The study aims to understand employees’ knowledge, awareness, and overall perception of drinking water quality in the Iron and Steel Industry in Burnpur, India. Further, this study evaluated drinking water’s physicochemical and bacteriological properties collected from different company sites. This study uses a mixed-method approach with individual interviews of selected employees (n=342) and the laboratory test of eight selected drinking water sites. The results show that most employees considered drinking water acceptable to be excellent. However, only 30% of employees in Site 1 (Coke Oven By-Product department) have reported organoleptic properties of water under the excellent category. The result explained that other physicochemical and bacteriological properties are in good status in all sites except for a colony count, expressing their suitability for drinking purposes. In summary, employees’ perception of water quality aligns with their drinking water’s physicochemical and bacteriological properties.

Nickel laterite mining is one of the sources of nickel-iron material used for producing steel and various materials. This mining activity leaves waste in the mine, including rocks, overburden, silt, and dust. Characterization is an important primary step in understanding waste for proper management, utilization, and disposal. The pH, organic matter, and elemental composition are analyzed in this study. The pH of nickel laterite mine waste is neutral to moderately alkaline, which makes it unlikely to cause acid mine drainage, which is one of the most prevailing environmental problems of mines. The organic matter content also showed favorable results for plant growth. However, the macronutrients necessary for the plant are too high, making it less favorable for agricultural utilization. Elemental composition shows the presence of nickel and other elements lower than the economically acceptable level. However, processing the lower grade can be the best option when all higher-grade resources are exhausted. The nickel laterite mine waste can be reused to further extract the metals when sources of higher grades are depleted, repurposed such as in the production of bricks and ceramics, or mined-out mines can be repurposed for renewable energy sources such as solar and wind farms.

The reduction of oily sludge and scum with high water content by hot washing and analysis of the main factors that affect the reduction and oil recovery rate of oily sludge and scum in hot washing were investigated. Best process conditions for the reduction of tank bottom sludge, refining sludge, and oily scum were carried out, which can make the oil recovery rate and reduction rate of tank bottom sludge after reduction reach 96.30% and 93.00%, respectively, the oil recovery rate and reduction rate of refining sludge after reduction reach 95.36% and 92.60% respectively, and the oil recovery rate and reduction rate of oily scum after reduction reach 95.92% and 93.60% respectively. After treatment, the oil content of the residue is reduced to below 5.1%, and the water content is reduced to below 59.0%. Oil content in the separated water is lower than 200 mg.L-1, and the water content in the separated oil is lower than 0.2%, far below the requirement of 0.5% in the oilfield’s crude oil gathering and transportation standard.

In this fast-moving world, we use many electronic items daily to fulfill our daily work. Also, in the fast-growing economy, electronic items play key roles. India’s e-waste is projected to be around 18 lakh metric tons. According to industry sources, electronic trash will climb to almost 50 lakh metric tons in the next three years. According to government sources, only ten percent of electronic waste is gathered. These electronic items and batteries contain many heavy metals that are hazardous to humanity’s and the environment’s health. These heavy metals should be retrieved from the disposed of e-waste, so the resource can be reused or recycled, rather than continuously extracting heavy metals from the earth’s crust. In 2015, The “Initiative on Environmental Threats of Electronic Waste” was introduced by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY). This project is part of the Indian government’s ‘Digital India’ strategy. There is an immediate need to implement green supply chain management and resource recovery from electronics waste so that circular material management (SDG 12) & sustainability can be achieved. This article demonstrates the problems and presents E-Waste recycling procedures, Life cycle assessment of E-waste, and EPR practices, along with potential areas for improvement. The bibliometric analysis was performed using R-studio biblioshiny tools for the last 53 years and 1243 published articles to understand the research trends.

Hospital waste is a burning issue that severely impacts public health. This study in three big hospitals in Lahan and Rajbiraj, Nepal, for one year (2019 March-2020 February) aims to analyze some parameters that directly help waste management properly. Field study, questionnaire, and interview methods were followed. The average moisture content of wastes of all three hospitals was 55.79%. There was no variance in the three hospitals’ moisture content values of wastes (F = 1.89 P-value = 0.165 F crit = 3.284917651). The average temperature of dumped waste was 23.23°C, and the temperature of all three hospitals was closely associated (F = 0.998, P-value 0.379, Fcrit = 3.28). The average pH value of wastes from the three hospitals was 4.44, and it from all three sites was strongly associated (F = 0.0668, P-value 0.935, Fcrit = 3.284). There was no relation between income and types of waste production (ꭕ2 = 0.8, df = 4, significance level = 0.05), but there was a high association between the level of income and amount of waste production. There was a high association between the nature of hospitals and types and the amount of waste (ꭕ2 = 77.09, df = 4, Significance level = 0.05). In Sagarmatha Choudhary eye hospital Lahan, there was no significant correlation between the number of patients and the amount of waste (Correlation = -0.187889 at 0.05% significance level). Unique Hospital Rajbiraj showed a correlation between the number of patients and the amount of waste (correlation = 0.1183 at 0.05% significance level). In Gajendra Narayan Singh Hospital, there was a correlation between the number of patients and the amount of waste (Correlation = 0.3453, at 0.05% significance level). There was no association between the qualification of respondents and their responsibilities regarding the services provided by hospitals (ꭕ2 = 1.43, df = 6, Significance level = 0.05). It is recommended for better management and installment of modern technologies for waste management.

Globally organic wastes are generated from fruits, vegetables, and their peels. It is mostly decomposed in landfills or by composting methods. Food processing industries, vegetable markets, and restaurants produce a huge amount of organic waste daily, generally disposed of in the environment or composted. Producing an eco-enzyme from organic kitchen waste was an innovative solution for domestic waste pollution. It is an enzyme solution obtained from an organic waste substance that contains organic acids, enzymes, and mineral salts. It is produced by performing a simple batch fermentation that involves a mixture of brown sugar, fruit or vegetable waste, and water in the ratio of 1:3:10. Two types of the eco-enzyme were produced by a fermentation process using vegetable and fruit peels for about 90 days involving Saccharomyces cerevisiae. The ultimate liquid or enzyme obtained was brown. Eco-enzyme 1 from (Cucurbita maxima) contained hydrolytic enzymes like amylase and lipase. The microbial diversity was observed, and bacteria like Yersinia sp., Bacillus sp., and fungi like Trichoderma sp. and Penicillium sp. No enzymes and microorganisms were observed in Eco-enzyme 2 (Citron). Eco-enzyme 1 with 50% dilution effectively reduced various parameters like BOD, COD, TDS, Nitrate, Nitrite, and Ammonium in the effluent. Also, it promoted plant growth within 10 days compared to the control. Therefore, the present study outlines how the eco-enzyme could be used to treat industrial effluent cost-effectively and environmentally friendly.

In the present study, we studied the concentrations and proportions. We identified the potential sources and health risks of 12 probably carcinogenic polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in rice grain from 31 sites in Thailand and Myanmar. The findings showed that PAH concentrations in rice grain samples from Thailand and Myanmar were in the range of 0.09 to 37.15 ng.g-1 with an average value of 18.22 ± 11.76 ng.g-1 and 0.07 to 150.73 ng.g-1 with an average value of 34.70 ± 40.57 ng.g-1, respectively. The majority group of PAHs in the rice grain samples from Thailand were the five-ring PAHs (78%), followed by four-rings (12%) and three-ring PAHs (9.5%), respectively, while for Myanmar was the five-ring PAHs were the majority (64.02%), followed by six-rings (15.22%) and four-ring PAHs (13.58%), respectively. The diagnostic ratio analysis suggested that pyrogenic origin is a major source of PAHs, and principal component analysis (PCA) identifies the incomplete combustion of fuel as likely the primary source of emissions source of PAHs contamination in rice grain samples. The total values of incremental lifetime cancer risk (ILCR) of PAH content of rice grain for children and adults were 1.95 × 10-8 and 1.44 × 10-8, respectively, for Thailand and 1.83×10-7 and 1.35×10-7 for Myanmar, which showed that the incremental lifetime cancer risk from rice grain was lower than the baseline set is considered to be safe levels.

The present study aimed to evaluate the possible impact of noise pollution. This study was conducted in Raipur, the capital of Chhattisgarh state, India, to analyze the relationship between noise pollution and health complaints. A total of 18 locations were selected for monitoring noise pollution levels in the morning (9:00-10:30 AM) and evening (7:00-8:30 PM). Noise maps were prepared for both the time interval, and it was found that the highest equivalent noise level (Leq)of 81.31 dBA was observed at location L3 whereas the lowest Leq of 63.25 dBA was observed at L16 in the morning and in the evening 77.33 dBA at L3 and 60.14 dBA at L16 were observed. A questionnaire survey was performed on the population (n = 400) exposed to noise and analyzed through a variance-based partial least square (PLS) structural equation model (SEM). From the survey, it was found that most of the respondents are exposed to higher noise levels and are facing health issues of “pain in the ear,” “rise in blood pressure,” “loss of sleep,” “whistling and buzzing” in their ear, “headache,” “heaviness” and “efficiency problem.” A total of 109 hypotheses were proposed and analyzed through bootstrapping with a subsample size of 5000 in SmartPLS software. 18 hypotheses were found to be significant in the proposed model. SEM analysis revealed an interrelation between noise pollution and health effects. It is recommended that strict regulation in nearby sensitive areas must be imposed and an awareness drive on a large scale shall be conducted to enlighten the city’s population regarding noise effects as well as various measures for controlling.

Plastics are the most rapidly growing materials in terms of production and consumption. The durability, inertness, light weight, flexibility, and low cost are the key characteristics that make plastic suitable for application in various fields, including the construction, automotive, electronics, and packaging industries. Due to widespread usage in daily life and many industrial processes and operations, more than 300 million tons of plastic waste are produced globally annually. Indiscriminate use of plastics such as polyethylene causes environmental pollution and impacts human health due to irreversible changes in the ecological cycle. Due to its low biodegradability, polyethylene accumulation has recently emerged as a momentous environmental concern. The conventional methods, such as recycling or disposing of polyethylene, are exorbitant, and incineration results in the emission of toxic chemical compounds. Therefore, the most recent research progressively focused on the biodegradation of polyethylene with the application of bacteria as novel approaches to counteract plastic waste. This review summarizes the type of polyethylene and the environmental issues. It also briefly discussed the genes and enzymes of bacteria involved in the degradation of polyethylene. In addition, it attempts to address factors influencing degradation and techniques used for monitoring degradation.

The present study analyzed the spatio-temporal variations in the Land Use Land Cover types within Ranipet Municipal town in Ranipet District, Tamil Nadu State, India, using two different platforms (QGIS and IDRISI Selva v.17.0). The possible parameters driven the net changes in the Land Use Land Cover (LULC) types were also incorporated for the analysis. Results revealed the positive net changes in the built-up area are about 26.8%, and combined other classes like vegetation, barren land, and water bodies have net negative changes during 1997-2019. Particularly barren land was found to have a reduction of 17.4% due to the massive industrialization in the study area. Further, the LULC maps were used for future prediction (2029) using the dynamic models of CA-ANN (Cellular Automata and Artificial Neural Network) and CA-Markov. Predicted maps yielded a kappa index of 81.6% and 82.6% for CA-ANN and CA-Markov, representing their respective accuracy levels. The CA-Markov model is extended for determining the probable long-term changes for 2080 in LULC with a kappa index of 76.2%. Compared to the CA-ANN model using the QGIS platform, CA-Markov provided better analysis, particularly from one cell to the other. According to the survey and the ground truth in the locality, industrialization and occupational shift were the most influential drivers of LULC dynamics. Moreover, the results of this study assist the stakeholders in the decision-making process for future sustainable land use management.