UNLABELLED PREMISE OF THE STUDY Charcoal particles preserved in sediments are used as indicators of paleowildfire. Most research focuses on abundance as an indicator of fire frequency, but charcoals also convey information about the vegetation from which they are derived. One potential source of information is their morphology, which is influenced by the parent material, the nature of the fi...

OBJECTIVES Following the first case in Hong Kong in 1998, the method of committing suicide by charcoal burning has spread to other communities. This aim of this study was to examine the impact of charcoal burning suicides on both overall suicide rates and older-method suicide rates in Hong Kong and urban Taiwan. DESIGN Trend analysis of the overall and method-specific suicide rates between 19...

By lumping together charcoal and firewood consumption to determine the threats to forests from widespread use of woodfuel energy in sub-Sahara African, studies have greatly underestimated the individual impact of charcoal. Where high consumption levels are coupled with poor forest management and negligible regulation of the charcoal trade, the threat of an impending crisis caused by charcoal al...

Neutralization represents an important goal in toxicology, reducing exposure to poison being crucial in any management plan of any intoxication. Controversial data actually exists in the literature regarding activated charcoal capacity to bind organophosphates. To determine and compare organophosphate binding capabilities for different hydrophobic substances, considered to have neutralising pro...

Activated sludge treatment allows only for a partial removal of micropollutants, mainly via sorption and biological degradation. Ozonation and activated carbon filtration are processes bearing the potential to drastically reduce the micropollutant load discharged to the environment after (centralized) biological treatment. The estimated total costs between 0.05 and 0.20 euro per m3 treated wate...

The identification of certain organic compounds in drinking water has led water treatment specialists to be increasingly concerned about the eventual risks of such pollutants to the health of consumers. Our experiments focused on the role of ozone and granular activated carbon in removing mutagenic compounds and precursors that become toxic after chlorination. We found that if a sufficient dose...

Data on raw water quality, disinfection treatment practices, and the resulting mutagenic properties of the treated water were compiled from pilot- and full-scale treatment experiments to evaluate that parameter which might produce variability in the results of a mutagenic study. Analysis of the data and comparison of treatment practices indicated that the measured mutagenic activity is strongly...

Activated carbon filters play an important role in water filtration and purification from contaminants of different origin. Their limit consists in bacterial proliferation, which may occur only during prolonged periods of non-use and in their ability to remove radioactive contaminants present in waste water from Industry or Nuclear Medicine departments. In this work we tested a commercially ava...

A mathematical model based on simple cake filtration theory was coupled to a previously developed two-stage mathematical model for mercury (Hg) removal using powdered activated carbon injection upstream of a baghouse filter. Values of the average permeability of the filter cake and the filter resistance extracted from the model were 4.4 x 10(-13) m2 and 2.5 x 10(-4) m(-1), respectively. The flo...

The objective of this study was to investigate powdered activated carbon (PAC) contribution to natural organic matter (NOM) removal by a submerged MF and UF hybrid systems. It was found that filtration of surface waters by a bare MF and UF membranes removed negligible TOC; by contrast, significant amounts of TOC were removed when daily added PAC particles were predeposited on the membrane surfa...