Environmental Concerns and the Importance of Desulfurization

Author(s):  
Tawfik A. Saleh

The increased utilization of fossil fuels and subsequent industrialization in most of the world has led to a remarkable increase in the atmospheric sulfur compounds concentrations. Pollution released by the use of petroleum-based fuels contributes immensely to the deterioration of air quality despite regulatory and technological advances in place. SOx, NOx, and particulate matter are constantly emitted to the environment which affects public health, ecosystem, and general wellbeing of the people living mostly in urban areas. Sulfur dioxide, which is the immediate sulfur compound found in the lower atmosphere after combustion of fuels, has a major role to play in the formation of acid rain, smog formation, and particulate aerosols. Each of these formations affects the healthy living of animals, plants, soils, water, and the general ecosystem. This chapter discusses the environmental issues of sulfur.

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 9
Author(s):  
Martina Habulan ◽  
Bojan Đurin ◽  
Anita Ptiček Siročić ◽  
Nikola Sakač

Particulate matter (PM) comprises a mixture of chemical compounds and water particles found in the air. The size of suspended particles is directly related to the negative impact on human health and the environment. In this paper, we present an analysis of the PM pollution in urban areas of Croatia. Data on PM10 and PM2.5 concentrations were measured with nine instruments at seven stationary measuring units located in three continental cities, namely Zagreb (the capital), Slavonski Brod, and Osijek, and two cities on the Adriatic coast, namely Rijeka and Dubrovnik. We analyzed an hourly course of PM2.5 and PM10 concentrations and average seasonal PM2.5 and PM10 concentrations from 2017 to 2019. At most measuring stations, maximum concentrations were recorded during autumn and winter, which can be explained by the intensive use of fossil fuels and traffic. Increases in PM concentrations during the summer months at measuring stations in Rijeka and Dubrovnik may be associated with the intensive arrival of tourists by air during the tourist season, and lower PM concentrations during the winter periods may be caused by a milder climate consequently resulting in lower consumption of fossil fuels and use of electric energy for heating.


2011 ◽  
Vol 1 (5) ◽  
pp. 17-19
Author(s):  
P Sudha ◽  
A Reni ◽  
L Rajamani ◽  
Kavitha V ◽  
Sasikala P ◽  
...  

Most of the people in rural and urban areas of the world were dependent onthe medicinal plants for the treatment of infectious diseases. The Ayurvedicand Unani systems of medicines are widely used by the people of Indian subcontinent.Among the different plant derivatives, secondary metabolitesproved to be the most important group of compounds that showed widerange of antibacterial and antifungal activity. Eupatorium triplinerve(Compositae) is a slender herb with narrow lanceolate leaves and large numberof pedicelled flower Ã¢â‚¬Âheads at the top of the branch. Extract of the plantis used as antiseptic, and in the treatment of various ulcers and haemorrhages. This paper reviews the antimicrobial potential of leaf extracts of eupatorium triplinerve.


2012 ◽  
Vol 42 (2) ◽  
pp. 341-357 ◽  
Author(s):  
Debabar Banerji

Two major research studies carried out in India fundamentally affected tuberculosis treatment practices worldwide. One study demonstrated that home treatment of the disease is as efficacious as sanatorium treatment. The other showed that BCG vaccination is of little protective value from a public health viewpoint. India had brought together an interdisciplinary team at the National Tuberculosis Institute (NTI) with a mandate to formulate a nationally applicable, socially acceptable, and epidemiologically sound National Tuberculosis Programme (NTP). Work at the NTI laid the foundation for developing an operational research approach to dealing with tuberculosis as a public health problem. The starting point for this was not operational research as enunciated by experts in this field; rather, the NTI achieved operational research by starting from the people. This approach was enthusiastically welcomed by the World Health Organization's Expert Committee on Tuberculosis of 1964. The NTP was designed to “sink or sail with the general health services of the country.” The program was dealt a major blow when, starting in 1967, a virtual hysteria was worked up to mobilize most of the health services for imposing birth control on the people. Another blow to the general health services occurred when the WHO joined the rich countries in instituting a number of vertical programs called “Global Initiatives.” An ill-conceived, ill-designed, and ill-managed Global Programme for Tuberculosis was one outcome. The WHO has shown rank public health incompetence in taking a very casual approach to operational research and has been downright quixotic in its thinking on controlling tuberculosis worldwide.


2002 ◽  
Vol 32 (3) ◽  
pp. 489-501 ◽  
Author(s):  
Barry Castleman

The World Trade Organization (WTO), created in 1995, adjudicates “trade disputes” between member nations in cases with great human rights, cultural, environmental, and public health significance. Throughout the process of dispute resolution and even after a case is concluded, very little of what happens is made accessible to the public. However, it is one thing to criticize the WTO for its lack of transparency from outside the process, and another to critically examine what was withheld from disclosure and what dangers that presents. This is the inside story from a scientific adviser to one of the parties in a WTO case, analyzing what happened from a public health point of view. This analysis concludes that the public health justification of banning asbestos was accepted in the end by the economists at the WTO, despite the WTO's bias in favoring the party (Canada) making the free trade challenge (to public health legislation, in this case) in numerous stages of the process, despite the WTO's utter lack of expertise in science, medicine, engineering, and public health, and despite important erroneous statements made to the WTO under the cover of confidentiality. Despite its result, this case illustrates that the WTO's threat to national sovereignty could never withstand the light of day, that the people of the world would reject this dangerous free trade fundamentalism if the limitations and dangers of the process were open for all to see.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
K.SELVAKUMAR . .

Abstract This article is about a complex real-world human medical problem that people all over the world face, a major international public Health problem due to the new coronavirus disease 2019(COVID-19), a highly communicable infectious disease between humans. Spreads rapidly among humans of both sexes of all ages, in large masses in the cyclical manner(seasonally) causing disease in susceptible human Hosts affecting most of the organs in humans mainly lungs resulting in Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome resulting in mass acute deaths. Acute deaths are more common with Comorbidities like Diabetes mellitus, Ischaemic heart disease, Liver disease, Kidney disease, Gut, etc. Now it is the major emergency international pandemic public health medical disease. On the face of the earth, there are large masses of infection and mass acute deaths due to COVID-19 virus infection and so the life of every individual is uncertain at any time. Because of the mass acute deaths from the COVID-19 virus infection, everyone in the world is scared. From now on, it is the responsibility of the researchers of all nations to bring hope to people. In this article, by predicting the lifetime of disease-causing virus, hope to the people is given, to better protect all people and speed up the immediate general pandemic preparedness within the lifespan of the virus. To accelerate actions to save people's lives, mathematical models will help make public health decisions and reduce mortality using the resources available during this time of the COVID-19 pandemic. In this article, to better protect people from disease preparedness for the virus and a general pandemic by predicting the lifetime of the disease-causing coronavirus, three new mathematical models which are dependent on parameters are proposed. The parameters in the model function model uncertainty of death due to the present international real-life problem caused by different strains of the COVID-19 virus. The first model is a model with six parameters and the second and third models are models with seven parameters respectively. These three models are the generalization of the three models of Phem . The errors due to the models of this article are minimized from the errors due to the models of Phem. These three models can predict the acute death count outside the data period and can predict the lifetime. To illustrate the applicability of the models a big data set of size 54 days starting from February 29, 2020, to April 22, 2020, of acute death counts of USA( United States of America) is considered. The main focus is on the USA due to the significant large mass of infection and large mass of acute death from the COVID-19 virus. As a result, everyone's life is uncertain about death at any time. Since it is a major international public health-related medical problem in humans, with an accuracy of 95% of confidence the results using three models are erected. The large mass of acute deaths due to the number of COVID-19 virus infections in the USA are fitted by the model functions of three mathematical models and a solution is found to an international problem. Based on the acute death rate, the lifetime of the COVID-19 virus is estimated to be 1484.76198616309920 days from the first day of acute death, February 29, 2020. In other words, there will be no mass acute deaths from the COVID-19 virus in the USA after April 2024 if the nation follows the guidelines of the WHO(World Health Organization) and the recommendations of the pathogen. And when the people and the government are very well prepared for this crisis then the spread of infection can be prevented, the people and government can be saved from the economic crisis, and many lives can be saved from mass acute deaths. A comparative study of all models is presented for different measures of errors. The acute death count of the USA outside the date of the data set of 54 days is predicted using three models. The data set misses some counts during the collection of data and it is identified. From the ratio of standard deviation and average acute deaths, it is predicted that the total acute death counts during 54 days will be 62,969. Using the standard deviation around the line of regression it is shown that in the data set a large count is missing during the collection of data of USA. Using the coefficient of determination it is predicted that the Model-C, provides 100% of fitness with the given data set and only 0.0% variation. All three models are suitable to fit the data set of acute death counts of the USA, but Model-C is the best and optimal among the three models. Tt is predicted from Model-A, Model-B, and Model-C the total acute death counts during 54 days will be 66537, 67085, and 68523 respectively. Since Model-C is the best and optimal model, the predicted total acute death counts during 54 days will be 68523. Finally, this article suggests various steps to help control the spread and severity of the new disease. The prediction of the lifetime and data count missing in the data set presented in this research article is entirely new and differs totally from all other articles in the literature. To accelerate actions to save people's lives, mathematical models will help make public health decisions and reduce mortality using the resources available during this time of the COVID-19 pandemic.


2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Seth Magle

The Lincoln Park Zoo founded the Urban Wildlife Institute (UWI) in 2008, with the goal of conducting science to minimize conflict between humans and wildlife in cities around the world. UWI has since created a massive and unprecedented urban wildlife biodiversity monitoring network throughout the Chicagoland region. We will briefly summarize some of our findings on Chicago’s mammal, bat, arthropod, and bird populations, with special emphasis on our database of over 200,000 images of urban wildlife captured using motion-triggered cameras. Our research has not only uncovered new information about how urban animals select habitat and persist within urban landscapes, but has also helped connect the people of Chicago to the natural world through educational outreach and citizen science initiatives such as Partners in Fieldwork, and Chicago Wildlife Watch. UWI is working to ensure humans and wildlife can coexist in cities around the world, and also to remind growing urban populations that urban areas are ecosystems that are just as capable of inspiring wonder as the wildest jungles.


Author(s):  
Camilla Toulmin

The Sahel has been a region of movement for millennia, as people cope with drought, search for better land, and seek out new economic opportunities. People move from rural to urban areas and from Mali to elsewhere in West Africa. For the people of Dlonguébougou (DBG), migration has become much more significant since 1980. Increasing numbers of people have left the village permanently, and their children will be urban dwellers. As described through interviews, both men and women want to spend some time away from the village, exploring the world and earning some cash. Becoming a long-term migrant is not usually a one-off choice, but a process over time, which leads one to stay away. Migrant earnings are key to purchase of assets and buying personal goods such as a motorbike, clothes, and mobile phones. For some, they say they see no future in bush villages like DBG.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jaakko Kukkonen ◽  
Mikko Savolahti ◽  
Yuliia Palamarchuk ◽  
Timo Lanki ◽  
Väinö Nurmi ◽  
...  

Abstract. We have developed an integrated tool of assessment that can be used for evaluating the public health costs caused by the concentrations of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) in ambient air. The model can be used in assessing the impacts of various alternative air quality abatement measures, policies and strategies. The model has been applied for the evaluation of the costs of the domestic emissions that influence the concentrations of PM2.5 in Finland in 2015. The model includes the impacts on human health; however, it does not address the impacts on climate change or the state of the environment. First, the national Finnish emissions were evaluated using the Finnish Regional Emission Scenarios model (FRES) on a resolution of 250 × 250 m2 for the whole of Finland. Second, the atmospheric dispersion was analyzed by using the chemical transport model SILAM and the source-receptor matrices contained in the FRES model. Third, the health impacts were assessed by combining the spatially resolved concentration and population datasets, and by analyzing the impacts for various health outcomes. Fourth, the economic impacts for the health outcomes were evaluated. The model can be used to evaluate the costs of the health damages for various emission source categories, for a unit of emissions of PM2.5. It was found that economically the most effective measures would be the reduction of the emissions in urban areas of (i) road transport, (ii) non-road vehicles and machinery, and (iii) residential wood combustion. The reduction of the precursor emissions of PM2.5 was clearly less effective, compared with reducing directly the emissions of PM2.5. We have also designed a user-friendly web-based tool of assessment that is available open access.


Author(s):  
Nikita Jatai ◽  
Tanu Sharma ◽  
Karan Veer

All over the world, there is a new target of public health emergency looming the world along with an appearance and distribution of the novel coronavirus disease (2019-nCoV) also known as Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). This Virus initially generated in bats and then after transferred to a human being over unknown animal playing the role of mediator in Wuhan, China in December 2019. This virus is passed by breathing or in contact with an infected person’s droplets. The Incubation period is between 2 to 14 days for COVID-19, that is the time between exposure of the virus (person becoming infected) and symptom on that person, is on an average of 5-6 days, however it can goes up to 14 days. Throughout this period, which can be also known as “pre-symptomatic” period, some of the infected patients or persons can be contagious. That is why, transferal from a pre-symptomatic case can happen before the symptoms onset. Where there is few number of case studies and reports, pre-symptomatic transferal has been documented via contact with someone who is diagnosed with virus and increase investigation of that particular clusters of total confirmed cases. The main problem is that the symptoms are just like the regular flu that are cough, fever, sore throat, fatigue and breathlessness. This virus is moderate or mild in most of the people, but in elder ones, it may proceed to pneumonia, multi-organ dysfunction and Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS). Coronavirus has significant consequences on the Health system, mainly on cardiovascular diseases and on the environment.


Author(s):  
Inese Stepule

Due to social and economic changes in society, a person's ability to adapt to changing living conditions has diminished. If a person cannot adapt himself, the people around him, especially family members, suffer from this. These sufferings include such shortcomings as violence, trauma, sexual exploitation of children, etc. The study deals with temporary protection against domestic violence. The topic is relevant, since domestic violence is one of the main public health problems. Every year, a large number of people suffer from domestic violence throughout the world. Unfortunately in Latvia compared to other countries of the European Union, domestic violence is a very big problem. Not only women, but also children, the elderly, as well as men, suffer from domestic violence.


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