Radioactive waste and the decommissioning of radioactive facilities
Alan Martin, Sam Harbison, Karen Beach, Peter Cole in An Introduction to Radiation Protection, 2018
In medical facilities, radioactive effluents arise mainly from the use of radioactive pharmaceutical products in the diagnosis and treatment of disease (see Chapter 16, Section 16.5). Much of the effluent is biologically contaminated in that it arises as excreta from patients. Here there are great advantages in being able to discharge the effluent into the sewage system, either directly or after a period of decay. Discharge to sewers is also widely used for aqueous wastes from research institutions and other facilities where both the volume and the specific activity are low. However, this needs to be strictly controlled. The main considerations are that sewage, sewer walls and sewage works become contaminated, potentially resulting in the exposure of sewage workers. In addition, sewage sludge is often used as an agricultural fertilizer and, if it is contaminated, could result in contamination of crops.
The Environmental Dimensions of Universal Access to Safe Water
Oliver Cumming, Tom Slaymaker in Equality in Water and Sanitation Services, 2018
Further city expansion may then lead to encroachment on peri-urban well fields, leading to a new wave of pollution risk.54,65 While public utilities may again seek to develop new, more costly supplies or invest in treatment, households may continue to self-supply increasingly polluted water from within the city. Widespread groundwater contamination by petroleum products, chlorinated hydrocarbons and other synthetic compounds is common; contamination by pathogenic bacteria and viruses may be more localised because of die-off, but can be similarly widespread where on-site excreta disposal via septic tanks, cesspits and pit latrines occurs in high-density settlements. Many of the people using onsite sanitation in urban areas have neither connections to sewerage networks, or access to systems of faecal sludge management, particularly those that include treatment of waste before disposal.5
Recreational water contamination *
Jamie Bartram, Rachel Baum, Peter A. Coclanis, David M. Gute, David Kay, Stéphanie McFadyen, Katherine Pond, William Robertson, Michael J. Rouse in Routledge Handbook of Water and Health, 2015
The greatest potentials for pollution transport in surface recreational waters are the physical movement of water itself and bathers. Overland flows concentrate pollutants and rapidly transport them down gradient where they enter larger systems and become magnified in aquatic environments, impacting recreational surface water quality as either point source pollution or nonpoint source pollution. The largest point sources of pollution include sewage effluents, combined sewer overflow systems, industrial effluents and concentrated animal feeding operations. The major nonpoint sources of pollution include improperly functioning sanitation systems (leaking sewers, on-site septic systems or industrial waste systems) and runoff from agriculture or urban landscapes. Bather shedding of pathogens into waters during immersion is another major source of contamination to recreational waters (Gerba 2000). Recreational waters may be impacted by one or more pollution source.
Historical analysis of inverse correlation between soil-transmitted helminthiasis and pancreatic cancer
Published in Baylor University Medical Center Proceedings, 2021
The history of clean water and improved sewage removal systems in the United States directly parallels an increase in the country’s PC rate. In the 19th century, most cities in the US used a combined sewer system, which used a single conduit to transport stormwater and other household and industrial wastewater into the nearest waterway. Combined sewer systems often created water pollution problems by causing contamination of drinking and bathing water supplies. In 1905, 95% of the country’s urban population discharged their wastewater untreated to waterways. Little changed over the first quarter of the 20th century, and in 1924 more than 88% of the population in cities of over 100,000 continued to dispose of their wastewater directly to waterways. After the first quarter of the 20th century, wastewater treatment became more popular. In the late 1930s, municipalities were replacing their combined sewer system infrastructure with new separate sewer systems. Separate sewer systems, still in use in American cities today, do not allow human waste to combine with rainwater. Rather, the wastewater is transported to treatment facilities before reuse. The federal government’s Water Pollution Control Act of 1948 and further amendments to this act through 1965 provided for protection of water quality and improved clean water standards. Additional federal legislation in the 1970s set a goal of eliminating all water pollution by 1985 and invested billions of dollars into research and construction grants.29
Ascaris lumbricoides: challenges in diagnosis, treatment and prevention strategies in a European refugee camp
Published in Acta Clinica Belgica, 2018
Paul-Emile Claus, Anne-Sophie Ceuppens, Mike Cool, Gudrun Alliet
Improvements to water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) access are difficult and expensive to implement on a large scale, but their importance should not be underestimated. Improvement in domestic water supplies with piped enclosed sewerage systems is likely to have the most marked impact in decreasing overall infection rates. For hygiene, there is strong evidence that hygiene practices – especially handwashing with soap – is linked to reduction in STH infection [13]. However, not all hygiene interventions are proven to be effective [14]. It must be noted that the assessment of handwashing in randomized controlled trials is challenging and often biased due to self-reporting and lack of accurate control.
Polystyrene microplastic particles induced hepatotoxic injury via pyroptosis, oxidative stress, and fibrotic changes in adult male albino rats; the therapeutic role of silymarin
Published in Toxicology Mechanisms and Methods, 2023
Arwa A. Elsheikh, Sulaiman Mohammed Alnasser, Amany Mohamed Shalaby, Mohamed Ali Alabiad, Noha Ali Abd-Almotaleb, Mohammed Alorini, Fatima A. Jaber, Eman El-Sayed Khayal
Microplastics (MPs) are plastic particles with a diameter <5 mm; primary MPs are ingredients intentionally manufactured from soaps (Bergmann et al. 2019), toothpaste (Sharma and Chatterjee 2017), scrubs, cleaners (Fendall and Sewell 2009), and biomedical products (Shi et al. 2009). Secondary MPs are generated from mechanical abrasion, biological degradation (Andrady 2011), fragmentation of larger plastic pieces by ultraviolet radiation and physical forces (Gewert et al. 2015), or sewage treatment plants. These particles travel through rivers, soil, and oceans through sewers (Peng et al. 2020).
Related Knowledge Centers
- Hydrogen Sulfide
- Septic Tank
- Sewage
- Sewage Treatment
- Sanitary Sewer Overflow
- Public Health
- Latrine
- Toilet
- Cesspit
- Fecal Sludge Management