A health risk model for rural households based on the distribution of multi pollutants.

Rapid consumerism and improper waste disposal create widespread environmental degradation through the air, water sources and landfills in India's rural areas. This work develops a health risk prediction model to score villages based on quantitative and qualitative factors. Quantitative observations regarding pollutant levels and qualitative responses are collected from various households. that are risk labelled against WHO standards. The health risk model is designed to correlate the qualitative factors. A total of 2,370 rural households spread across three districts of Karnataka were selected. The study found that the health risk score predicted by the model has a higher significant correlation (0.8) to various existing pollutant factors. The study found that source of drinking water (0.87), quality of drinking water (0.81), drainage canal availability (0.72), type of drainage (0.73), stagnant water (0.71), toilet availability (0.83), maintenance frequency (0.83), cooking fuel type (0.77), cigarette use (0.71), garbage piles up (0.73) and the percentage composition of wastes (0.74) was found to have a higher positive correlation to the health of rural households. The villages with higher health risks can be identified, and suitable mitigation plans can be designed to mitigate the health risk by state authorities.

Investigation on the performance evaluation of vertical subsurface flow constructed wetland for the treatment of rural wastewater.

In a rural country like India, low cost and decentralized treatment units like the vertical subsurface flow constructed wetland (VSSF CW) can be reflected as a novel wastewater system. In this concern, a pilot-scale VSSF CW unit of size 0.92 m × 0.92 m × 0.85 m bed planted with Typha latifolia and Phragmites australis was operated for a 12-month duration to treat simulated rural wastewater. During the operation, a constant head arrangement was made to maintain a continuous flow to achieve 5 different Hydraulic Retention Times (HRTs) of 2, 4, 6, 8 and 10 days in each season, such as winter, summer and rainy, to investigate the performance of the unit under different retention times. The reactor showed optimum removal efficiency at 6 days HRT at 12.5 cm/day Hydraulic Loading Rate (HLR) for organic matter removal. Both macrophytes and the microbial biomass of filter media effectively treated the rural wastewater. Average removal efficiency of the reactor during the entire study was 64.73%-88.80% for Chemical Oxygen Demand, 74.96%-95.34% for Biochemical Oxygen Demand, 40.13%-79.45% for Ammonia Nitrogen, 25.36%-65.65% for Total Kjeldahl Nitrogen, 22.86%-58.48% for Phosphate phosphorus, 23.50%-55.45% for Total phosphorous, 74.91%-98.59% for Faecal Coliforms and 71.14%-95.31% for Total Coliforms respectively. Two-way ANOVA followed by post-hoc Tukey's test showed that HRT had a significant impact on removal efficiency but not the season. Overall performance of the unit was good and study suggested that VSSF CW can be a smart alternative technology to treat rural wastewater before final disposal.

Spatial and Temporal Variation of Atmospheric Particulate Matter in Bangalore: A Technology-Intensive Region in India.

All of India's megacities are experiencing acute air pollution problems due to the accelerated urbanization/industrialization and rapid economic growth. Nowadays, environmental pollution due to particulate matter is a major threat to human health and our regional air quality. Long-term air pollution data with the high spatial and temporal resolution are required to understand regional air quality and its effects on environmental degradation and human health. In view of the above, the particulate matter (PM2.5: particles with diameters less than 2.5 µm and PM10: particles with diameters less than 10 µm) were measured from January 2017 to March 2018 at five locations (PM2.5 at 3 sites and PM10: at 2 sites) across the Bangalore city, India. The measured concentrations indicated that PM2.5 and PM10 concentrations in Bangalore exceeded the World Health Organization's air quality standards although the PM2.5 values did meet the Indian National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS). The PM10 NAAQS was exceeded at one site. Temporal patterns showed a strong evening peak at all sites and morning rush hour peaks of varying strength. Season peaks were observed in the winter or premonsoon seasons again with variations among the five sites. Lower pairwise correlation coefficients among the sites suggest that the PM sources were largely localized. The role of meteorological parameters (MP) was studied, and it was observed that MP play a vital role in the accumulation of PM2.5. During calm wind condition (WS < 0.5 m/s), the concentrations of PM2.5 has increased by 17%, indicating localized sources; however, in the case of PM10, it was opposite. Annually, the highest concentrations of PM2.5 (> 30 µg/ m3) and PM10 (> 75 µg/m3) over receptor side were observed during lower wind speeds (< 2 knots), which indicate that the transportation does not play any crucial role in higher concentrations of PM over Bangalore.