Effects of Radioactive Radiation Caused by Man
Jul Låg in Geomedicine, 2017
The deposition of 137Cs and 134Cs as well as 131J by the Chernobyl fallout in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries is listed in Table 5. The total deposition of 137Cs differs very much not only between different countries and regions, but also between adjacent soils. In the region of Hamburg, the values range from 1300 to 6330 Bq/m2.45 One reason is the nonhomogeneous distribution of the precipitation which contained the activity. The radioactivity of the precipitation itself might be variable, and the ratios of dry to wet depositions were different. The different vegetation cover of the soil is another factor; woods are better filters for aerosols. The highest activities were found in the fresh litter fall and organic layers of the forest soils. Moisture stage and texture had the greatest influence on the amount of deposition in the agricultural soils. Clayey soils have a higher runoff than sandy soils. Peat soils behaved like a sponge. Thus, 134Cs, which was an indicator of Chernobyl fallout because of its comparatively short half-life, was found down to 20 cm, whereas in other soils the maximum depth was 15 cm. The slope of the surface also influences runoff. In a spruce stand, only 30% of the total 137Cs deposition of the Chernobyl fallout reached the soil at once; the other 70% was brought to the ground during the following year by rain and litter fall.46
Determination
David Woolley, Adam Woolley in Practical Toxicology, 2017
As indicated above, clay soils have a high capacity for adsorption of some chemicals, which become tightly bound; as a result, their adverse actions are attenuated. Of course, in time, they will be slowly released from the clays into the rest of the ecosystem, giving a prolonged low-level exposure of organisms or a prolonged opportunity for degradation. Peat soils, on the other hand, do not have such adsorptive capacity, a contrast that was noted after the Chernobyl accident. The differences in binding of cesium-137 between the clay soils in the lowlands and the acid peat soils in the hills affected the amounts that were available, and this was reflected in the radioactive content of crops and livestock. In contrast to organic chemicals, metals– particularly heavy metals–are not degraded, and detoxification is dependent on their removal, irreversible binding, or dilution. Complex molecules may be broken down and eliminated from the ecosystem at greater or lesser rates according to chemical class. Simple carbon compounds are easily biodegradable, but halogenation may well prolong this process into years, as seen with molecules such as the dioxins and organochlorines such as DDT.
Paleopathology and paleomedicine
Lois N. Magner, Oliver J. Kim in A History of Medicine, 2017
In rare instances, the soft parts of prehistoric bodies have been preserved because of favorable burial and climatic conditions or through human ingenuity. Whether sophisticated or primitive, mummification techniques have much in common with the preservation of food and animal hides. Especially well-preserved bodies have been recovered from the peat bogs of northwestern Europe. Peat has been used as a fuel for millennia, giving clumsy peat-gatherers a chance to sacrifice themselves for the future enlightenment of paleopathologists. However, some ancient “bog bodies” were the victims of strange forms of punishment or religious rituals. Sacrificial victims were fed a ceremonial meal, stabbed in the heart, clobbered over the head, strangled with ropes that were left around their necks, and pushed into the bog.
Pulmonary exposure to peat smoke extracts in rats decreases expiratory time and increases left heart end systolic volume
Published in Inhalation Toxicology, 2018
Leslie C. Thompson, Yong Ho Kim, Brandi L. Martin, Allen D. Ledbetter, Janice A. Dye, Mehdi S. Hazari, M. Ian Gilmour, Aimen K. Farraj
Peat is a biomass comprised of decaying vegetation found in wetlands around the world. Though typically fire resistant when intact and undisturbed, carbon-rich peatlands can become a unique fuel source prone to slow, smoldering burns deep in the soil that can last from months to years and release unusually high amounts of fine PM, driving serious health concerns (Page & Hooijer 2016). Peat fires are expected to rise in the coming years (Laurance & Laurance 2015) and represent a global concern given the massive acreage of peatlands burned annually for agricultural purposes in Southeast Asia, which can impact air quality over long distances across neighboring countries (Gaveau et al. 2014; Hayasaka et al. 2014; Urbancok et al. 2017). In eastern North Carolina (USA), the peat fires of Pocosin Lake in 2008 and Pains Bay in 2011 were both associated with increased hospitalizations in affected counties, all attributable to cardiovascular and pulmonary complications (Rappold et al. 2011; Tinling et al. 2016). Despite the epidemiological evidence associating peat smoke inhalation with adverse health outcomes, the specific biological responses driving these effects are unclear.
Anti-biofilm effects of gold and silver nanoparticles synthesized by the Rhodiola rosea rhizome extracts
Published in Artificial Cells, Nanomedicine, and Biotechnology, 2018
Priyanka Singh, Santosh Pandit, Mariam Beshay, V.R.S.S. Mokkapati, Jørgen Garnaes, Mikael Emil Olsson, Abida Sultan, Aiga Mackevica, Ramona Valentina Mateiu, Henrik Lütken, Anders Egede Daugaard, Anders Baun, Ivan Mijakovic
Rhodiola rosea seeds of Russian origin (Strictly Medicinal, Williams, OR, US) were sterilized following standard protocols for sterilization of Arabidopsis seeds and sown in vitro. The medium (MS) consisted of 2.2 g l−1 including vitamins (Dushefa Biochemie BV, Haarlem, The Netherlands), 0.5 g 2-(N-morpholino)ethanesulfonic acid (MES) (Dushefa Biochemie) l−1, 15 g sucrose l−1 and 4 g Gelrite (Dushefa Biochemie) l−1, adjusted to pH 6.3 with 5 M KOH. After 6 months, plants were transferred to soil. The plants were subsequently grown in 2 l pots (Teku VCC13, Pöppelmann GmbH & Co. KG, Lohne, Germany). The substrate used for all in vivo grown plants was a soil-peat mixture (Plugg och Såljord Kron Mull, Weibulls Horto AB, Hammenhög, Sweden). All in vivo plants were kept in a greenhouse at 23 °C under natural and supplementary light, which was provided when necessary from 7:00 to 23:00. After 1-year growth in the greenhouse, the plants were transferred to outdoor conditions where they grew for 2 years before analyses [17].
Related Knowledge Centers
- Carbon Dioxide
- Climate Change Mitigation
- Drinking Water
- Ion Exchange
- Organic Matter
- Polyelectrolyte
- Tannin
- Decomposition
- Phragmites
- Nutrient