Advanced Journal of Environmental Science and Technology

Advanced Journal of Environmental Science and Technology ISSN 7675-1686 Vol. 11 (4), pp. 001-007, April, 2020. © International Scholars Journals

Full Length Research Paper

Lead and zinc concentrations in hair and nail of some Kano inhabitants

J. T. Ayodele* and A. S. Bayero

Department of Chemistry, Bayero University, P.M.B 3011, Kano-Nigeria.

Accepted 18 January, 2019

Abstract

The advantages of hair and nail tissues analysis over other biological samples are that trace metal concentrations in them are not subjected to rapid fluctuation due to diet, air and water hence a long term stable nutritional status. Lead and zinc concentrations in hair and nail samples were determined by flame atomic absorption spectrophotometer (AAS). The mean zinc concentration in hair and nail were 0.695 ± 0.33 mg/g and 0.640 ± 0.52 mg/g respectively while the mean lead concentrations in hair and nail were 0.384 ±0.34 and 0.463 ± 0.364 mg/g respectively. A progressive increase in zinc concentrations in hair and nails with age indicated no significant difference when their means were compared suggesting that zinc in hair and nails originate from a common source, comparing the mean lead concentrations in hair with the nails a significant difference is indicated in the 2 tissues (p ≤ 0.05). Human hair and nails are therefore recording filaments that can reflect metabolic changes of many elements over long periods of time and hence furnish a print out of post nutritional event as dietary levels of some of the essential micro-elements.

Key words: Lead, zinc, hair, nail, AAS, Kano, Nigeria.

Advanced Journal of Environmental Science and Technology ISSN 7675-1686 Vol. 11 (3), pp. 001-010, March, 2020. © International Scholars Journals

Full Length Research Paper

Bioremediation of hydrocarbon contaminated-oil field drill-cuttings with bacterial isolates

Reuben N. Okparanma*, Josiah M. Ayotamuno and Peremelade P. Araka

Department of Agricultural and Environmental Engineering, Rivers State University of Science and Technology, Port Harcourt, P.M.B 5080, Rivers State, Nigeria.

Accepted 16 May, 2019

Abstract

The effectiveness of 2 bacterial isolates (Bacillus subtilis and Pseudomonas aeruginosa) in the restoration of oil-field drill-cuttings contaminated with polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) was studied. A mixture of 4 kg of the drill-cuttings and 0.67 kg of top-soil were charged into triplicate plastic reactors labeled A1 to A3, B1 to B3, C1 to C3 and O1 to O3. These were left quiescent for 7 days under ambient conditions before adding to reactors A1 - A3 and B1 - B3 respectively, 20 ml working solution of pure cultures of Bacillus sp and Pseudomonas sp each of cell density 7.6 x 10¹¹ cfu/ml. Another 20 ml working solution containing the both cultures at cell density 1.5 x 10¹² cfu/ml was added to reactors C1 - C3. The working solution was added to each reactor (excluding the controls, O1 - O3) every 2 weeks mixing and watering of the set-ups was done at 3 days interval under ambient temperature of 30^oC over a period of 6 weeks. After 6 weeks of treatment, results showed that the predominant 3-ring PAHs, which made up 90% w/w, of the total PAHs concentration of 223.52 mg/kg, were degraded below detection and the 4-ring PAHs were reduced from 4 to 0.6% by the Pseudomonas while the Bacillus reduced the 3 and 4-ring PAHs respectively to 0.2 and 0.8%. This showed that the Pseudomonas degraded the 3 and 4-ring PAHs relatively better than the Bacillus. Both strains of bacteria degraded the 5 and 6-ring PAHs below detection limits. Furthermore, within the 3-ring PAHs each of the strains of bacteria reduced phenanthrene to approximately 0.2%, whereas both degraded the homologues acenaphthylene, acenaphthene and fluorene as well as anthracene below detection limits. For the 4-ring PAHs, the Pseudomonas degraded fluoranthene and benzo[a]anthracene while the Bacillus also degraded benzo[a]anthracene below detection limits. The Pseudomonas was able to reduce pyrene and chrysene to 0.3 and 0.2% respectively; whereas the Bacillus reduced fluoranthene, pyrene and chrysene to 0.1, 0.01 and 0.4% respectively. However, treatment with the mixed culture resulted in the limited degradation of the 5-ring PAHs particularly in the fourth week, which may be due to the phenomena of cometabolism and inhibition. The pseudo-first-order degradation rate constant of persistent PAHs ranged from 1.9 x 10^-4 to 9.3 x 10^-2 day^-1. Statistical analyses of results, using the 2-factor analysis-of-variance, showed that the treatments applied resulted in significant (p < 0.05) differences in the biodegradation of the PAHs of the drill cuttings after the 6 weeks of treatment.

Key words: Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, petroleum waste, Bacillus, Pseudomonas, bioremediation.

Advanced Journal of Environmental Science and Technology ISSN 7675-1686 Vol. 11 (3), pp. 001-011, March, 2020. © International Scholars Journals

Full Length Research Paper

A comparative study on indoor air quality in a low cost and a green design house

S. Palanivelraja and K. I. Manirathinem*

Department of Civil Engineering, Annamalai University, Annamalainagar, Chdhiambaram, Tamilnadu, India – 608 002.

Accepted 20 September, 2019

Abstract 

A study on Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) is important because people spend most of their time inside houses. IAQ was monitored in two different types of rural houses namely a low cost house and a “green” house built with pyramidal shape of roof in the rural area. Carbon monoxide (CO) and Carbon Dioxide (CO₂) concentrations were measured and analysed indoor and outdoor in both the type of houses. A statistical correlation analysis of indoor concentration levels with outdoor concentrations was carried out. The CO concentration in the low cost house 21.5 ppm and CO₂ concentration is 792 ppm. Similarly the CO was maximum with indoor concentrations 0.9 ppm (in Kitchen) and outdoor concentrations 0.4 ppm. CO₂ was maximum with indoor concentrations 435 ppm (in Kitchen) and outdoor concentrations 425 ppm in the green house. It can be seen from the above findings that the pollutant concentration in low cost house was higher than that of green house. The R² (statistical correlation) values for the concentration of CO at indoor are 0.56 and 0.47 in the kitchen and living room respectively in the green house. Similarly the value of R² for indoor is 0.73 and 0.52 in the kitchen and living room respectively for concentration CO₂ green house.

Key words: Carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, indoor air quality, low cost house, green house

Advanced Journal of Environmental Science and Technology ISSN 7675-1686 Vol. 11 (3), pp. 001-004, March, 2020. © International Scholars Journals

Full Length Research Paper

Survey of bacterial pathogens on leaves and seeds of red mangrove (Rhizophora mangle)

Ukoima, H. N.¹*, Wemedo, S. A.² and Ekpirikpo, A. O.¹

¹Department of Forestry and Environment, Faculty of Agriculture.

²Department of Applied and Environmental Biology, Faculty of Sciences. Rivers State University of Science and Technology, Nkpolu-Oroworukwo, P. M. B.5080, Port-Harcourt, Nigeria.

Accepted 14 May, 2019

Abstract

Bacterial pathogens of red mangrove (Rhizophora mangle) were investigated. 50 samples each of leaves and seeds (healthy and diseased) were randomly collected and used for the analysis. Mean bacterial counts obtained were: healthy and diseased leaves; 8.26 x 10³ and 5.9 l x l0³ cfu/ml respectively; healthy seeds 7.96 x l0³ cfu/ml and diseased seeds 1.1 4x 10⁴ cfu/ml. The bacterial populations of the healthy and diseased leaves and seeds showed no significant difference at P > 0.05 (F – cal = 4.69; F – tab = 4.76). Nine bacterial genera isolated include Acinetobacter (7.69%), Aerococcus and Alcaligenes (3.84%), Bacillus (19.23%), Corynebacterium (34.61%), Flavobacterium and Pseudomonas (3.84%), Staphylococcus (7.69%) and Streptomyces (15.38%). Corynebacterium had the highest percentage occurrence and was isolated from both healthy and diseased samples. Some of the bacterial species such Corynebacterium, Bacillus, Pseudomonas are known pathogens of plants and were implicated as pathogens of red mangrove.

Key word: Bacterial pathogens, red mangrove, diseased leaves, healthy leaves.