Study of occupational health hazards in sawmill workers in central India

Background: Occupational lung diseases are occurring at an increasingly significant level in India and the prevalence is particularly high in sawmill workers. The present study evaluated effects of sawdust on the lung functions of sawmill workers.Methods: In this prevalence study, 50 sawmill workers and equal number of age-sex matched controls were enrolled. Pulmonary function test parameters of all the participants were recorded by spirometry. Relevant comparisons were drawn between the groups.Results: Mean FVC of cases was 3.02±0.68 litres and of controls was 3.39±0.56 litres. Mean FEV1 of cases was 2.28±0.79 litres and of controls was 2.76±0.61 litres. Mean FEV1/FVC ratio of cases was 74.22±12.92% and of controls was 80.81±7.83. Mean PEFR of cases was 6.44±1.45 litres/second and of controls was 7.18±1.15 litres/second. Mean FEF 25-75 % of cases was 3.06±0.83 litres/second and of controls 3.53±0.71 litres/second. All the results were statistically significant (p<0.05).Conclusions: Sawmill workers are more vulnerable to respiratory impairment due to saw-dust exposure in the workplace environment. Efforts are recommended to control the levels of dust to within safe occupational limits.

Viability of Hydrocarbon-degrading Bacterial Consortium Immobilized on Different Carriers

Aim: Viability of hydrocarbon-degrading bacterial consortium immobilized on different carriers was studied. Methodology: Hydrocarbon-degrading bacteria were isolated from crude oil contaminated sites in Gio and K-Dera, Rivers State, Nigeria using enrichment method. Proximate analyses were carried out on the best carrier materials. Immobilization was by direct adsorption of the isolates onto the carrier materials and viability was determined by plate count method. The carrier materials tested included soya bran, sugarcane bagasse, corn cob, brown saw dust, white saw dust, cassava peel and red mud (bentonite). Results: The bacterial isolates demonstrated varied degradation capacity. The best carrier material was saw dust (103.6% survival) and corn cob (103.6% survival) followed by soya bran (94.4% survival rate) and cassava peel (94.4% survival rate). The saw dust had moisture content, 5.92%; ash content, 7.49%; crude protein, 2.2%; volatile matter, 74.28; and fixed carbon, 12.34%; whereas, the percentage chemical composition observed for soya bran were 10.11, 4.08, 5.22, 42.61, 18.37 and 8.89 for moisture content, ash content, crude fibre, crude protein, crude fat and carbohydrate, respectively. There was significant difference (p=0.05) between viability rate observed with the different carrier materials. Conclusion: This study showed that the agro-wastes used in this study can effectively enhance the viability of hydrocarbon-utilizing bacterial. The result is significant as it shows the possibility of using these carrier materials for bioremediation of hydrocarbon contaminated media.

Simultaneous biodegradation of phenol and cyanide present in coke-oven effluent using immobilized Pseudomonas putida and Pseudomonas stutzeri

ABSTRACT Discharge of coke-oven wastewater to the environment may cause severe contamination to it and also threaten the flora and fauna, including human beings. Hence before dumping it is necessary to treat this dangerous effluent in order to minimize the damage to the environment. Conventional technologies have inherent drawbacks however, biological treatment is an advantageous alternative method. In the present study, bacteria were isolated from the soil collected from the sites contaminated by coke-oven effluent rich in phenol and cyanide. Nucleotides sequence alignment and phylogenetic analysis showed the identity of the selected phenol and cyanide degrading isolates NAUN-16 and NAUN-1B as Pseudomonas putida and Pseudomonas stutzeri, respectively. These two isolates tolerated phenol up to 1800 mg L-1 and cyanide up to 340 mg L-1 concentrations. The isolates were immobilized on activated charcoal, saw dust and fly ash. The effluent was passed through the column packed with immobilized cells with a flow rate of 5 mL min-1. The isolates showed degradation of phenol up to 80.5% and cyanide up to 80.6% and also had the ability to reduce biological oxygen demand, chemical oxygen demand and lower the pH of effluent from alkaline to near neutral. The study suggests the utilization of such potential bacterial strains in treating industrial effluent containing phenol and cyanide, before being thrown in any ecosystem.

Effect of Different Organic Amendments on Fusarium oxysporum f.sp ciceri Causing Chick Pea Wilt.

Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) is one of the most important legumes grown in Asia. Though the area under this crop is more, the average yield per hectare is low because of several biotic and abiotic factors. Among them, the wilt caused by Fusarium oxysporum f.sp. ciceri is most destructive seed and soil borne disease. (Haware et al., 1986) which threatens successful cultivation of chickpea and causes severe losses in chickpea growing areas. (Grewal et al.,1974b and Singh et al.,1977.) The organic amendments viz., saw dust, ground nut cake, FYM, soybean cake, cotton cake were used in three concentrations 0.1%, 0.2%, 0.3% . The highest per cent growth of inhibition was observed in soybean cake 0.3% (32.96%), followed by groundnut cake 0.3% (29.63%). The lowest per cent growth inhibition was observed in saw dust 0.1% (06.47%).