Foraging animal origin food samples as passive indicators of dioxin-like POPs contamination in industry sites: Method development, characterisation and risk assessment.

Titanium dioxide (TiO) is an important industrial chemical, and studies suggest its major production route - the chloride process could lead to the generation of unintentional dl-POPs. However, no relevant studies assessed the occurrence of dl-POPs associated with TiO production in the industrial zones, which is mostly due to the ultra-trace level distribution of these compounds in environmental compartments. The present study explored the novel possibility of utilising foraging animal-origin foods as sensitive indicators for addressing this challenge and generated a globally beneficial dataset by assessing the background levels of dl-POPs in the vicinity of a TiO production house in Southern India.

Dioxins emissions from bio-medical waste incineration: A systematic review on emission factors, inventories, trends and health risk studies.

COVID-19 has aggravated the biomedical waste generation all over the world and the concern for its safe disposal is on the rise. The vast majority of healthcare systems employ incineration as their treatment method considering its agility to reduce the waste volume by up to 95-96% and high-temperature inactivation of infectious biological materials. However, incinerator emission is a significant contributor of polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins (PCDDs), polychlorinated dibenzofurans (PCDFs) and dioxin-like polychlorinated biphenyls (dl-PCBs) according to various national inventories across the globe.

Integrated Fenton-like and ozonation based advanced oxidation processes for treatment of real-time textile effluent containing azo reactive dyes.

The treatment of real-time textile effluent, collected from the Common Effluent Treatment Plant (CETP) of Kerala Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation (KINFRA) at Kannur (District), Kerala (State), India, have been studied by utilizing the Fenton-like and ozone (O) based advanced oxidation processes (AOPs). The Fenton-like AOP has been conducted as the pre-treatment of textile effluent involving the activation of persulfate (PS) and hydrogen peroxide (HO) as a single and the mixed oxidants by using the Flyash (FA)-Pd composite particles as the activator. The maximum chemical oxygen demand (COD) removal of 84% has been observed for a stand-alone O based treatment at an O flow rate of 5-6 g h.

Abandonment of fibreglass reinforced plastic fishing boats in Kerala, India, and chemical emissions arising from their burning.

Little information exists on the fate and impacts of boats constructed of fibreglass reinforced plastic (FRP) once they reach their end-of-life. In this study, the number of abandoned fishing boats constructed of FRP or constructed of plywood-wood and sheathed by FRP has been determined along the coast of Kerala, India, and chemical emissions have been estimated when boats are burned as a means of disposal. A total of 292 abandoned boats were observed across eight coastal transects constructed around selected landing centres, with abandonment ranging from 13 to 48 per km (average = 29 km).

Dioxin-like POPs emission trends as a decision support tool for developing sustainable MSW management scheme -an exploratory study.

The paper reports on an innovative application of dioxin-like persistent organic pollutants (dl-POPs) emission trends as a measure of environmental performance for designing feasible municipal solid waste management (MSWM) schemes. MSWM systems are highly dependent on the income status and the population density and it is quintessential for developing countries to devise strategies suiting to its characteristics rather than simply adapting successful processes/technologies in developed nations. Hence a lower-middle-income, high-density populated state of India - Kerala, which represents the typical scenario of majority of towns in developing countries was selected as the verification study site.

Proposed city-specific interim targets for India based on WHO air quality guidelines 2021.

The World Health Organization has proposed the ambient air quality guidelines 2021. The uniqueness of the guidelines of the World Health Organization - air quality guidelines 2021 - is the inclusion of interim targets. Higher levels of air pollutants including PM for ambient air in India were recorded in recent times, and its association with respiratory and cardiovascular health risks was evidenced in the recent literature.

An experimental simulation study of conventional waste burning practices in India for the assessment and inventorisation of PCDD/F/dl-PCB emissions.

The paper reports an update to the polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins and furans (PCDD/Fs) and dioxin-like polychlorinated biphenyls (dl-PCBs) annual emission inventory of India from open burning of municipal solid wastes (MSW) through the generation of nation-specific emission factors for air (EF) and burned residue (EF) vectors. The MSW characteristics and modes of disposal practiced in Indian cities exhibits subtle variations from that of developed nations due to differences in food habits, living standards and climatic conditions. The annual emission calculations based on EFs from hitherto studies simulating conditions prevailing in developed countries can lead to anomalous accounting of emission levels.

Development of saleable chloride free iron oxide from hazardous waste in titanium industries via layered double hydroxide formation.

Mining and metal processing industries constitutes a major source of environmental pollution, albeit its huge impact on a nation's economic and industrial growth. The collaborative approach in waste management where wastes in one process/industry turns out to be a resource for another is extremely useful to sustain industries. Titanium dioxide pigment production industry operating via chloride process expels hazardous iron oxide waste byproduct rich in chloride content.

In situ copper oxide modified molecularly imprinted polypyrrole film based voltammetric sensor for selective recognition of tyrosine.

Organic-inorganic hybrids are promising functional materials as they combine the special characteristics of both organic (polymer) and inorganic phases. Among different existing approaches for the preparation of such polymer-inorganic hybrid coatings, in situ electrochemical methods are very advantageous because of their high sensitivity and simplicity. In the present study, voltammetric sensors for tyrosine are designed and developed via various modifications on glassy carbon electrode such as polypyrrole coated GCE, molecularly imprinted polypyrrole coated GCE (MIPPy) and in situ copper oxide modified MIPPy coated GCE.

Hybrid gold atomic cluster-cobalt oxide scaffolds for dual tandem electrocatalytic sensing of cysteine.

Innovations in nanoelectrochemistry have opened a plethora of techniques for the preparation of nanometer sized electrochemical probes with tunable properties. Atomic clusters emerged at the crossroad of physics and chemistry has immense potential as novel "electron antennaes" in electrocatalysis. Herein, we report the electrochemical synthesis and the synergistic electrocatalytic effect of metal oxide supported gold atomic clusters for subnanomolar level sensing of cysteine.

Synthesis of surface imprinted nanospheres for selective removal of uranium from simulants of Sambhar salt lake and ground water.

Imprinted polymer nanospheres for uranium were prepared by complexing uranyl ion on to quinoline-8-ol functionalized 3-aminopropyltrimethoxysilane modified silica nanoparticles followed by surface imprinting with 4-VP (4-vinyl pyridine), HEMA (2-hydroxy ethyl methacrylate) and EGDMA (ethylene glycol dimethacrylate) as the functional monomers and cross linking agent respectively with AIBN (2,2'-azo-bis-isobutyronitrile) as initiator and 2-methoxyethanol as the porogen. Non-imprinted polymer material was also prepared under similar conditions omitting uranyl ion. The above materials were used for solid phase extraction of uranium.

Dual optoelectronic visual detection and quantification of spectroscopically silent heavy metal toxins: a multi-measurand sensing strategy based on Rhodamine 6G as chromo or fluoro ionophore.

A novel colorimetric chemo-sensor for the simultaneous visual detection and quantification of spectroscopically silent heavy metal toxins viz. cadmium, lead and mercury has been developed. This is based on the proposed sequential ligand exchange (SLE) mechanism of iodide from Pb-I(-)-Rhodamine 6G ion associate with citrate (without affecting ion associates of Cd and Hg) and subsequently from Cd-I(-)-Rhodamine 6G ion associate with EDTA (without affecting Hg-I(-)-Rhodamine 6G).

Molecularly imprinted polymer-based potentiometric sensor for degradation product of chemical warfare agents. Part I. Methylphosphonic acid.

A biomimetic potentiometric sensor for the specific recognition of methylphosphonic acid (MPA), the degradation product of nerve agents sarin, soman, VX, etc., was designed. This involves the preparation of MPA imprinted polymer particles and removal of the template by soxhlet extraction.