Comprehensive Assessment of Tailing Dumps' Impact on Water Quality of Rivers, Lakes, and Wells from Mining Areas.

This study is the third in a series of investigations conducted by the authors, and certainly the most comprehensive research regarding the former uranium, copper, and charcoal mines from a particular geographical area of Romania. In this respect, the present scientific incursion focused on two areas containing former extraction uranium ore sites, Ciudanovita and Lisava, as well as copper ore from Moldova Noua and charcoal mines from Anina, Banat Region, Romania. It highlighted that, for the first time, the heavy metal concentration was correlated with the values of physicochemical indicators of water (i.e., EC, DO, pH, resistivity, salinity, and ORP), by using multivariate analysis, to shape a regional based model on spatial distributions and the variability of toxic contaminants from the hydrographic basin of Banat, Romania, as a consequence of former uranium, copper, and charcoal mines. In this regard, 11 metals including Al, Cr, Mn, Fe, Ni, Co, Cu, Zn, Sr, Cd, and Pb from different water samples (well, spring, river, and lake), collected from three mining areas (uranium, copper, and coal mines) were investigated. Non-carcinogenic and carcinogenic health risks of seven heavy metals were assessed using the EDI, DIM, and THQ. The obtained THQ values were within the acceptable limits for cancer risks for adults, but as regards children, eight samples out of 18 proved toxic. However, the HRI and THQ average values for Cd (0.265 adults/0.996 children) and Pb (0.025 adults/0.095 children) for children were 3-4 times higher than those for adults. This is a source of concern as their prevalence in well water exposes children and residents in the Banat Region to the risk of various types of cancers.

Development of thermoplastic composites based on recycled polypropylene and waste printed circuit boards.

In the last several years, the electronic waste, especially printed circuit boards have significantly increased over the world, generating one of the highest rates of solid waste. The recycling process of the printed circuit boards implies mainly the recovery of metals and glass fibers, while the reuse of the polymeric support has remained largely in the phase of research. In this paper, the non-metallic part of printed circuit boards was used as filler (up to 30%), but also to improve the fire resistance of thermoplastic composites based on recycled polypropylene and diene block-copolymers. The synergy between the elastic effect of elastomers and the reinforcing effect of the waste powder into the thermoplastic matrix was studied by mechanical and dynamo-mechanical analysis, X-ray diffraction, optical microscopy, micro-calorimetry and thermo-gravimetrical analysis. Improved mechanical properties, especially impact strength was observed. The compatibization of components considering the interactions between the ethylene-butylene blocks from the hydrogenated and maleinized styrene-butadiene block-copolymer and recycled polypropylene, respectively between the MA groups and the functionalities of the waste powder, evidenced by FTIR, was highlighted by changes in the X-ray pattern and an increased fire resistance and thermal stability.

Health Risk Assessment Associated with Abandoned Copper and Uranium Mine Tailings.

This study aims to investigate the dose rate and pollution level of Ciudanovita, Lisava, Anina, and Moldova Noua mining tailing dumps. In order to accomplish this, soil samples were collected according to LUCAS 2009/2012, in the summer of 2017. To start with, these samples were measured in situ for dose rate and revealed some interesting aspects, following this, they were investigated in the laboratory using different physico-chemical methods for more complex data. Therefore, two techniques have been used for structural investigation that revealed some particularities in terms of morphology, color and shape (optical microscopy, scanning electron microscopy) and, two for chemical composition (Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and inductive coupled plasma mass spectrometry), which provided the qualitative confirmation of chemical groups involved in soil composition along with the heavy and radioactive metals presence (i.e. Pb, U, Cu, Cr, Cd, Ni, Zn, and Mn), expressed also by contamination factor.