Showing papers in "Science of The Total Environment in 1992"

TL;DR: It is concluded that both the atmosphere and the ocean are important transport media for potentially toxic organic compounds in the northern polar region and even for the HCH substances, which are relatively easily measured and simple in composition compared to other synthetic organics.

TL;DR: The recent research interest in low-cost alternatives to activated carbon for waste and wastewater treatment is reviewed in this paper, where an examination of the selection criteria and activation methods for the preparation of active carbon is followed by a critical assessment of low cost adsorbents prepared from carbonaceous industrial wastes, agricultural byproducts and mineral derived sources.

TL;DR: Concentrations of most PCBs and OC pesticides in ringed seal and polar bear populations in the Canadian Arctic are quite similar indicating a uniform geographic distribution of contamination, although alpha-HCH showed a distinct latitudinal gradient in bears due to higher levels in zones influenced by continental runoff.

TL;DR: Examples from marine and estuarine environments around Australia are presented to illustrate the use of modern analytical techniques to identify, quantify and determine the origins of hydrocarbons in aquatic sediments.

TL;DR: In this paper, the use of permeable substrata, such as gravel, commonly planted with emergent wetland plants such as Typha, Schoenoplectus, Phragmites or Cyperus, has been investigated.

TL;DR: The nature of the binding forces involved and the types of mechanisms operating, often simultaneously, in the adsorption processes of several pesticides onto soil humic substances, humic acids and fulvic acids are summarized and discussed.

TL;DR: The bulk of oxytetracycline disappeared during the first weeks, but it persisted in the sediment at lower concentrations for quite some time after the medication, and the change in bacterial numbers was due to seasonal variations rather than to the medication.

TL;DR: This investigation focused primarily on the binding of substituted phenols and aromatic amines to humus monomers and humic substances and the formation of covalent linkages between pesticides and humus constituents and fulvic or humic acids.

TL;DR: In this paper, nine fulvic (FA) and humic (HA) acids were isolated from different soils and investigated by means of synchronous-scan excitation fluorescence spectroscopy at various Δλ = λem − λexc, in aqueous solution over a wide range of concentration and pH values.

TL;DR: Traditional Inuit foods are contaminated with chemical residues from industrial and other activities around the world and the intake of polychlorinated biphenyls and poly chlorinated camphenes exceeds the 'tolerable daily intake' (TDI) for many consumers.

TL;DR: A simple screening approach to highlight different chemical fates of organic chemicals in soil and their potential transfers from soil to groundwaters, crop plants and grazing livestock using data on the physico-chemical properties of the compounds of interest is developed.

TL;DR: The suggestion is made that the environmental health criteria for toxic metals in the developed countries may not provide adequate protection for many African communities.

TL;DR: High concentrations of organochlorines in the blubber of common seals found dead during the 1988 phocine distemper epizootic are compared with levels in animals which survived it, and between sample sites.

TL;DR: In this paper, the authors investigated the effect of natural organic coatings on the sorption of humic compounds to hematite and kaolinite, and found that the amount of sorption depended on the concentration of hydroxylated surface sites on the mineral and the properties of the humic substance.

TL;DR: The data clearly demonstrate the importance of fish for the exposure to methylmercury and selenium in the Swedish diet, and the impact of amalgam as a source of exposure to inorganic mercury.

TL;DR: The atmospheric levels of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), measured since the mid-1970s from ∼60 towns world-wide, are reviewed in this article.

TL;DR: In this paper, the authors reviewed the oceanographic features of the Northern Adriatic Sea with regard to the deeper basin proper and the shallow western coastal zone, and in relation to the interplay between the physical forcing and the distribution of chemical and biological properties in the basin.

TL;DR: In this paper, solid-state CPMAS 13 C NMR and Curie-point pyrolysis-gas chromatography-mass spectrometry were used to delineate the nature of the resistant aliphatic components.

TL;DR: In this article, the same authors investigated the structural composition of the unknown alkyl-carbon structures in fresh forest litter and found that the structure was composed of the plant polyester cutin and another aliphatic biopolymer, as determined by dipolar dephasing 13C NMR spectroscopy.

TL;DR: In this paper, marine coastal eutrophication is discussed in the context of its manifestations, problems caused, and its origin from land-locked sources of plant nutrients due to man's activities.

TL;DR: The database on organochlorines in Canadian Arctic terrestrial mammals and birds is very limited, but indications are that the air/plant/animal contaminant pathway is the major route of these compounds into the terrestrial food chain.

TL;DR: In this article, the distribution and transformation of humic substances in forest soils is investigated by CPMAS 13C NMR spectroscopy and chemical analyses studies on bulk soil samples and humic acid fractions indicate that different forest humus types result from different rates but similar pathways of litter decomposition.

TL;DR: PAH appear to persist in reducing environments, while in relatively pristine environments that have been previously exposed to PAH, conditions are probably favourable for the aerobic degradation of PAH by microorganisms.

TL;DR: In this paper, the concentrations of Cd, Cr, Cu, Pb and Zn in sediments and aquatic bryophytes from the Ave river basin, Portugal were analyzed.

TL;DR: The process of eutrophication, which has been in progress for some two decades in the coastal area of the Northwest Adriatic Sea, shows mainly cyclic-seasonal features as discussed by the authors.

TL;DR: In this article, the process of ammonia fixation has been studied in three well characterized and structurally diverse fulvic and humic acid samples, and liquid phase 15N NMR spectrometry was performed on the samples before and after reaction with ammonium hydroxide.

TL;DR: In this article, CPMAS 13 C-NMR and resolutionenhanced IR spectroscopy was used to identify structural changes in humic acids and fulvic acids after being subjected to laboratory heating at 350°C.

TL;DR: It is demonstrated that no direct relationships exist between the global concentration in soft tissues and the susceptibility of the different bivalves and the physico-chemical forms of storage of silver (silver sulphide, metal-binding proteinic compounds) were determined in each species and related to the high variability of biological responses.

TL;DR: Mercury levels were very high, especially in the liver where they reached peaks of 4400 ppm (dry weight) in the striped dolphin and 13,150 ppm in the bottle-nosed dolphin and the toxicological significance of the selenium-mercury interaction is discussed.

TL;DR: A rapid ion exchange method, suitable for field use, is proposed for the determination of the toxic fraction of copper in waters, and a simple anodic stripping voltammetric method is recommended for the measurement of the fraction of electroactive metal in a sample.