Pharmacokinetics of bromoform in dairy heifers.

AIMS: To determine the pharmacokinetics in dairy heifers after oral and IV administration of bromoform, a potential antimethanogenic agent found in red seaweed, Asparagopsis spp. METHODS: Twenty-four dairy heifers with a mean weight of 319 (SD 36.9) kg were used. The study was conducted in two phases, and each cohort of 12 heifers received an escalating dose of bromoform. In the first phase, 12 heifers successively received doses of 200, 400, 800, and 1600 mg of bromoform orally, separated by a 72-hour washout period. In the second phase, a different cohort of 12 dairy heifers was used. Each heifer received a total of four doses of bromoform separated by a wash-out period of 72 hours. Sequentially the treatments were (for each of the 12 heifers) an oral dose of 50 mg, followed by an IV dose of 50 mg, followed by an oral dose of 100 mg and finally an IV dose of 100 mg.Blood samples were assayed by gas chromatography-mass spectrophotometry for bromoform and dibromomethane to estimate the pharmacokinetic parameters using a non-compartmental analysis. RESULTS: Bromoform was rapidly absorbed as indicated by a short time to the maximum observed concentration of 15 minutes. For the routes of administration and dose ranges investigated, the mean terminal half-life ranged from 0.32 (SE 0.03) hours to 5.73 (SE 1.64) hours when administered orally or IV. With values for the mean area under the curve (AUC) to dose ratio ranging from 0.25 (SE 0.04) to 0.82 (SE 0.19) for oral and 1.39 (SE 0.39) to 4.02 (SE 0.37) for IV administration, bromoform appeared to exhibit non-proportional pharmacokinetic behaviour. The mean absolute bioavailability was 39.13 (SE 10.4)% and 3.36 (SE 0.83)% for 50-mg and 100-mg doses, respectively. CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL RELEVANCE: Bromoform is rapidly absorbed and exhibits dose dependent elimination kinetics.

Estimating the benefits of increasing the recycling rate of lamps from the domestic sector: Methodology, opportunities and case study.

The scope of this paper is to identify the benefits of lamp recycling from the domestic sector. Data related to the recycled lamps was obtained from two recycling companies and were compared to those related to the waste lamps from the domestic sector. This was achieved by a new methodology which uses two alternative approaches. The first one is dependent on previous research data in relation to the number of active lamps while the second one elaborates on electricity consumption and sales data, in order to define the corresponding number of active lamps., The wasted amount of glass, metal and plastic is calculated along with the energy savings, the annual emissions of CO2-eq, the economic benefit from their sale and the potential reduction of hazardous waste, such as mercury to solid waste landfills under various scenarios. The amount of recovered materials collected by the Hellenic recycling companies contributes to a reduction of CO2-eq by 1298 tonnes, which falls significantly short of the CO2-eq that could have been saved 3108-5463tonnes if all the lamps were recycled. Furthermore, the recycling companies have an annual economic benefit of €32,251 which could be increased by €122,725 if all lamps were recycled together with the proper recycling of 3.4 kg of mercury, which was disposed in the environment. Finally, a future scenario was examined, in which all lamps in the domestic sector were assumed to be LEDs, an issue that can affect the viability of the recycling factories and it was proved that these might be affected.