Quantification of microplastic in Red Hills Lake of Chennai city, Tamil Nadu, India.

Inevitable use of plastic materials in our day-to-day life has led to the entry of microplastic into aquatic environments, which are plastics less that than 5 mm. Microplastic is of great concern in recent years due to its impact on humans and aquatic organisms since they absorb organic contaminants and pathogens from the surrounding media due to higher surface and volume ratio. This is the first study attempted to study the distribution and source of microplastic contamination in Red Hills Lake which is one of the freshwater systems supplying water to the North of Chennai city.

Impact of anthropogenic input on physicochemical parameters and trace metals in marine surface sediments of Bay of Bengal off Chennai, India.

The study of heavy metal distribution in coastal surface sediments is an important component in understanding the exogenic cycling as well as in assessing the effect of anthropogenic influences on the marine ecosystem. In this study, surface sediment samples were collected from five different traverses along the innershelf of Bay of Bengal, off Chennai, India during pre- and post-monsoon seasons. The results of Spearmen correlation matrix, factor and cluster analysis, enrichment and contamination factor analysis, and geoaccumulation index of the heavy metals analyzed in the collected surface sediment were discussed.

Effect of fluoride intoxication on lipidperoxidation and antioxidant status in experimental rats.

Fluoride is a potent enzyme poison. Thirty ground water samples from Vellore District, Tamil Nadu, India were analysed for fluoride content and it was revealed that the fluoride content of 24 samples were over and above the permissible limits. In the present study, the experimental rats were orally treated with 25 ppm of fluoride/rat/day for 8 and 16 weeks, respectively, and the levels of lipid peroxidation and antioxidant enzymes were studied to evaluate fluoride intoxication.