Research Publications (Food Safety)

Golinga reservoir provides water for drinking and domestic and agricultural activities for its surrounding communities. However, competitive demand and multiple-use necessitated a study into the influence of the multipurpose use on the water quality and subsequent health risks. The 6-month research employed observations and water sampling to assess the impact. Empirical orthogonal function, analysis of variance, and variance–covariance were run to interpret the obtained data.

Pomelo peel has been reported as an efficient biosorbent for lead removal from wastewater treatment processes. The current work aimed to examine the amounts of lead desorption from the biosorbent waste in amended soil samples for up to 3 months (10% w/w). The desorption experiments were performed under two widely used techniques, single extraction and column leaching. Lead desorption was evaluated using two common eluents, which were 0.01-M Ca(NO3)2 and 0.04-M EDTA solutions.

The study area lies in a semi-arid setting of Brazil that comprises some of the largest scheelite mines in the country, but information regarding the mining impacts on the soil quality are relatively scarce. Here, we studied the changes in the soil physical and chemical characteristics caused by the scheelite mining activities in northeast Brazil, including the impacts on heavy metal concentrations in soils.

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), the nitrogen-containing analogues (N-PAHs) and lead 210 (210Pb) were measured in 2-cm interval core segments from Bodo Creek to evaluate impact of oil pollution in the waterbody. PAHs and N-PAHs were measured by gas chromatography analysis with mass spectrometry detection, and 210Pb activity concentration was determined by alpha spectrometry measurement.

Abstract

Agriculture is the largest consumer of water, particularly in arid and semi-arid regions, so identifying and managing surface water quality in these areas is critical to preserving water resources and ensuring sustainable agriculture.

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Soil contamination with heavy metals causes heavy environmental problems, in particular toxic effects on plants as well as on animals and humans. This article analyzes the effects of copper, a potentially toxic metal and abundant contaminant, on soil bacteria. Gram-positive soil bacteria of the Bacillus and Arthrobacter species, isolated from heavy metal contaminated areas, have been investigated as regards copper resistance.

Nearly 80% of the population in the Colombo district fulfill their major requirement from the Kelani river. Recent studies are interoperating: most groundwater and surface water in Sri Lanka are contaminated with waterborne pathogens and antibiotics.

This study was aimed at studying the effect of heavy metals and arsenic on the survival and biofilm formation of some saprotrophic microorganisms: Bacillus megaterium var. phosphaticum, Bacillus mucilaginosus, Pectobacterium carotovorum, and Escherichia coli. As a source of heavy metals and arsenic, we used aqueous solutions of NaAsO2, Cd(CH3COO)2, and Pb(NO3)2 (2.5, 25, 250 mg L−1).

Magnetic graphene oxide (MGO) is an inorganic composite material composed of graphene oxide (GO) that has the characteristics of GO and magnetic material. The application of MGO in water treatment can effectively solve problems such as difficult recovery of the adsorbed GO from liquid, low efficiency, and high treatment cost, which are regarded as having important academic research value.

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Remediation of contaminated soil and sediment is important for improving the eco-environmental quality. Electro-kinetic remediation (EKR) is an environmentally friendly technology to migrate and remove pollutants from the soil and sediment matrix. This paper analyses the mechanism and performance of EKR of heavy metals, organic pollutants, and compound pollutants.

In this study, leaf and soil samples were used as bio-monitors for different alkali and heavy metals at six different locations in Kyiv city. Using x–y plots of the inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectroscopy (ICP-OES) data measured the discrepancy level in elemental composition between the different investigated areas; the correlation between the concentrations in tree leaves and the samples from the surrounding soils were investigated.

This review presents important information about general aspects of the mining process as a source of environmental pollution, economic and health impact, microorganisms involved in the microenvironments resulting from ore exploitation, and resistance mechanisms to As and Zn, as a global vision of topics of interest to researchers or students involved in this field.

Water is principally intended for direct consumption and for the production of food and beverages. It is also a valuable raw material in the industry. Despite the use of multi-stage treatment processes, the quality of drinking water may still be a concern in some countries due to the presence of toxic pollutants, often challenging to remove through the conventional treatment process.

The Animas River provides irrigation water in northwestern New Mexico and the Navajo Nation. Concerns regarding the river water quality arose on August 5, 2015, when approximately 11.35 million liters of heavy metal contaminated water was accidentally released from the Gold King Mine into the Animas River.

Among numerous sustainable advanced nanomaterials, nanocellulose is receiving increasing attention for its utilization in water treatment technologies due to its various specific properties and functionalities. The term “nanocellulose” is used for cellulosic material having a nanoscopic scale (or nanoscale) for their dimensional characteristics. It can be obtained in three different forms, which are fibrous form, crystalline form, or bacterial form.

Six bioretention filter columns were designed to study the effects of the bioretention system on surface runoff reduction through rainfall simulation water distribution experiments, and the relationship between the physicochemical properties of contaminated fillers and microbial community structure was analyzed.

Even though sediment Escherichia coli is a common source of contamination in freshwater environments, their characteristics such as virulence genes, biofilm forming capacity, antibiotic resistance, and level of reactive oxygen species (ROS) are not well understood. This study examined E. coli from freshwater sediments, sewage, and a collection of O157 isolates.

Reliable stable indicators are very important for assessing soil quality. This paper compares the dynamics of microbial parameters in two different soils (rich/poor in organic carbon), contaminated in laboratory experiments with an equal dose of heavy metals (HMs) after 30 and 90 days.

Soil enzyme activities are often used as indicators of soil contamination. The responses of the activities of specific soil enzymes, dehydrogenase, acid phosphatase, β-glucosidase, carboxylesterase, and urease to different land uses (soybean and rice crops, and a reference site) were analyzed. Changes in activity at the start and end of each crop cycle were quantified. In general, the catalytic activity of all enzymes was lower in both crops than in the reference site.

Concentrated pig production is a major source of environmental pollution. Metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) show potential for reducing heavy metal pollution. Two zirconium-based octahedral MOFs, UiO-66 and UiO-66-NH2, were prepared by solvothermal method and were characterized by XRD, SEM, FT-IR, and BET. The adsorption capacity, treatability, and reusability of the adsorbents were tested in batch experiments.

This study was carried out to investigate the efficacy of electrokinetics to remediate two identical soft kaolinite clay slurries with a water content of 70%. The first slurry was contaminated with copper at a concentration of 150 mg/kg of dry soil and the second with cadmium at the same concentration. The tests were performed in four identical electrokinetic columns (two for the electrokinetics tests and two for control) with a volume capacity of 14 L.

Predation is known to play a prominent role in maintaining ecosystem structure and functioning. Despite metals being known to potentially affect predation in aquatic ecosystems, few studies have been conducted, so far, with the aim of evaluating this interplay. In the present study, the effects of four metal salts (copper, cadmium, mercury, and manganese) on the feeding rates and food preference of the dragonfly Tramea cophisa and of the ostracod Chlamydotheca sp.