Hazard assessment study on organic compounds and heavy metals from using artificial turf.

Introduction: Artificial turf or synthetic grass releases hazardous substances such as heavy metals, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), and volatile organic compounds (VOCs). Objective: The current study aimed to evaluate the concentration levels of hazardous substances that are emitted from artificial turf as a result of sunlight effect; and to assess the expected exposure risks to such emitted substances during various activities.The current study aimed to evaluate the concentration levels of hazardous substances that are emitted from artificial turf as a result of the effect of sunlight. And to assess the expected risks of exposure to these substances emitted during the various activities. Study design: VOCs emitted from artificial turf samples were monitored and collected in the ambient air of three football fields, the ambient air around a piece of new artificial turf that has not yet been used on playing fields, but has been exposed to sunlight within one year and in the indoor air around a piece of new artificial turf. Which has not yet been used on the playgrounds and was placed at room temperature and away from sunlight. Results: The current study shows that average afternoon morning VOCs levels were 277, 333, 405 and 509 mg/m3 in winter, autumn, spring and summer, respectively. The most predominant PAHs compounds present in the samples were compounds with 3-rings and 4-rings.The average daily intake (ADI) for three exposure routes (ingestion, inhalation, and dermal contact) was calculated for different age categories (3-6, 7-15, 16-18, 19-22, 23-55, and 56-70 year). Non-Carcinogenic exposure risk as hazard quotient (HQ) and hazard index (HI) were detected. Conclusion: All HI values were <1, indicating that there is no potential adverse health effects occur as a result of a chemical exposure. Total carcinogenic risk (R) values for the different age categories were higher than 1E-04 for three football artificial grass fields, which indicated a high cancer risk development probability. HI and R probability increased in the age group of 7-15 year > 3-6 years.

Production of sugarcane bagasse-based activated carbon for formaldehyde gas removal from potted plants exposure chamber.

UNLABELLED: Agricultural wastes such as rice straw, sugar beet, and sugarcane bagasse have become a critical environmental issue due to growing agriculture demand. This study aimed to investigate the valorization possibility of sugarcane bagasse waste for activated carbon preparation. It also aimed to fully characterize the prepared activated carbon (BET surface area) via scanning electron microscope (SEM) and in terms of surface functional groups to give a basic understanding of its structure and to study the adsorption capacity of the sugarcane bagasse-based activated carbon using aqueous methylene blue (MB). The second main objective was to evaluate the performance of sugarcane bagasse-based activated carbon for indoor volatile organic compounds removal using the formaldehyde gas (HCHO) as reference model in two potted plants chambers. The first chamber was labeled the polluted chamber (containing formaldehyde gas without activated carbon) and the second was taken as the treated chamber (containing formaldehyde gas with activated carbon). The results indicated that the sugarcane bagasse-based activated carbon has a moderate BET surface area (557 m2/g) with total mesoporous volume and microporous volume of 0.310 and 0.273 cm3/g, respectively. The prepared activated carbon had remarkable adsorption capacity for MB. Formaldehyde removal rate was then found to be more than 67% in the treated chamber with the sugarcane bagasse-based activated carbon. The plants' responses for this application as dry weight, chlorophyll contents, and protein concentration were also investigated. IMPLICATIONS: Preparation of activated carbon from sugarcane bagasse (SCBAC) is a promising approach to produce cheap and efficient adsorbent for gas pollutants removal. It may be also a solution for the agricultural wastes problems in big cities, particularly in Egypt. MB adsorption tests suggest that the SCBAC have high adsorption capacity. Formaldehyde gas removal in the plant chambers indicates that the SCBAC have potential to recover volatile gases. The results confirmed that the activated carbon produced from sugarcane bagasse waste raw materials can be used as an applicable adsorbent for treating a variety of gas pollutants from the indoor environment.

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in road dust over Greater Cairo, Egypt.

Road dust samples were collected during 2005 and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) were determined. Sites under investigation were selected to represent the different parts of Greater Cairo, Egypt. Estimation and spatial distribution pattern of PAHs in road dust were the main objectives of this study. The road dust samples were collected from 17 sites over greater Cairo. The concentration of PAHs was determined by using HPLC technique. Twelve common environmental PAHs were found to be distributed. The present data illustrated that the total average of PAHs over the investigated sites was ranged from 0.045 to 2.6 mg/kg. On individual scale, the highest concentrations were 1.031 and 1.028 mg/kg for pyrene and phenanthrene, meanwhile the lowest was benzo(a)pyrene with value 0.0001 mg/kg. The obtained results showed that the carcinogenic content of PAHs (naphthalene, benzo(a)anthracene, chrysene, benzo(b)fluoranthene, benzo(k)fluoranthene and benzo(a)pyrene) ranged from 0.8 to 46.6% of total PAHs. It has been concluded from the present work that PAHs concentrations are greater and closer to traffic routes and industrial activities.