Fertilizers usually enhance potassium (K) content and other naturally occurring radioactive materials in agricultural fields that eventually enter the human food chain through plants. In this study, pot-grown rice plants planted in soil that is relatively high in natural radioactive content was used to estimate the individual influence of fertilizer applications on the uptake of 226Ra, 232Th, and 40K using gamma-ray spectrometry. Three types of common fertilizers used in rice cultivation (with percentages) 17.5N:15.5P:10K, 17N:3P:25K+2MgO, and 46N (i.e., urea) were separately added to the potted-rice plants which were in three different growth stages: emergence stage (10 days), maximum tillering stage (40 days), and initiation stage (70 days). Fertilizers at various concentrations (0, 100, 200, 300, and 400 mg kg–1) were applied in the first stage of plant growth, whereas only 200 mg kg–1 fertilizer was applied in the second and third stages. Results showed that the uptake of 226Ra, 232Th, and 40K by rice grains was affected by different concentrations of fertilizer and its application time. However, these findings suggested insignificant health risk related to the ingestion dose of grains treated with selected fertilizers.

In this study, among the 21 diesel-degrading bacteria that were isolated from an oil-polluted area in Fars (Iran), 6 bacterial strains were tested for their capability to metabolize and grow on diesel oil by degrading its hydrocarbons content. The biochemical characteristics and 16S rRNA sequence analysis of diesel-degrading bacteria showed that these strains were related to the genus Pseudomonas. Among the six isolates, five strains (L1, I2, D1, D2, and G1) were clustered with Pseudomonas aeruginosa, whereas only one strain (K3) was clustered with Pseudomonas fragi. Gas chromatographic (GC) analysis of the diesel oil that was remaining in the culture medium after 10 days of culture at 30°C showed that P. aeruginosa I2 presented the highest growth rate and diesel-oil degradation (88%) between all isolates. P. aeruginosa I2 also presented the best emulsification activity, but the best hydrophobicity was seen in P. aeruginosa G1. By applying these bacteria in bioremediation processes, diesel oil contamination in soil can be counteracted.

Groundwater aquifers are an important source of water supply for agriculture, industry and drinking. The present study investigates the changes in the quality of groundwater using geostatistical methods in the Ravar plain during a 10-year period. In this study, after selecting the appropriate spatial interpolation method to draw water quality parameters such as TDS, SAR and EC, zoning maps of Ravar plain were provided for three periods of time: the first period (2002-2005), an intermediate period (2006-2009) and the final period (2010-2012) in two seasons using ArcGIS 10.1. For this purpose, data were evaluated in GS+ 5.1 software, after calculation, the best model with the lowest estimated error was selected for zoning water quality parameters. Because of the lowest estimation error, Kriging, Gaussian and Spherical variogram models were selected as appropriate interpolation method for zoning the quality parameters. The results of the spatial analysis of TDS showed that TDS have been increased in the study area. Due to the amount of dissolved solids, EC amount was highly variable. According to the Wilcox classification, at the end of the period, water quality of agricultural was inappropriate in most of the area which represents the increase of electrical conductivity during the period.

This study investigated the occurrence and removal of 12 antibiotics (ciprofloxacin, enrofloxacin, levofloxacin, norfloxacin, nalidixic acid, azithromycin, clarithromycin, roxithromycin, lincomycin, novobiocin, sulfamethoxazole, trimethoprim) at four sewage treatment plants (STPs): two STPs in Kyoto, Japan and two STPs in Beijing, China. The STPs differed in design and operation conditions, utilized a variety of secondary treatment processes. The antibiotics were frequently detected in influents and effluents, and ranged from ng/L up to lower μg/L. In influent, clarithromycin (1.1–1.6 μg/L) and levofloxacin (3.6–6.8 μg/L) were detected in the highest concentration in Japanese and Chinese STPs, respectively. The overall elimination of the antibiotics were differed between STPs and ranged from negative to >90%. These data demonstrate that there are detectable levels of antibiotics are discharging from STPs, and only some of these antibiotics are being removed in a significant proportion by STPs. It was also observed that biological nutrient removal based sewage treatment processes (anaerobic–anoxic–oxic: A2O; and anoxic–oxic: AO) have relatively higher antibiotics removal efficiencies than oxidation ditch (OD) processes.

The present study has been undertaken in a laboratory scale to characterize and investigate pollution potential of textile effluents from DEPZ area in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Collected effluent samples from five different industries were analyzed for physico-chemical parameters using field kits and Standard Methods, and for metals using Flame Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometer (FAAS). The average physico-chemical parameters such as temperature, color, pH, DO, EC, BOD, COD, TS, total alkalinity and total hardness were found 52.4 ºC, 2646 PCU, 9.788, 1.492 mg/L, 7473.2 μS/cm, 157 mg/L, 508.8 mg/L, 9140.8 mg/L, 761.2 mg/L and 189.6 mg/L, respectively. The average concentrations of metal found in the textile effluents were in the order of Na (4611.762 mg/L) > Ca (9.166 mg/L) > Mg (3.578 mg/L) > Zn (0.113 mg/L) > Ni (0.0074 mg/L) > Cu (0.0032 mg/L). All the measured physico-chemical parameter values are negatively deviated but metal concentrations (except Na) are positively deviated from standard limits of wastewater discharge set by Department of Environment and US Environmental Protection Agency. In view of those characteristics, the textile industry effluents should be considered to be treated by setting eco-friendly effluent treatment plant (ETP) before directly discharging into the water bodies.

Today, ecotourism is a major tourist activity around the world. It is based on environment potential through which suitable utilization and conservation of sites under management practices including considering accurate planning, potential, and peoples’ preferences are realized. The present study was conducted to determine people’s recreational preferences using questionnaires to evaluate the ecotourism potentials (recreational activities that choice in questioner by visitors) for site selection and land use planning, and to analyze the functional relationships among zones in the MianKaleh wildlife sanctuary, south of the Caspian Sea in Mazandaran and Golestan Provinces of Iran. Recreational preferences of people were found to be bird watching, swimming, camping, sightseeing, horse riding, and boating. Multi Criteria Evaluation was used to assess the ecotourism potential. For land use planning, the Multi Objective Land Allocation function included environmental suitability maps, zone weighting, and a set of desirable areas for each zone. Post processing functions (filters, zone size, and distance to other zones) and functional relationship diagrams were applied to amend the zoning maps. The functional relationship diagram concept was applied to the amended maps for optimizing access and identifying the relationships among zones. Overall, the results revealed that MCE and MOLA methods are capable of evaluating and zoning the wildlife sanctuary. Furthermore, post-processing and functional relationship diagrams were effective in selecting recreational sites. The results of this research revealed the recreational potential of MianKaleh wildlife sanctuary. Land planning for ecotourism can now be implemented using the results of this study that will upgrade the conservation status in the area.

Batiaghata Upazila, Khulna District in south-west coastal region of Bangladesh is the mostly saline affected area, where agriculture activities are mainly dependent on rainfall. 23 water samples from surface water and shallow tube well (STW) were collected in the monsoon season and analyzed for physico-chemical properties to classify them according to salinity hazard. Electrical Conductivity (EC) of both surface and groundwater samples were slightly higher than that of acceptable limit ( Ca2+ > Mg2+ > K+ in both surface and groundwater while the anions trend in both surface and groundwater of the study area were Cl¯ > SO42¯ > PO43¯. EC and TDS showed high positive correlation with Na+, K+ and Ca2+ with Cl¯ as confirmed from Correlation Matrix and Principal Component Analysis (PCA). Most of the STW water samples compared to the surface water had higher Soluble Sodium Percentage (SSP) values while Sodium Adsorption Ratio (SAR) indicated the surface water and ground water with low sodium hazard. The Kelly’s ratio of STW water is more subjected to sodium hazard compared to surface water in the study area.

The resource intensive human activities (such as mining and extraction of mineral oils for betterment of life and modernization of society) have increased environmental pollution several folds. Products of mining and petrochemical industries are advantageous for the modern society. But waste generated such as BTEX from such industries are carcinogenic, toxic and causes adverse effects on environment and human health. These wastes are classified as hazardous waste which cannot be used further. Pollution of soil-water interface due to the release of hydrocarbons in environment is a major public health concern, and therefore, remediation of these pollutants is needed to reduce risk to human and environment. Various methods such as biological, chemical and physical method are used to degrade these pollutants from wastewater. In the present works photochemical degradation of toluene and benzene in wastewater are studied using activated Carbon−TiO2 composites as catalysts in the presence of UV irradiation in photochemical reactor. Composites are prepared by sol-gel method and further characterized by X-ray diffractometry (XRD), scanning electron microscope (SEM) and Fourier transformed-Infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR). The Photocatalytic efficiencies of the synthesized composites were determined by the mineralization of toluene and benzene under UV irradiation in photochemical reactor.

The concentration of selected trace metals (Fe, Cd, Cu, Pb, and Zn) in 30surface sediments were measured using Atomic Absorption Spectrometer to investigatethe spatial and seasonal variations of trace metals along Kanyakumari coast, India. Toassess the environmental risk of trace metals, enrichment factor, geo-accumulation index,pollution load index, and ecological risk index have been calculated. According to thepollution load index and geo-accumulation index (Igeo) values, Kanyakumari coastalsediments were unpolluted by Fe, Cu, Pb, and Zn, whereas moderately polluted by Cdwith low to moderate ecological risk. The existence of the high hydrodynamic conditionduring the southwest monsoon is more favorable to the transport of sediments andenhance the accumulation of metals, whereas during the northeast monsoon theaccumulation of metals is less. The baseline data for spatial distribution and seasonalvariation of trace metals and their controlling factors found in this study will be useful forpollution monitoring program along the Kanyakumari coast.

Readymade garment industries are the prominent economic sector for Bangladesh as well as scoping the huge working area for workers. But health condition of workers, drinking water quality, and proper maintenance of the environmental parameters are not well monitored. This study aims to assess the physio-chemical and bacteriological quality of drinking water provided for the garment workers in Dhaka. Ten garment industries were pre-selected for the water quality analysis and three drinking water samples from each industry were taken for further analysis. Physio-chemical parameters viz pH, TDS were measured by probe method and Total harness and Chloride of the water samples were measured by titrimetric method, respectively. Biological parameters viz Total coliforms, Fecal coliforms, Total aerobic bacteria count, Fecal streptococci, Pseudomonas spp., and Vibrio Cholerae were determined through standard procedure. Results show that pH (6.7±0.05 to 7.4±0.20), TDS (126.2±8.42 to 217.9±3.60 mg/L), Total Hardness (92±7.07 to 275±21.22 mg/L), and Chloride (8.5±0.95 to 46.5±3.27 mg/L) are within the acceptable limit. Bacteriological results show that Total coliform (1.05×103±0.071×103 to 2.16×103±0.084×103 CFU/100 ml), Fecal coliforms (145±2.828 to 249±21.213 CFU/100 ml), and Total aerobic bacteria count (2152.5±399.51 to 5540.5±185.97 CFU/100 ml) are higher than the standard limits. Pseudomonas spp. was also present in all drinking water samples but Fecal streptococci and Vibrio Cholerae were absent in all water samples. Bacteriological analysis shows that sources of drinking water are contaminated and proper maintenance and screening facilities should be improved.