A case of a patient who developed an intestinal perforation secondary to a charcoal stercolith is reviewed. The case involves a young female on methadone maintenance who received multiple-dose charcoal therapy for an amitriptyline ingestion. Peritoneal signs developed several days after admission, and an exploratory laparotomy was done. A perforation measuring 4 cm in diameter was found in the ...

To evaluate the effect of activated charcoal on aminoglycoside pharmacokinetics, six healthy volunteers received tobramycin intravenously with and without multiple oral doses of activated charcoal. Activated charcoal did not have a statistically significant effect on any pharmacokinetic parameter. We conclude that activated charcoal does not enhance tobramycin clearance in subjects with normal ...

Charcoal is the main cooking fuel for urban populations in many African countries. Urbanization and population growth are driving an increase in demand for charcoal, whilst deforestation reduces biomass stocks. Given increasing demand for charcoal, and decreasing availability of biomass, policies are urgently needed that ensure secure energy supplies for urban households and reduce deforestatio...

We investigated the association of the intensity of newspaper reporting of charcoal burning suicide with the incidence of such deaths in Taiwan during 1998-2002. A counting process approach was used to estimate the incidence of suicides and intensity of news reporting. Conditional Poisson generalized linear autoregressive models were performed to assess the association of the intensity of newsp...

In Ghana, about 73% of households rely on solid fuels for cooking. Over 13,000 annual deaths are attributed to exposure to indoor air pollution from inefficient combustion. In this study, assessment of thermal efficiency, emissions and total global warming impact of three cookstoves commonly used in Ghana was completed using IWA water boiling test (WBT) protocol. Statistical averages of three r...

Charcoal is a major source for cooking energy in most African countries, for which demand from a burgeoning human population has sometimes outstripped the supply of wood from forests and woodland. Therefore, there is need to explore the potential of indigenous trees and shrubs for sustainable charcoal production. Acacia drepanolobium is an ideal candidate for sustained charcoal production becau...

Fire is a key Earth system process, with 80% of annual fire activity taking place in grassland areas. However, past fire regimes in grassland systems have been difficult to quantify due to challenges in interpreting the charcoal signal in depositional environments. To improve reconstructions of grassland fire regimes, it is essential to assess two key traits: (1) charcoal count, and (2) charcoa...

The adsorption property of activated charcoal on verotoxin (VT)-producing Escherichia coli (VTEC) was examined using E. coli O157:H7. In the present study, E. coli O157:H7 strains were effectively adsorbed by activated charcoal. Adsorption was dose-dependent, and the maximum adsorption occurred within 5 min. At 10 mg of activated charcoal, bacteria tested were completely adsorbed. Activated cha...

Fire is a global driver of carbon storage and converts a substantial proportion of plant biomass to black carbon (for example, charcoal), which remains in the soil for thousands of years. Black carbon is therefore often proposed as an important long-term sink of soil carbon. We ran a 10-year experiment in each of three boreal forest stands to show that fire-derived charcoal promotes loss of for...

Charcoal-horse blood agar with 40 micrograms of cephalexin per ml, charcoal-horse blood agar with 3 micrograms of lincomycin per ml, charcoal agar with 3 micrograms of lincomycin per ml, and Legionella (buffered charcoal-yeast extract) agar with 3 micrograms of lincomycin per ml were compared for isolation of Bordetella pertussis. Charcoal-horse blood agar with 40 micrograms of cephalexin per m...