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Personal Protective Equipment (PPE): Practical and Theoretical Considerations
Published in Brian J. Lukey, James A. Romano, Salem Harry, Chemical Warfare Agents, 2019
Activated carbon (AC) (sometimes referred to as activated charcoal) is a specially formulated carbon-based product. It is principally used to adsorb organic compounds and pollutants from liquid and gas streams. Although organic chemical compounds are attracted best to carbon, carbon has little affinity for removing inorganic chemicals. Examples of organic chemicals removed by AC include benzene, toluene, xylene, oils, and some chlorinated compounds as well as odor and color contamination. Factors affecting its capability in removing chemicals include, but are not limited to, molecular weight, solubility in water, polarity, and temperature of the fluid stream (General Carbon, 2016b). Additionally, AC may serve as a catalyst (which promotes or speeds up a chemical reaction but at the end of the chemical reaction, is not itself changed), since its active surface provides a far greater distribution of catalytically active atoms than are available on the corresponding metal (Shabanzadeh, 2012). In the United States in 2002, approximately 200,000 tons were produced (Jabit, 2007).
Health and water chemistry
Published in Sandy Cairncross, Richard Feachem, Environmental Health Engineering in the Tropics, 2018
Sandy Cairncross, Richard Feachem
Of more importance than the organic compounds are the harmful inorganic chemicals sometimes found in water. A number of metallic ions are known to cause metabolic disturbances in human subjects by upsetting the production and function of certain enzymes, or to cause a variety of other toxic effects. Antimony, arsenic, barium, beryllium, boron, cadmium, cobalt, lead, mercury, molybdenum, selenium, tin, uranium and vanadium are all implicated although the acceptable intakes and physiological effects are not known for all of these. Table 2.1 sets out WHO-recommended limits for eleven health-related substances.
Problems on Excess of Inorganic Chemical Compounds for Mankind
Published in Jul Låg, Geomedicine, 2017
Jan Alexander, Jetmund Ringstad, Jan Aaseth
There is a wide range of sources of exposure to inorganic chemical compounds. The exposure may occur naturally e.g., by erosion of earth and deposits of metal mineral, but exposure from human activities such as combustion of fossil fuel, mining, smelting, and industrial use of metals are far more important. The general contamination of the human environment and increased human exposure can be illustrated by two examples. The level of lead in human bone and teeth has increased 10- and 30-fold, respectively, from the level in ancient Nubians to adults in our time.4 Acid precipitation due to air polluted with industrially emitted SO2 and NOx causing acidification of surface water has increased the solubility and, hence, the mobility of metal compounds. Recent findings from Sweden show that methylmercury in fish from lakes with acidic water was higher than in lakes with neutral water.5 Raised levels of aluminum in acidic lakes used for drinking water are frequent on the south coast of Norway.6,7 Thus, acidification may lead to increased human exposure of otherwise less mobile elements via drinking water and food.
Improving protection effects of eucalyptol via carboxymethyl chitosan-coated lipid nanoparticles on hyperglycaemia-induced vascular endothelial injury in rats
Published in Journal of Drug Targeting, 2021
Jianqing Peng, Zhaohui Jiang, Guoping Wu, Zimin Cai, Qianming Du, Ling Tao, Yanyan Zhang, Yi Chen, Xiangchun Shen
Eucalyptol (purity ≥99%, Lot No. H1507047), cholesterol oleate (CO, purity ≥85%), glycerol trioleate (GT, purity ≥97%) and octadecylamine (ODA, purity ≥97%) were supported by Aladdin Reagent Co., Ltd. (Shanghai, China). Soybean lecithin (SPC) was purchased from Lipoid (Ludwigshafen am Rhein, Germany). Polyoxyethylene stearate (SPEG, n = 35 ∼ 47) and N-CMC (carboxylation degree ≥80%) were offered by Macklin Biochemical Co., Ltd. (Shanghai, China). The inorganic chemicals were obtained from J & K Chemical Co., Ltd. (Beijing, China). ODA-fluorescein isothiocyanate (FITC) was prepared according to a previously published report [21]. Streptozotocin (STZ, catalogue number: 18883-66-4) was purchased from Sigma (St Louis, MO, USA). Organic solvents of analytical grade were purchased from Aladdin Reagent Co., Ltd. (Shanghai, China).
DNA damage analysis concerning GSTM1 and GSTT1 gene polymorphism in gold jewellery workers from Peshawar Pakistan
Published in Biomarkers, 2020
Muhammad Khisroon, Ajmal Khan, Asma Ayub, Ihsan Ullah, Javeed Farooqi, Abid Ullah
In Pakistan, no mega-scale gold mining is done due to scarcity of natural gold deposits and indigenous gold production is done by artisan and small-scale gold mining (ASGM) and gold jewellery workers (Gosselin and Dubé 2005). For the extraction of gold, jewellery workers use aqua regia and in this process, nitric oxide is released (Jayakumar and Sasikala 2008, Telmer and Veiga 2009). Nitric oxide (NO) is produced during the extraction of gold by gold jewellery workers (Arun et al. 2016). The NO produces reactive species of nitrogen and oxygen (RNS and ROS) so cause DNA damage, lipid peroxidation, and protein oxidation (Aitken and Curry 2011, Aitken et al. 2012, Arun et al. 2016). The NO deaminates cytosine to uracil and 5-methylcytosine to thymine hence causes mutagenicity in the cells (Nguyen et al. 1992). The ROS and RNS cause mutagenicity by microcystin-LR (Wang et al. 2015). Gold jewellery workers are also exposed to hazardous substances such as heavy metals (lead, silver, cadmium, mercury, antimony, beryllium, zinc, aluminium, zinc, copper, and arsenic), inorganic chemicals (trichloroethylene, aluminium oxide, asbestos, and silica), organic substances and solvents (xylene and toluene) (Speelman et al. 2004, Lansdown 2014, Abo-Zeid et al. 2015). These heavy metals and other organic and inorganic substances also cause DNA damage (Serment-Guerrero et al. 2011, Aktepe et al. 2015).
An overview of experiments with lead-containing nanoparticles performed by the Ekaterinburg nanotoxicological research team
Published in Nanotoxicology, 2020
Ilzira A. Minigaliyeva, Marina P. Sutunkova, Vladimir B. Gurvich, Tatiana V. Bushueva, Svetlana V. Klinova, Svetlana N. Solovyeva, Ivan N. Chernyshov, Irene E. Valamina, Vladimir Y. Shur, Ekaterina V. Shishkina, Oleg H. Makeyev, Vladimir G. Panov, Larisa I. Privalova, Boris A. Katsnelson
Lead as a chemical element (Pb), and mainly as its inorganic molecular species, is one of the most dangerous and well-known toxic pollutants of the general and occupational environments. Under certain circumstances, from prehistoric times up until the present day, humans fall victim to lead poisoning. No wonder that the toxicological literature of the last decades features not only hundreds of original publications dealing with multi-vector outcomes of lead toxicity, complicated mechanisms underlying these outcomes, lead-induced health risk assessment challenges and even political implications, but also several comprehensive monographs (IPCS 1995; Tong, von Schirnding, and Prapamontol 2000; Abadin et al. 2007; WHO 2010; García-Lestón et al. 2010; Flora, Gupta, and Tiwari 2012; Taylor et al. 2014; Ab Latif, Ara, and Usmani 2015; Assi et al. 2016). Along with many well known occupational and environmental sources of long-term lead exposures and toxicity, even that due to bullets lodged in the wounded human body is described (Gerstner Garcés and Manotas Artuz 2012). This fact is of special interest because it shows that not only inorganic chemical compounds of lead but also the metal itself retained in the organism even in a gross particulate form can be toxicologically dangerous.