petroleum contamination of soil is a serious problem throughout the oil producer countries. vegetation may play an important role in the biodegradation of toxic organic chemicals in soil. for petroleum compounds, the presence of rhizosphere micro flora may accelerate biodegradation of the contaminants. in a greenhouse study, petroleum contaminated soil were treated using phytoremediation . the ...

Many bioprocesses depend on the effective formation of a biofilm on a solid support. In the present study, three different surface treatments (sandblasting, pure-O(2) plasma, and He-O(2) plasma treatments) were conducted on polypropylene (PP) Pall rings used as a support in biotrickling filters for air pollution control. The intent was to modify the ring surface and/or electrochemical propertie...

A causal link between the increasing environmental pollution and the fast spreading of allergic diseases is currently discussed. The exogenic and endogenic noxious agents contributing to the total environmental load are primarily acting through immunotoxic, sensitizing and neurotoxic mechanisms in animal experiments and in humans. Beside classic allergic-triggering factors (allergen potency, in...

METHODS The present report attempts to illustrate the positive impact on the microbiological quality of dialysis patients over a 15-year period through the progressive implementation of state-of-the-art technological strategies and the optimization of microbiological surveillance procedures in five dialysis units in Sardinia. RESULTS Following on better microbiological, quality controls of di...

Concern with rock decay started early in the history of the mankind. However, the last two centuries yielded a large wealth of information on the manifold aspects of rock decay and rock protection related to the physical cultural heritage. The most important branches of scientific endeavour in this field were air pollution related studies and the increasing awareness of biodeterioration. In thi...

ESBL-producing bacteria are present in wildlife and the environment might serve as a resistance reservoir. Wild gulls have been described as frequent carriers of ESBL-producing E. coli strains with genotypic characteristics similar to strains found in humans. Therefore, potential dissemination of antibiotic resistance genes and bacteria between the human population and wildlife need to be furth...

Mudflats are ecologically important habitats that are susceptible to oil pollution, but intervention is difficult in these fine-grained sediments, and so clean-up usually relies on natural attenuation. Therefore, we investigated the impact of crude oil on the bacterial, diatom and archaeal communities within the upper parts of the diatom-dominated sediment and the biofilm that detached from the...

Continuous faecal pollution in source water is a global problem that is particularly debilitating to rural communities that are directly dependent on untreated source water for all their domestic and other purposes. The elevation of indicator bacteria levels (such as the faecal coliforms) in the water may pose a public health risk. This study reports the results of microbial monitoring of the M...

Microbial quality of reclaimed water used for irrigation in two golf courses located in the southern Iberian Peninsula (Spain and Portugal) was evaluated. Bacterial indicators for faecal pollution (total and faecal coliforms, Escherichia coli and enterococci) were tested by membrane filtration using appropriate selective media. In addition, somatic E. coli bacteriophages, enteric viruses (enter...

Trinitrotoluene (TNT), a commonly used explosive for military and industrial applications, can cause serious environmental pollution. 28-day laboratory pot experiment was carried out applying bioaugmentation using laboratory selected bacterial strains as inoculum, biostimulation with molasses and cabbage leaf extract, and phytoremediation using rye and blue fenugreek to study the effect of thes...