NEBRASKA - EPA Map of Radon Zones

The purpose of this map is to assist National, State and local organizations to target their resources and to implement radon-resistant building codes. This map is not intended to determine if a home in a given zone should be tested for radon. Homes with elevated levels of radon have been found in all three zones. All homes should be tested, regardless of zone designation

Understanding the costs of investigating coliform and E. coli detections during routine drinking water quality monitoring

Bacteriological failure investigations are crucial in the provision of safe, clean drinking water as part of a process of quality assurance and continual improvement. However, the financial implications of investigating coliform and Escherichia coli failures during routine water quality monitoring are poorly understood in the industry. The investigations for 737 coliform and E. coli failures across five UK water companies were analysed in this paper. The principal components of investigation costs were staff hours worked, re-samples collected, transportation, and special investigatory activities related to the sample collection location. The average investigation costs ranged from £575 for a customer tap failure to £4,775 for a water treatment works finished water failure. These costs were compared to predictions for US utilities under the Revised Total Coliform Rule. Improved understanding of the financial and staffing implications of investigating bacteriological failures can be used to budget operational expenditures and justify increased funding for preventive strategies

Chemical determinants of occupational hypersensitivity pneumonitis

Background: Workplace inhalational exposures to low molecular weight (LMW) chemicals cause hypersensitivity pneumonitis (HP) as well as the more common manifestation of respiratory hypersensitivity, occupational asthma (OA). Aims: To explore whether chemical causation of HP is associated with different structural and physico-chemical determinants from OA. Methods: Chemical causes of human cases of HP and OA were identified from searches of peer-reviewed literature up to the end of 2011. Each chemical was categorised according to whether or not it had been the attributed cause of at least one case of HP. The predicted asthma hazard was determined for each chemical using a previously developed quantitative structure-activity relationship (QSAR) model. The chemicals in both sets were independently and ‘blindly’ analysed by an expert in mechanistic chemistry for a qualitative prediction of protein cross-linking potential and determination of lipophilicity (log Kow). Results: Ten HP causing chemicals were identified and had a higher median QSAR predicted asthma hazard than the control group of 101 OA causing chemicals (p < 0.005). Nine of ten HP causing chemicals were predicted to be protein cross-linkers compared to 24/92 controls (p<0.0001). The distributions of log Kow indicated higher values for the HP list (median 3.47) compared to controls (median 0.81) (p < 0.05). Conclusion: These findings suggest that chemicals capable of causing HP tend to have higher predicted asthma hazard, are more lipophilic and are more likely to be protein cross-linkers than those causing OA. Key words: hypersensitivity pneumonitis, occupational chemicals, occupational respiratory disease, toxic inhalatio

Life cycle assessment of biosolids land application and evaluation of the factors impacting human toxicity through plants uptake

Due to the increasing environmental concerns in the wastewater treatment sector, the environmental impacts of organic waste disposal procedures require careful evaluation. However, the impacts related to the return of organic matter to agricultural soils are difficult to assess. The aim of this study is to assess the environmental impacts of land application of two types of biosolids (dried and composted, respectively) from the same wastewater treatment plant in France, and to improve the quantification of human toxicity. A Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) was carried out on a case study based on validated data from an actual wastewater treatment plant. Numerous impacts were included in this analysis, but a particular emphasis was laid on human toxicity via plant ingestion. For six out of the height impact categories included in the analysis, the dried biosolids system was more harmful to the environment than the composting route, especially regarding the consumption of primary energy. Only human toxicity via water, soil and air compartments and ozone depletion impacts were higher with the composted biosolids

A cloud-based approach for WEEE remanufacturing

The modern manufacturing industry calls for a new generation of integration models that are more interoperable, intelligent, adaptable and distributed. Evolved from service-oriented architecture, web-based manufacturing and cloud computing, cloud manufacturing is considered worldwide a new enabling technology for manufacturing enterprises to respond quickly and effectively to the changing global market. For Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) in particular, it is a critical necessity to recycle, reuse and remanufacture WEEE products by setting up a cloud-based information system. In this paper, a novel service-oriented remanufacturing platform is proposed based on the cloud manufacturing concept.</p

Haloalkane hydrolysis by Rhodococcus erythropolis cells: Comparison of conventional aqueous phase dehalogenation and nonconventional gas phase dehalogenation

Biofiltration of air polluted by volatile organic compounds is now recognized by the industrial and research communities as an effective and viable alternative to standard environmental technologies. Whereas many studies have focused on solid/liquid/gas biofilters, there have been fewer reports on waste air treatment using other biological processes, especially in a solid/gas biofilter. In this study, a comparison was made of the hydrolysis of halogenated compounds (such as 1-chlorobutane) by lyophilized Rhodococcus erythropolis cells in a novel solid/ gas biofilter and in the aqueous phase. We first determined the culture conditions for the production of R. erythropolis cells with a strong dehalogenase activity. Four different media were studied and the amount of 1-chlorobutane was optimized. Next, we report the possibility to use R. erythropolis cells in a solid/gas biofilter in order to transform halogenated compounds in corresponding alcohols. The effect of experimental parameters (total flow into the biofilter, thermodynamic activity of the substrates, temperature, carbon chain length of halogenated substrates) on the activity and stability of lyophilized cells in the gas phase was determined. A critical water thermodynamic activity (aw) of 0.4 is necessary for the enzyme to become active and optimal dehalogenase activity for the lyophilized cells is obtained for an aw of 0.9. A temperature of reaction of 40jC represents the best compromise between stability and activity. Activation energy of the reaction was determined and found equal to 59.5 KJ/mol. The pH effect on the dehalogenase activity of R. erythropolis cells was also studied in the gas phase and in the aqueous phase. It was observed that pH 9.0 provided the best activity in both systems. We observed that in the aqueous phase R. erythropolis cells were less sensitive to the variation in pH than R. erythropolis cells in the gas phase. Finally, the addition of volatile Lewis base (triethylamine) in the gaseous phase and the action of the lysozyme in order to permeabilize the cells was found to be highly beneficial to the effectiveness of the biofilter

International Frameworks Dealing with Human Risk Assessment of Combined Exposure to Multiple Chemicals

The development of harmonised terminology and frameworks for the human risk assessment of combined exposure to multiple chemicals (“chemical mixtures”) is an important area for EFSA and a number of activities have already been undertaken, i.e. in the fields of pesticides and contaminants. The first step prior to a risk assessment of combined exposure to multiple chemicals is problem formulation defining the relevant exposure, hazard and population to be considered. In practice, risk assessment of multiple chemicals is conducted using a tiered approach for exposure assessment, hazard assessment and risk characterisation. Higher tiers require increasing knowledge about the group of chemicals under assessment and the tiers can range from tier 0 (default values, data poor situation) to tier 3 (full probabilistic models). This scientific report reviews the terminology, methodologies and frameworks developed by national and international agencies for the human risk assessment of combined exposure to multiple chemicals and provides recommendations for future activities at EFSA in this area

Thresholds of Toxicological Concern for Cosmetics-Related Substances: New Database, Thresholds, and Enrichment of Chemical Space

A new dataset of cosmetics-related chemicals for the Threshold of Toxicological Concern (TTC) approach has been compiled, comprising 552 chemicals with 219, 40, and 293 chemicals in Cramer Classes I, II, and III, respectively. Data were integrated and curated to create a database of No-/Lowest-Observed-Adverse-Effect Level (NOAEL/LOAEL) values, from which the final COSMOS TTC dataset was developed. Criteria for study inclusion and NOAEL decisions were defined, and rigorous quality control was performed for study details and assignment of Cramer classes. From the final COSMOS TTC dataset, human exposure thresholds of 42 and 7.9 μg/kg-bw/day were derived for Cramer Classes I and III, respectively. The size of Cramer Class II was insufficient for derivation of a TTC value. The COSMOS TTC dataset was then federated with the dataset of Munro and colleagues, previously published in 1996, after updating the latter using the quality control processes for this project. This federated dataset expands the chemical space and provides more robust thresholds. The 966 substances in the federated database comprise 245, 49 and 672 chemicals in Cramer Classes I, II and III, respectively. The corresponding TTC values of 46, 6.2 and 2.3 μg/kg-bw/day are broadly similar to those of the original Munro dataset