The discovery of a letter intentionally filled with dried Bacillus anthracis spores in the office of a United States senator prompted the collection and quarantine of all mail in congressional buildings. This mail was subsequently searched for additional intentionally contaminated letters. A microbiological sampling strategy was used to locate heavy contamination within the 642 separate plastic...

Arsenic is an environmental hazard and the reduction of drinking water arsenic levels is under consideration. People are exposed to arsenic not only through drinking water but also through arsenic-contaminated air and food. Here we report the health effects of arsenic exposure from burning high arsenic-containing coal in Guizhou, China. Coal in this region has undergone mineralization and thus ...

Inside air ventilation ducts of the confined space such as subway stations become contaminated by various contaminants and particular matters after long time operation. The accumulated various pollutants at inner duct surface easily transport and cause secondary air contamination and injure subway passengers’ respiratory system and health. In fact, only periodic duct cleaning works can improve ...

BACKGROUND During the Vietnam War, approximately 20 million gallons of herbicides, including ~10.5 million gallons of dioxin-contaminated Agent Orange, were sprayed by about 34 UC-123 aircraft that were subsequently returned to the United States, without decontamination or testing, to three Air Force reserve units for transport operations (~1971-1982). In 1996, observed dioxin contamination led...

Environmental pollution in India has increased from uncontrolled emission of chemical pollutants from the Industries, automobiles and non-point sources where modern agricultural practices are used. These chemicals have contaminated the air, water, soil and their residues have been detected in drinking water, food and consumer products. Some of these are very persistent in the environment and ha...

This paper presents the results of laboratory experiments that investigate the removal of volatile organic compounds from saturated soils through the use of air sparging. Three series of experiments were performed in a column test apparatus using two different soils to represent actual field conditions, namely, a fine gravel and a medium to fine Ottawa sand (both obtained from sources near Chic...

The research was focused on the slurry-phase biodegradation of naphthalene in soil. Among ex-situ techniques, the slurry-phase technique offers the advantage to increase the availability of contaminants to bacteria. From soil samples collected on a contaminated site, the Pseudomonas putida M8 strain capable to degrade naphthalene was selected. Experiments were performed in a stirred and oxygena...