Natural Gas Pipelines Leakage, Toxicity and its Safety Measures

A fugitive emission of natural gas during the extraction of oil and gas and its transportation through the pipeline has potential threat to the environment. Natural gas (NG) is the mixture of hydrocarbon gases consisting primarily of methane and other varying hydrocarbons, a small fraction of carbon dioxide, hydrogen, nitrogen, hydrogen sulphide and rare trace gases like helium, neon, xenon etc. The colorless and odorless NG has a wide range of applications as a cleaner fuel. The rapid urbanization, industrialization and economic growth all over the world demand the increasing transportation capacity of NG. Though the transportation pipeline are laid with well-equipped sophisticated technology and leak detection sensors, however still there are risk factor associated for leakage of the gases and explosion. The impacts of man-made disaster are in terms of deaths, injury, losses in economics, property and also having the adverse effect on ecology. The integrity of the NG pipeline system can be achieved by adopting continuous sophisticated up gradation technology. It also requires operation and maintenance of the pipeline at regular interval

Hospital based surveillance and genetic characterization of rotavirus strains in children (<5 years) with acute gastroenteritis in Kolkata, India, revealed resurgence of G9 and G2 genotypes during 2011–2013

AbstractIntroductionIndia accounts for an estimated 457,000–884,000 hospitalizations and 2 million outpatient visits for diarrhea. In spite of the huge burden of rotavirus (RV) disease, RV vaccines have not been introduced in national immunization programme of India. Therefore, continuous surveillance for prevalence and monitoring of the circulating genotypes is needed to assess the disease burden prior to introduction of vaccines in this region.MethodsDuring January 2011 through December 2013, 830 and 1000 stool samples were collected from hospitalized and out-patient department (OPD) patients, respectively, in two hospitals in Kolkata, Eastern India. After primary screening, the G-P typing was done by multiplex semi-nested PCR using type specific primers followed by sequencing. Phylogenetic analysis for the VP7 gene of 25 representative strains was done.ResultsAmong hospitalized and OPD patients, 53.4% and 47.5% cases were positive for rotaviruses, respectively. Unlike previous studies where G1 was predominant, in hospitalized cases G9 rotavirus strains were most prevalent (40%), followed by G2 (39.6%) whereas G1 and G12 occurred at 16.4% and 5.6% frequency. In OPD cases, the most prevalent strain was G2 (40.3%), followed by G1, G9 and G12 at 25.5%, 22.8%, 9.3%, respectively. Phylogenetically the G1, G2 and G9 strains from Kolkata did not cluster with corresponding genotypes of Rotarix, RotaTeq and Rotavac (116E) vaccine strains.ConclusionThe study highlights the high prevalence of RV in children with gastroenteritis in Kolkata. The circulating genotypes have changed over the time with predominance of G9 and G2 strains during 2011-2013. The current G2, G9 and G1 Kolkata strains shared low amino acid homologies with current vaccine strains. Although there is substantial evidence for cross protection of vaccines against a variety of strains, still the strain variation should be monitored post vaccine introduction to determine if it has any impact on vaccine effectiveness

Characterization of Bioaerosols and their Relation with OC, EC and Carbonyl VOCs at a Busy Roadside Restaurants-Cluster in New Delhi

Measurement of biological particles (bioaerosols) in ambient air is of great importance as it is directly linked with the health issues. However, data on the bioaerosols characterization are scarce. Here we report on the concentration and characterization of bioaerosols (including bacterial and fungal aerosols) as well as determination of organic and elemental carbon (OC and EC) in total suspended particulate matter (TSPM) at a busy roadside restaurants-cluster site in New Delhi. In addition, 14 carbonyl volatile organic compounds (carbonyl VOCs) were also measured and their relationship with bioaerosols and OC/EC is assessed. The culturable airborne bacterial and fungal concentrations (CAB and CAF) at restaurant area varied significantly in different seasons ranging from 1.7 x 10(4)-9.8 x 10(4) (averaged 6.3 x 10(4) +/- 2.6 x 10(4) cfu m(-3)) and 3.5 x 10(2)-9.5 x 10(3) (3.9 x 10(3) +/- 3.1 x 10(3) cfu m(-3)) cfu m(-3), respectively. Major concentration peaks of TSPM, OC, EC as well as bacterial and fungal aerosols were found in winter and spring seasons. These peaks can be attributed to the low atmospheric boundary layer (ABL) height and favourable meteorological conditions for microbial growth in winter and spring seasons in New Delhi. Good correlations (R-2 > 0.5) were observed between CAB, CAF, TSPM and OC. On the other hand, CAB and CAF were not found to be correlated with carbonyl compounds (R2 < 0.2) indicative of their diverse sources. The bacterial identification was done by 16s rDNA sequencing and the identified strains were Bacillus sp., Bacillus firmus, Bacillus licheniformis, Bacillus cereus, Bacillus pumilus, Acinetobacter sp. and Acinetobactor radioresistens gene. Predominant fungal genera identified were Aspergillus, Cladosporium, Alternaria and Fusarium, which are known for adverse health effects causing numerous allergic and pathogenic inflammations

High seasonal variation of atmospheric C and particle concentrations in Delhi, India

The highly populated Indian regions are currently in a phase of rapid economic growth resulting in high emissions of carbonaceous aerosols. This leads to poor air quality and impact on climate. The chemical composition of carbonaceous aerosols has rarely been studied in industrial areas of India. Here, we investigated carbonaceous aerosols in particulate matter (PM) monthly in the industrial area of Delhi in 2011. The concentrations of organic C and elemental C in PM10 fraction were analyzed. Results show a clear seasonal variability of organic and elemental C. PM10 ranged 95.9-453.5 mu g m(-3), organic C ranged 28.8-159.4 mu g m(-3), and elemental C ranged 7.5-44.0 mu g m(-3); those values were higher than reported values. Organic and elemental C were correlated with each other in pre-monsoon and winter seasons, implying the existence of similar emission sources such as coal combustion, biomass burning and vehicular exhaust. The annual average contribution of total carbonaceous aerosols in PM10 was estimated as 62 %

Traceability Issue in PM2.5 and PM10 Measurements

Nowadays particle size and mass concentration measurements are the important parameter of the ambient air quality standards of several countries. The regulatory limits of mass concentration of particulate matter (PM) for the size classes of PM2.5 and PM10, i.e., particle sizes of less than or equal to 2.5 and 10 mu m in aerodynamic diameter, respectively in air are defined on yearly and hourly time-weighted-average basis. However, these limits are different in different regulations of the countries. Both of the parameters relate with the human health, climate and other issues, therefore accurate and precise measurement of these parameters are very important. Despite this, so far not much work has progressed in national metrology institutes (NMIs) worldwide on calibration and traceability issue of PM measurements. In this paper in context of PM measurement traceability, we present systematically the (1) air quality regulation in different countries, (2) reference methods for size and mass measurements, (3) variation/error and limitations of PM measurements based on the current results in this study and previously published results, (4) current status of PM size and mass calibration facility, (5) expected uncertainty in PM measurements, (6) add-on uncertainty in other parameters of national ambient air quality standards due to PM measurements, (7) where does traceability of PM issue stand against other parameters of air quality standards and its impact on health and climate, (8) NMIs working on this issue, (9) status at Bureau International des Poids et Mesures (BIPM), France and (10) conclusion. The aim of this paper is to better understand the importance of international system of units (SI) traceability issue in PM measurements, so wherever and whenever it is measured, should be acceptable everywhere, and data should be comparable for improving air quality and thus the quality of life. Funding agencies should be aware of this issue, and accept the results from the principle investigators and team only when their results have the traceability link to SI. NMIs should make program to involve industries in gas and aerosol metrology work to fulfill the requirement of calibration and standards. The regulatory authorities/ministry should work together with NMIs to improve the data quality of ambient measurements. This will greatly help to better make the policies and decisions on the related impacts. These were also the ultimate goals of "one-day pre-AdMet workshop" organized at National Physical Laboratory, New Delhi, India on February 20th, 2013

Chronic Arsenic Exposure Impairs Macrophage Functions in the Exposed Individuals

Introduction Owing to the established roles of human macrophages in immune defense, we investigated the effect of chronic arsenic exposure upon these major hematopoietic cells in 70 arsenic-exposed individuals with skin lesions and 64 unexposed individual