Paraquat (1, r-dimethyl-4,4'-bipyridium dichloride), a brown syrupy liquid is an effective herbicide that has low chronic toxicity because of its rapid deactivation on contact with soil. A high dose of paraquat or severe poisoning has a poor prognosis. At present there is no specific antidote to paraquat poisoning, hence the need to focus on prevention and in case of exposure or ingestion, aggr...

Anthropogenic activities cause pollution of soil, groundwater, sediments, surface water, air with unsafe and noxious chemicals is one of the main crises facing the industrialized world today. Over the last century, public apprehension about environmental pollution has increased remarkably. Now a days, polluted soils and waters as a result of global industrialization pose a major environmental a...

Radiological terrorism (radioterrorism) is the deliberate use of radiological weapons. These weapons use radioactive materials to disperse and emit ionizing radiation. There are two classes of radiological weapons - radiological dispersal devices (RDD) and radiation emission devices (RED). These weapons would no cause massive numbers of dead. In most radiological attack scenarios, only few peop...

In this article, we analyze feedback from simulated casualties who took part in field exercises involving mass decontamination, to gain an understanding of how responder communication can affect people's experiences of and compliance with decontamination. We analyzed questionnaire data gathered from 402 volunteers using the framework approach, to provide an insight into the public's experiences...

A new simplified method for particle size estimation of radioactive aerosols was proposed for air monitoring. It does not need any new instruments but a traditional aerosol sampling device with a multistage filter system. The method is based on the particle size dependency of penetration for air filter. Decontamination factor data measured in each filter stage is inversed to a size distribution...

Since the terror attacks of September 11th, emergency departments across North America have become more aware of the need to be prepared to deal with a mass casualty terror event, particularly one involving nuclear, biological or chemical contaminants. The effects of such an attack could also be mimicked by accidental release of toxic chemicals, radioactive substances or biological agents unrel...

The aim of this investigation was to study whether certain bacteria could be used for cyanide degradation in soil. The bacteria Pseudomonas stutzeri and Bacillus subtilis were selected based on their good growth in a minimal medium containing 0.8 mg mL-1 potassium cyanide (KCN). In this study we tested their ability to reduce cyanide levels in a medium containing 1.5 mg mL-1 of KCN. Although bo...

This work presents experimental results on the distribution of irradiated reactor uranium from fallout after the accident at Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) in comparison to natural uranium distribution in different soil types. Oxidation processes and vertical migration of irradiated uranium in soils typical of the 30 km relocation area around Chernobyl NPP were studied using 236U as the tr...