Abstract: Lightning injuries are not an infrequent occurrence, but casuistic is mainly related to the outdoor environment. Lightning injuries are also becoming uncommon due to better safety measures in electrical power supplying; nevertheless we refer a very rare case of a fatality due to lightning occurring inside home. Full forensic expertise was made to the corpse of a Caucasian 46 year old male, who died inside his kitchen room due to electrical discharge transmitted via the chimney of the home, whose external part was shocked from a lightning. Macroscopic changes following the electrical shock and images from the scene were registered. Although less frequently nowadays, Albanian families nevertheless still use to some extent wood stoves for heating. Chimneys that are mainly hand-made and non-professionally mounted have been imputed for carbon monoxide intoxication, but in rare unfortunate circumstances these chimneys might serve as electrical current transmitters, thus exposing users to very high risk. Lightning injuries transmitted via a rotten chimney whose external part is shocked from an electrical discharge, might quite well penetrate in their respective internal parts and get transmitted to humans in an indoor setting. Particular precautions are needed during mounting of chimneys that might serve as electricity transmitters, since casualties due to lightning in these circumstances are rare, but anyhow occurring.

Abstract: Treatment of gound waste water by biological denitrification experiment was conducted using sugar industry wastes, namely final molasses as a carbon source and bagasse charcoal pellets as supporting media for denitrifying bacteria.We employed an upflow fixed-bed reactor filled with the pellets and biofilm attached onto them.This was fed with potassium-nitrate and dilute-molasses solutions.Total nitrogen removals of more than 85 % were achieved at influent carbon-nitrogenratios between 2 and 4, and hydraulic residence times of more than 0.8 (h).This demonstrated final molasses could be used as an alternative carbon source.On the other hand, final molasses also contained some organic/ammonium nitrogen and refractory organic matter including colors, both of which were difficult to remove with the reactor.Accordingly, at higher C/N ratios, these substances caused major increases in effluent total-nitrogen and organic-carbon concentrations.Therefore an optimum C/N ratio was found to be around 2.

Abstract: Since a few years a lot of interest has been shown in monitoring environmental pollution caused by heavy metals. Many methods such as precipitation, electroplating, evaporation, ion exchange etc. have been employed in the treatment of waste water, but have not proven to be much advantageous due to greater sludge production, higher reagent requirement etc. Biosorption which can be defined as the selective sequestering of metal soluble species, resulting in the immobilization of the metals is a striking technology for retaining heavy metals from dilute solutions with high efficiency. Several prior studies and research in environmental biotechnology have shown that many biosorbents occurring in the environment have the capacity to remove heavy metals from solutions. This paper presents the potential and result of studies carried out on economically cheaper natural materials like agricultural wastes such as peanut shells and banana peels as biological adsorbent for the removal of toxic heavy metal ions from waste water. The different metal ions studied were lead, copper, zinc and cadmium. The biosorption of the above metals was studied by various techniques such as Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometry, X-ray Difftaction and Scanning Electron Microscopy. Using peanut shells, adsorption of metal ions shown was in the order of lead > zinc > copper > cadmium, whereas using banana peels adsorption was in the order of cadmium > copper > lead > zinc. X-ray Difftaction results showed the presence of zinc, copper, mercury whereas the images obtained from Scanning Electron Microscope showed metal adsorption on the surface clearly at a magnification power of 500 µm and 200 µm.

Abstract: Pollution of the environment can be determined by means of biological methods with the help of bioindicators-organisms which give information on the quality vance of their environment. In the present study the first trace mercury bio-monitoring using seabirds’ dejections is investigated in the Arzew gulf. Excrements analysis from ten stations using ICP-MS shows high level (Hg) contamination up to 2.27 ± 0.05 µg.g^-1. Dejections’ contamination is due to mercury bioaccumulation via web food owing to the presence of this contaminant in coastal area coming from anthropogenic activities. Potential transfer of mercury to human causing health damage is very likely because of population fisheries consummation. Urgent measures must be taken to remedy this pollution aspect and prevent human health.

Abstract: This study assesses the cholera incidence in urban slum in Lagos State, Nigeria with the emphasis on high risk of unimproved sources of water for domestic use and unsanitary environment. The study uses sets of one hundred and twenty structured guided questionnaires were randomly administered to obtain information on residents’ opinions and experiences on the risk and incidence of cholera in the area. Ten water samples were spatially collected from storage containers of the residents for microbial assessment Results of social survey instrument showed there was cholera incidence and the area is still at high risk as revealed from the result of coliform bacilli with high most probable number (MPN) count found in 6 of the 16 sampled water as well as the faecal coliform found virtually in all sampled water. The study concluded that increasing population of urban centres has been a major contributor to the unsanitary environmental, continuous use of unimproved sources of water as well as environmental health problems such as slum cholera risk and incidence. Therefore, for sustainable friendly and free diseases’ environment provision of habitable and conducive environment for the slum residents should be the priority of government.

Abstract: Excessive nitrogenous compounds released into the public water bodies not only result in direct toxicity to aquatic animals, but also increase the overgrowth of aquatic plants resulting eutrophication. Nitrogen pollution has major effects on both human health and the ecological functions of natural ecosystems. This causes a spike in algae growth, which can rapidly deplete the dissolved oxygen in a body of water, causing harm to fish and the surrounding ecosystem. For this reason, it is necessary to study the process of nitrogen removal in wastewater treatment plants in order to remove nitrogen efficiently. The processes of nitrification and denitrification in a sequencing batch reactor. A nitrate test kit and spectrophotometer in order to measure nitrate concentrations throughout the various stages of our reactor cycles. Initially found it difficult to achieve nitrification in our plant. After increasing the dissolved oxygen levels during our aeration stage, nitrate began to be formed. In order to achieve higher levels of nitrification, it was necessary to increase the length of the aeration stage. It was also necessary to increase the length of the anaerobic phase in order to allow for significant denitrification.

Abstract: In connection with the growing anthropogenic impact the protection of environment became the global issue. The portion to the environmental pollution made by the mining industry is significant. The territory of North Ossetia is located in the zone of high seismicity and it is characterized by the greatest seismic risk, since in conditions of high seismic hazard there is the greatest density of population in North Caucasus. In the case of earthquakes with intensity of 5 points the site, folded by some type of soil and occupied by tailings dump (wastes of mining industry), will be under active impact. To assess the pollution of the territory as closely related parameter, the development of neoplasm among the inhabitants of the urbanized mountain territory on the example of Vladikavkaz city was investigated.

Abstract: The iodine content of water, soil, salt and cereals have been analyzed using Atomic Absorption Spectroscopy (AAS), titrimetry, Fusion and ion selective electrode methods at Geological Survey of Ethiopia, Geosciences Laboratory Center, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. From the view point of analytical result, the chloride, sodium, potassium, calcium, manganese and magnesium, which are considered as goitrogens are with high concentrations while that of iodine is significantly low (p = 0.055). Likewise, the concentrations of iodine in all the water samples fall in the ranges of the iodine concentration of the various parts of the world, 15µg/l. The iodine concentration in the soil samples taken from non-farm lands (no use of chemical inputs) is significantly higher (p = 0.001) than that of farm lands. Iodine concentration in wheat and barley samples is observed to be significantly low (p = 0.002). This is the major guide to draw the conclusion that community using this water, cereals and salt could face the insufficiencies of iodine in their dietary, which in turn would cause less up-take of iodine by the body resulting iodine deficiency disorder and endemic goiter among the population. Thus, the main approaches to tackle the challenges are the use of iodized salt and oil, fortification of food, water and condiments and distribution of iodine tablets.

Abstract: The principal recent change in rural land-use in the south east valley is that rural areas are being absorbed into growing towns and cities. This conversion of rural into urban land has several impacts on river water quality because of developments such as industrial installations, which are located along the banks of environmentally vulnerable rivers. The NakkhuKhola, which is one of tributaries of the River Bagmati flowing through the heart of Kathmandu valley was studied. It was found that the highest percentage of agricultural land was in the up-stream station, which was not yet influenced by industrial pollution. Less agricultural land existed in the mid-stream station, which was a newly formed urban area with domestic and industrial effluents as a major source of river pollution and the down-stream station experienced moderate load of pollutants from domestic and industrial effluents. The socio-economic condition of the local communities a social survey was conducted among the residents of the three sampling sites viz. up, mid and down-stream and respondents sex, age and education level were considered as their characteristics. The results suggested that none of the communities were dependent upon the river as a drinking water source, although the river was used for various other purposes such as irrigation, water and bathing of livestock, industrial use, waste disposal site, pebbles collection, fishing. The results further suggested that although people were aware of pollution, their awareness was not yet transferred into action, which was mainly because of lack of regulation, planning, monitoring, and implementation of environmental policy.

Abstract: The monitoring and assessment of water has become an environmental concern due to contamination caused by man-kind. The main aim of this study is to evaluate the levels of As and some other heavy metals in the pre and post treated water of the projects in Duhok province and to assess the efficiency of these water projects for filtration and purification of drinking water in terms of potentially toxic metals. This study coveres the water purification projects of the entire Duhok governorate areas (Semel, Chambarkat, Zakho, Akre, Shekhan and Amedy). Water samples were collected monthly from August 2008 to July 2009. The results indicated that the As concentration in pretreated water from the Duhok and zakho water project was higher than the WHO guide lines for drinking water (10µg.L-1), whereas in the treated water from the Duhok project its concentration remains above guideline levels. Other metals such as Cd, Pb and Ni at all of the studied projects were higher than the permissible limits in both pre and post treated water, according to the WHO guideline values (3,10 and 20 µg.L-1) respectively, while Cr and Zn were lower than the permissible limit. The values of combined HQ were >1 for all PTEs in drinking water of Duhok, Chamberkat, Zakho and Amedy samples indicating health hazards for the local population. To conclude, the consumption of drinking water may pose high risk to the local population.