Nadia Jamil

Removal of Chromium on Polyalthia longifolia Leaves Biomass

Adsorption is an environmental friendly process for removal and/or recovery of heavy metals from wastewater. In recent years, it has been substantiated as a popular technique to treat industrial waste effluents, with significant advantages. In this work, batchwise removal of chromium (III) ions from water by Polyalthia longifolia leaves was studied as a function of adsorbent dose, pH, contact time, and agitation speed. Surface characteristics of the leaves were evaluated by recording IR spectra. The Langmuir, Freundlich, and Temkin adsorption isotherms were employed to explain the sorption process. It was found that one gram of leaves can remove 1.87 mg of trivalent chromium when working at pH 3.0. It has been concluded that Polyalthia longifolia leaves can be used as cost-effective and benign adsorbents for removal of Cr(III) ions from wastewater.

Removal of chromium from water using pea waste – a green approach

Abstract Agro-waste materials have carboxylic and phenolic groups that play the main role in metal adsorption. The advantages of these materials include easy availability, low cost, and reasonable metal removal capacity. One of the materials (usually considered as waste) is pea waste (pods). Present work comprises adsorption of chromium from aqueous solution using powder of pods of garden peas (Pisum sativum) in batch. Important parameters like adsorbent dose, pH, contact time, and agitation speed were studied. Adsorption equilibrium was explained by Langmuir, Freundlich, and Temkin isotherms. Maximum chromium uptake (q m) was 3.56 mg/g of adsorbent. Heat of adsorption, as evaluated by Temkin isotherm was 1.96 kJ/mol. It is proposed that pea pods can be an effective and environmentally benign (green) adsorbents for removal of chromium from industrial effluents and waste waters.

Risk profile and health vulnerability of female workers who pick cotton by organanochlorine pesticides from southern Punjab, Pakistan

The present study was conducted to highlight the existing level of organochlorine-pesticides (OCPs) from human milk (n = 45) and blood serum (n = 40) of female workers who pick cotton in Khanewal District, southern Punjab, Pakistan. Source apportionment, congener-specific analysis, and risk surveillance of OCPs are reported from human milk and blood samples. Levels of OCPs in milk and blood serum samples ranged from 15.7 ppb to 538.3 ppb and from 16.4 ppb to 747.1 ppb, respectively, and were lower than previously published reports from other regions of the globe. Congener-specific analysis revealed that DDTs were predominant, followed by hexachlorocyclohexane, chlordane, and hexachlorobenzene. Calculated results for source apportionment analysis suggested that contamination load was a new input of DDTs as well as the historic use of lindane in the study area. Levels of OCPs in milk and blood serum were significantly (p < 0.05) correlated with age, time period of picking cotton, and number of children. Health risk revealed that female workers had risk of cancer among 1 per million; however, noncarcinogenic risks were not considerable. Environ Toxicol Chem 2017;36:1193-1201.

Risks profile and health vulnerability of cotton picker's women by organanochlorine phosphates (OCPs) from Southern Punjab, Pakistan

The present study was conducted to highlight the existing level of organochlorine-pesticides (OCPs) from human milk (n = 45) and blood serum (n = 40) of female workers who pick cotton in Khanewal District, southern Punjab, Pakistan. Source apportionment, congener-specific analysis, and risk surveillance of OCPs are reported from human milk and blood samples. Levels of OCPs in milk and blood serum samples ranged from 15.7 ppb to 538.3 ppb and from 16.4 ppb to 747.1 ppb, respectively, and were lower than previously published reports from other regions of the globe. Congener-specific analysis revealed that DDTs were predominant, followed by hexachlorocyclohexane, chlordane, and hexachlorobenzene. Calculated results for source apportionment analysis suggested that contamination load was a new input of DDTs as well as the historic use of lindane in the study area. Levels of OCPs in milk and blood serum were significantly (p < 0.05) correlated with age, time period of picking cotton, and number of children. Health risk revealed that female workers had risk of cancer among 1 per million; however, noncarcinogenic risks were not considerable. Environ Toxicol Chem 2017;36:1193-1201.

Environment Friendly Approach to Simultaneously Remove Unfixed Dyes from Textile Fabric and Wash-off Liquor

College of Earth & Environmental Sciences, University of the Punjab, Lahore, Pakistan, *E-mail: textilemaster@gmail.com Abstract A new idea was investigated in this study wherein the use of coagulants was assessed in the wash-off process to simultaneously remove unfixed reactive dyes from fabrics and washoff liquor. At the end of dark shade dyeing (5% owf) with C.I. Reactive Yellow 145, C.I. Reactive Red 194, and C.I. Reactive Black 5, fabrics were subjected to both conventional and new wash-off methods, and comparisons were made. The effectiveness of coagulant wash-off was evaluated in terms of the change in shade, wash fastness, rubbing properties, and colour difference values (ΔL*,ΔC*, Δh* & ΔE*). The colour removal efficiency (%) of liquor was considered as indicative of the removal of unfixed dyes from the fabric. Overall results have shown that the use of alum and MgCl2 coagulants during the wash-off process can achieve up to an 87% reduction in the colour of wash-off liquor, without compromising the colour properties of the dyed substrate.

Assessment of key parameters in tannery sludge management: A prerequisite for energy recovery

ABSTRACT Environmental regulations are getting more restricted related to landfilling of biodegradable waste. The solution to these problems is using the biodegradable portion of sludge waste for agricultural or thermal utilization. This paper is based on the physico-chemical analysis of different proportions of sludge with coal and rice husk for co-combustion to optimize the parameters like sulfur, ash, and gross heating value (GHV). A significant increase in GHV of secondary sludge with different combinations of coal and rice husk was observed as compared to primary sludge combinations representing 13.55–21.80 Mj/kg and 11.52–19.12 Mj/kg, respectively. The combination RSSC-1 (50% sludge and 50% coal) is highly significant with p < 0.01 and can be utilized as fuel because of the high GHV and low sulfur content. This study concludes that co-combustion of sludge in an eco-friendly manner, using modified thermal methods, may turn into a valuable fuel like traditional biomass.

Use of Mercury in Dental Silver Amalgam: An Occupational and Environmental Assessment

The objective of this study was to assess the occupational exposure to mercury in dentistry and associated environmental emission in wastewater of Lahore, Pakistan. A total of ninety-eight blood samples were collected comprising 37 dentists, 31 dental assistants, and 30 controls. Results demonstrate that the dentistry personnel contained significantly higher mean concentration of mercury in their blood samples (dentists: 29.835 µg/L and dental assistants: 22.798 µg/L) compared to that of the controls (3.2769 µg/L). The mean concentration of mercury was found maximum in the blood samples of older age group (62.8 µg/L) in dentists and (44.3 µg/L) in dental assistants. The comparison of mercury concentration among dentists, dental assistants, and controls (pairing based on their ages) revealed that the concentration increased with the age and experience among the dentists and dental assistants. Moreover, the mercury concentration in all the studied dental wastewater samples, collected from twenty-two dental clinics, was found to be exceeding the recommended discharge limit of 0.01 mg/L. Therefore, we recommend that immediate steps must be taken to ensure appropriate preventive measures to avoid mercury vapors in order to prevent potential health hazards to dentistry personnel. Strong regulatory and administrative measures are needed to deal with mercury pollution on emergency basis.