OBJECTIVE To assess the mercury accumulating capacity in contaminated soils from the community of Mina Santa Cruz, in the south of the department of Bolívar, Colombia, of the pepper plant (Capsicum annuum), in order to establish the risk to the health of the consuming population. MATERIALS AND METHODS Samples were taken from tissues (roots, stems, and leaves) of pepper plants grown in two soi...

Bioremediation of metal-contaminated wastestreams has been successfully demonstrated. Normally, whole cells or microbial exopolymers are used to concentrate and/or precipitate metals in the wastestream to aid in metal removal. Analogous remediation of metal-contaminated soils is more complex because microbial cells or large exopolymers do not move freely through the soil. The use of microbially...

Contamination of soils, water, and sediments by radionuclides and toxic metals from uranium mill tailings, nuclear fuel manufacturing and nuclear weapons production is a major concern. Studies of the mechanisms of biotransformation of uranium and toxic metals under various microbial process conditions has resulted in the development of two treatment processes: (i) stabilization of uranium and t...

A large number of technologies have been developed over the past decades to treat contaminated ground either by breaking down the contaminants or by immobilising them. Most of these technologies have been and are being developed in the United States. A number of these technologies have reached commercial status and have been used to remediate sites around the world with the aim of reducing the ...

This investigation was undertaken to determine the factors influencing electrokinetic remediation of soils from petroleum pollutants. The remediation method was applied in two versions: (i) static and (ii) flowing, when a sample was washed with leaching solution. It was found that all the soils studied can be purified using this technique. It was also observed that the mineral and grain-size co...

Earthworms native to the former mine site of Devon Great Consols (DGC), UK reside in soils highly contaminated with arsenic (As). These earthworms are considered to have developed a resistance to As toxicity. The mechanisms underlying this resistance however, remain unclear. In the present study, non-resistant, commercially sourced Lumbricus terrestris were exposed to a typical DGC soil in labo...

The continuous use of copper-based fungicide over the years in the control of black pod disease has led to heavy-metal accumulation in cocoa soils due to its non biodegradable nature. Considering the limited, available forest, it is therefore, necessary for the existing heavy-metal contaminated cocoa soils to undergo soil remediation in order to reduce the bioavailability of metals for plant up...

Redevelopment of brownfields sites is a challenging issue throughout the world, which has gained increasing attention in recent years. Lands affected by oil wastes and products are among common types of brownfields sites in Iran. Sorghum (Sorghum bicolor) was employed to remediate diesel polluted soils in this study. The main aims of this study were to examine the phytoremediation potential of ...

A series of batch tests were conducted to investigate the relative desorption potential of mercury from kaolin and glacial till soils under the effect of three extractant agents, namely, KI, NaEDTA and NaCl (all of them with a concentration of 0.1 M). These tests were conducted under different pH conditions (within a pH range between 2 and 12). Also batch tests using deionized water were perfor...

A practical method for the elimination of PCBs from PCB-contaminated soil has been developed by the combination of Soxhlet extraction using a newly-developed modified Soxhlet extractor possessing an outlet valve on the extraction chamber with the chemical degradation. Various types of PCBs contaminated in soils could be completely extracted in refluxing hexane, and the subsequent hydrodechlorin...