China
Africa
Explore chapters and articles related to this topic
Clinical Aspects of Interstitial Lung Disease in Children
Published in Lourdes R. Laraya-Cuasay, Walter T. Hughes, Interstitial Lung Diseases in Children, 2019
Environment encompasses every possible place the patient may have been exposed to on a daily basis or even only on weekends. Environment includes the home, school, playground, a neighbor’s yard, a babysitter’s place, or a second home in the case of divorced parents. It may be important to know the presence of pets like pigeons, turtles, or other exotic pets that belong to the patient or to a family member in cases of hypersensitivity pneumonia. Information about composting in the patient’s backyard for example may have identified the veritable endemic source of fungus or molds. It is also common knowledge that parental smoking prolongs the course of bronchitis in a child, as do fine particle dusts and chemical pollutants. The type of ventilation in the home may have important clinical implications as do the presence of woodstoves, fireplaces, kerosene heaters, and barbecue grills.
Solid waste management
Published in Sandy Cairncross, Richard Feachem, Environmental Health Engineering in the Tropics, 2018
Sandy Cairncross, Richard Feachem
The major alternative to landfill and incineration is composting. Flintoff (1984) reports that 88% of the contents of Indian refuse are acceptable for composting. The figures from Mexico and Britain are 65% and 64%, respectively. Composting converts the organic content of refuse into compost, a soil conditioner which can improve the fertility and structure of agricultural soils. Its agricultural value is greatest if refuse is composted together with suitable quantities of nightsoil or sludge. The sale of compost to farmers can help to offset the running costs of a town’s waste disposal system. Nearly two-thirds of Indian cities and thousands of villages in China dispose of some or all of their refuse by composting it with nightsoil. Composting is further discussed in Chapter 13.
Characterization of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons associated with PM10 emitted from the largest composting facility in the Middle East
Published in Toxin Reviews, 2021
Abbas Norouzian Baghani, Zohreh Bahmani, Armin Sorooshian, Mahdi Farzadkia, Ramin Nabizadeh, Mahdieh Delikhoon, Abdullah Barkhordari, Roshanak Rezaei Kalantary, Somayeh Golbaz, Majid Kermani, Qadir Ashournejad, Abbas Shahsavani
For example, Richard (1992) and He et al. (1992) expressed that polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) can volatilize into the air during the composting process and some can remain in the compost. Although composting facilities can be a suitable and cost-effective waste management option for waste disposal in high volumes, there are still concerns about their adverse impacts for workers (Viegas et al.2014a). For example, these facilities are recognized as the main sources of particulate matter (PM) that bind with PAHs in industrial and urban areas worldwide (Byeon et al.2008, Song and Li 2014, Viegas et al.2014b, Hadei et al.2017). Brändli et al. (2007) stated that composting is an important waste management strategy, while the resulting products can contain significant amounts of organic pollutants such as PAHs (Brändli et al.2007). In addition, compost production processes provide a good environment for the creation of PM in considerable quantities and different sizes during the decomposition of organic matter (Byeon et al.2008, Hadei et al.2017). PM emitted from different stages of compost production stemming from diverse wastes harbor dangerous chemical substances such as PAHs (Song and Li 2014, Viegas et al.2014b).
Antimicrobial resistance due to the content of potentially toxic metals in soil and fertilizing products
Published in Microbial Ecology in Health and Disease, 2018
Siamak Yazdankhah, Eystein Skjerve, Yngvild Wasteson
Through the use of fertilizing materials, the bacterial influx to the environment belongs to the large group of gut microbiota. These bacteria are adapted to the intestinal environment, and their environmental survival abilities are variable. Much of this microbiota will die out and not influence the environmental microbiota over time. Composting of livestock manure and the production process of sewage sludge reduces the number of microbes added to the soil and environment. However, data on the long-term fate of ARB and AMR genes originating from an intestinal environment are fragmented and limited.