of up to 16 phyla including Proteobacteria (31.9 to 94.9% at landfill, 25.1 to 43.3% at urban sites), Actinobacteria (0 to 28.7% at landfill, 9.9 to 34.3% at urban sites), Bacteroidetes (1.4 to 25.6% at landfill, 5.6 to 7.8% at urban sites), Chloroflexi (0.4 to 26.5% at urban sites only) and unclassified bacteria. Pseudomonas was the dominant (67-93%) genus in landfill leachate. Arsenic concentrations in landfill raw leachate (RL) (1.11x103 µg/L) and fresh leachate (FL2) (1.78x103 µg/L), and mercury concentrations in RL (10.9 µg/L) and FL2 (7.37 µg/L) were higher than Chinese State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA) standards for leachate in landfills. Shannon diversity index and Chao 1 richness estimate showed RL and FL2 lacked richness and diversity when compared with other samples. This is consistent with stresses imposed by elevated arsenic and mercury and has implications for ecological site remediation by bioremediation or natural attenuation
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