Distribution of heavy metals around the Barakah nuclear power plant in the United Arab Emirates

© 2017, Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg. Inductively coupled plasma emission spectroscopy was used to measure the concentrations of heavy metals in 58 samples collected from the Barakah nuclear power plant (BNPP) area, UAE. The grain size distribution was symmetric, but the samples ranged from fine to coarse sand. The inverse relationship between grain size and heavy metal contaminations was validated. The pre-operational average heavy metal contaminations around the BNPP were 0.03, 0.40, 1.2, 2.05, 1.66, 1.6, 5.9, 7.3, 7, 8.8, 60, and 2521 ppm for Cd, Mo, Co, Cu, Pb, As, Zn, Ni, V, Cr, Mn, and Fe, respectively. The spatial distribution was more compact in the south compared to the north, with less severe contaminations in the east and west. The negative geoaccumulation indices suggest an uncontaminated area, and the BNPP has minor enrichments. All concentrations were significantly below the safe limits set by the Dutch guidelines. The levels of heavy metals reported in the UAE were lower than levels reported in countries around the world

Distribution of Heavy Metals in the Bottom Sediments of the Arabian Gulf, United Arab Emirates

Thirty two bottom sediment samples were collected from four different areas from Arabian Gulf, United Arab Emirates. These areas include: (a) Dubai, (b) Sharjah, (c) Ajman, and (d) Ras Al-Khaimah. The present study focuses on the levels of copper, lead, iron, manganese nickel, cadmium, zinc and vanadium in order to assess the extent of environmental pollution and to discuss the origin of these contaminants in sediments. Positive correlations are found between increase of heavy metals concentration and decrease of grain size. It is well established that heavy metals tend to be concentrated in the finer grain sizes of bottom sediments of the studied areas. Some large size grain sediments show high heavy metals concentrations due to formation of large agglomerates from the smaller particles enriched by contaminations. The concentrations of copper, zinc, lead, iron, manganese, nickel, cadmium, and vanadium are varied between 5.05, 10.15, 2.82, 3230, 119.0, 16.92, 0.105, and 11.04 μg/g, respectively, which are within the permission levels. This means that the samples containing these metals were derived from non-pollutant sources

Trace metals contamination of bottom sediments of Abu Dhabi Area, UAE

Seventy nine bottom sediment samples were collected from Abu Dhabi area from Ghantoout area in the north east from Abu Al Abyad island to determine the regional distribution of concentration of trace metals and pollution levels in the studied area. In general, a negative correlation has been reported between trace metals concentration and total organic matter with the exception of Cu, Zn, Co and Cr. A negative relation between trace metals concentrations and carbonate content was also found in the area of study. The present study focuses on the levels of copper, lead, iron, manganese, nickel, cadmium, zinc and vanadium in order to assess the extent of the environmental pollution and to discuss the origin of these contaminants in the sediments. The average concentrations of copper, zinc, lead, iron, manganese nickel, cadmium and vanadium are 4.65, 11.94, 1.91, 2800, 92.26, 10.55, 0.082 and 11.43 μg/g respectively. These values are within the permitted levels in the marine activity areas and industrial activity areas, which means that trace metals are not derived from the pollutant sources

Geochemical characters of the Gabbroic Rocks in ophiolite sequences of north Hatta area, United Arab Emirates

The ophiolite sequences of UAE, as a part of Oman ophiolite, represent both, mantle section and crustal section. The crustal part of the ophiolite sequences, consists of a layered series (cumulate peridotites and gabbros). This paper aims to overview geochemical character and some mechanical and physical features of the gabbroic rocks. The gabbros comprise troctolite, olivine gabbro, normal gabbro, gabbronorite, and uralitized gabbros. Geochemical features indicate that they are tholeiitic and are formed in an arc-related tectonic setting. On NMORB normalized pattern of gabbros, the HFS-elements (P, Zr, Sm, Ti, and Y) show a flat pattern parallel to NMORB. In contrast, the LIL-elements (Rb, Ba, Th, Sr) are relatively more enriched than NMORB. The enrichment of LIL-elements over the HFS-elements and the depletion of Nb relative to other HFS-elements suggest involvement of subduction component in the depleted mantle source, and suggest that these rocks were formed in a supra-subduction zone tectonic setting

Phenotypic and Genotypic Screening of Colistin Resistance Associated with Emerging Pathogenic Escherichia coli Isolated from Poultry

Chickens continue to be an important reservoir of zoonotic multidrug-resistant illnesses. Antimicrobial resistance correlated with colistin has emerged as a critical concern worldwide in the veterinary field and the public health sector. The current study investigated the prevalence of multidrug-resistant avian pathogenic Escherichia coli among chicken farms in three Egyptian governorates, focusing on colistin resistance assessment. A total of 56 Escherichia coli isolates were recovered out of 120 pooled samples obtained from diseased chicken broilers (46.7%). The E. coli isolates were serotyped to nine different serotypes; the highest incidence was for O125 (n = 18). The E. coli isolates demonstrated multidrug-resistant patterns against 10 antibiotics, especially clindamycin, tetracycline, streptomycin and ampicillin, by 100, 100, 96.4 and 92.9%, respectively. On the other hand, colistin resistance was 41.1% using AST. All E. coli isolates displayed positive colistin resistance growth on chromogenic medium, but only 25% represented this positivity via MIC estimation and Sensititre kit. PCR results revealed that all isolates harbored mcr-1, but no isolates harbored the other 2–5 mcr genes. In conclusion, the study demonstrated the emergence of multidrug-resistant, especially colistin-resistant, E. coli among chicken broiler flocks, and mcr-1 is the master gene of the colistin resistance feature