Abstract: The progress of industries has led to the increased of pollutants emission into the ecosystems. One of the most common pollutants is heavy metals. This research deals with human health risk assessment of metal contamination through the consumption of fish at selected river in Kuantan, Pahang. The objective of this research is to determine the concentration of Cu, Pb and Cd contaminant in fish. This research describes the heavy metal experiment analysis and health risk assessment. Inductively Coupled Plasma Membrane System (ICP-MS) was used to determine the concentration of heavy metals in fish. The average concentration of Cu, Pb and Cd in three locations are approximately 0.0205µg/g, 0.0145µg/g and 0.0004µg/g. Target Hazard Quotient (THQ) was used in the health risk assessment to determine carcinogenicity of the sample. The result shows that the concentration and THQ of all metal studied (Cu, Pb, Cd) are less than 1; signified that a daily exposure at this level is unlikely to cause any adverse effects during a person lifetime.

Abstract: Gas flaring have been condemned severally in different countries of the world. Though the practice is still obtainable in some countries with many calling for a stop. The environmental and health implications were examined with Nigeria as a case study. Data and information were retrieved from pubmed, medline and other search engines. All available data/information depict the negative effects of gas flaring on the environment and humans. Gas flaring have impoverished the communities where it is practiced, with attendant environmental, economic and health challenges. Reluctance on the part of government and policy makers is also a factor. These difficulties faced by local communities from gas flares are a sufficient justification for ending gas flaring practice. Fines by defaulting companies should be so exorbitant so as to deter them while the gas can be processed and produced into cooking/domestic gas. The time to stop is now and the place to stop is here: Nigeria.

Abstract: A study on some physico-chemical and biological variables of water quality was conducted on a coastal river in Ivory Coast. It’s a first assessment on water quality state. Those coastal rivers actually play an important role in the physical, biological and hydrological exchange between lagoons and the sea. Unfortunately, they are not taken into account by the national monitoring for water quality (RNO-CI). The samples were collected along Boubo river body through three stations, in the south of Côte d’Ivoire, during two years. Results show sharp fluctuations of the concentration N-NO₃^- nitrate, N-NH₄⁺ ammonium and chlorophyll a with more than 20% variation. However, small fluctuations were noted for temperature, pH and conductivity with 4 – 20%. Measures are generally inferior to the threshold for hazardous water class. But respective average concentrations of N-NO₃^-, P-PO₄^3-, DCO and DBO₅ are above natural water threshold, representing 67% of the analyzed samples of P-PO₄^3- and 100% of the other. These results show that the river is not exempt of pollution: 0.2 mg.L^-1 of P-PO₄^3- and 0.9 mg.L^-1 of N-NO₃^- are the limit of appropriate siege for the proliferation of invasive aquatic plants (IAP).

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.