Estimation of urinary delta aminolevulinic acid levels in gasoline and petrol pump workers as an index of lead exposure

Lead poisoning is a phenomenon which with growing globalization is being a subject of worry.ALA i.e Amino levulinic acid is a precursor of hemoglobin, which is synthesized in mitochondria by two main components succinyl Co-A and glycine in presence of ALA-S i.e. amino levulinic acid-synthase. Urinary ALA (ALA-U) has been a recommended biomarker for lead exposure. Inhibition of Amino levulinic acid-dehydratase (ALA-D) results into activation of ALA-S which further synthesizes ALA, excess of ALA is accumulated in the blood, plasma, urine. Present manuscript is focused on the estimation of levels of ALA in the urine of gasoline and pertol pump workers, by acidifying the urine to extract out ALA and reading it colorimetrically as they are exposed to fumes released by gasoline, petrol, and petroleum products which contains lead. Awareness and safety measures such as protective masks and gears should be provided by the respective organisations to the workers.

Physico-chemical monitoring of biodegradation of furfural from oil industry effluents from the Arzew refinery (Oran) Algeria

Furfural is one of the petroleum products posing a potential danger to the environment and human health. However, the decontamination of these pollutants released into the environment is primarily governed by biodegra-dation processes. This study is based on biodegradation kinetics at increasing concentrations of furfural by natural mixed culture in order to assess the potential of this process in the elimination of furfural from petrochemical effluents from the ARZEW refinery. This biodegradation was measured through physicochemical parameters such as pH, electrical conductivity, con-centration of hydrocarbons, the chemical oxygen demand (COD), biochemi-cal oxygen demand (BOD5) and the concentration of furfural. The results obtained show at a concentration of 250ppm of injected furfural: a decrease in pH 4.9 and an increase in other parameters (conductivity 3450 μS.cm-1, HC 102 mg / l; furfural 210 ppm, COD 327mg / l, BOD5 98mgO2 / l. The study findings indicated that the injection of these effluents with concentrations greater than 180 ppm leads to values of pH, EC, HC, Furfural, COD, BOD5 which do not comply with direct discharge standards and disrupt biological treatment. The high levels of furfural not only cause a pollution problem but can also disrupt the functioning of bacteria at the biological treatment level. Therefore, dilution with the filtration wash water before switching to biologi-cal treatment is recommended in order to reduce the concentrations below 180 ppm.

ОЦІНКА ЯКОСТІ ПИТНИХ ВОД З РІЗНИХ ДЖЕРЕЛ ВОДОПОСТАЧАННЯ

Purpose. Monitor different sources of water supply in a particular region of Ukraine. Methodogy. To monitor the drinking water of the selected settlement of Cherkasy region, water from the water supply network (10 samples), water from the pump room (1 sample) and water from wells (26 samples) were selected and analyzed for 20 main chemical indicators in accordance with the requirements of DSanPiN 2.2.4-171-10 and DSTU 7525: 2014. Findings. It was found that tap water has a slight excess of iron and turbidity in 5 samples. The water does not contain aluminum, ammonium ions, nitrates, nitrites, residual amounts of free and bound chlorine and chlorination by-products. The sample of water from the pump room has a slight excess of silicon and salts of general hardness – calcium and magnesium ions. Water from the pump room in chemical composition (pH, dry matter, alkalinity, chlorides, sulfates, sodium) and the content of microcomponents is very similar to tap water, it has a slightly higher "color" and "turbidity", but the content of petroleum products and iron does not exceed drinking standards. water – 0.1 mg / dm3 and 0.2 mg / dm3, respectively. In this case, well water is the most unsuitable for drinking purposes. It was found that the largest excess of normalized values in these waters was observed when determining the dry residue (up to 4 standards), hardness (up to 5 standards), nitrate concentration (up to 9 standards).Originality. Monitoring of drinking water in the selected settlement of Cherkasy region and the analysis of the suitability of tap water, pump room water and well water for drinking needs.Practical value. The peculiarities of the chemical composition of drinking water supply facilities of this settlement have been established, in particular, much attention is paid to the determination of microelements and persistent organic toxicants at the level of their maximum permissible concentrations. The analysis of the obtained results testifies that the quality of tap water and pump room meets the current hygienic standards in terms of organoleptic parameters, general mineralization, hardness, alkalinity, content of organic components, and water in almost all wells does not meet.

On Multi-Objective Minimum Spanning Tree Problem under Uncertain Paradigm

Minimum spanning tree problem (MSTP) has allured many researchers and practitioners due to its varied range of applications in real world scenarios. Modelling these applications involves the incorporation of indeterminate phenomena based on their subjective estimations. Such phenomena can be represented rationally using uncertainty theory. Being a more realistic variant of MSTP, in this article, based on the principles of the uncertainty theory, we have studied a multi-objective minimum spanning tree problem (MMSTP) with indeterminate problem parameters. Subsequently, two uncertain programming models of the proposed uncertain multi-objective minimum spanning tree problem (UMMSTP) are developed and their corresponding crisp equivalence models are investigated, and eventually solved using a classical multi-objective solution technique, the epsilon-constraint method. Additionally, two multi-objective evolutionary algorithms (MOEAs), non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm II (NSGAII) and duplicate elimination non-dominated sorting evolutionary algorithm (DENSEA) are also employed as solution methodologies. With the help of the proposed UMMSTP models, the practical problem of optimizing the distribution of petroleum products was solved, consisting in the search for symmetry (balance) between the transportation cost and the transportation time. Thereafter, the performance of the MOEAs is analyzed on five randomly developed instances of the proposed problem.

Evaluating the Downstream Development Strategy of Oil Companies: The Case of Rosneft

The relevance of this study is due to the low rate of development of the downstream sectors of Russian oil companies. Against a background of the sale of significant volumes of oil and gas raw materials, Russia lags behind world leaders in the production and consumption of petrochemical and chemical products, with their share in the gross domestic product of the country being only 1.1%. Connected to this is the issue of substantiating strategies of development for the downstream sectors of Russian oil companies, which requires detailed research. In this light, it is necessary to take into account current trends in the worldwide demand on petroleum products and also the opportunities and competitive advantages of Russian oil and gas companies in the creation and development of refineries with a consideration of modern technological, environmental, social and market criteria. The paper tests hypotheses about modernisation as a process of increasing efficiency in the development of the industry as a whole. The results of the study show that the planned pace of development in the industry by means of modernisation proves to be insufficient and requires additional investments in innovative development and new construction. The value of the research lies in the modelling of modernisation strategy options by the example of a large oil company, the estimation of results by the criteria of world average indices of technological efficiency of production and the analysis of these results by state indicators of branch development. The theoretical significance of the research lies in the possibility of using this research approach as an analogue.

Environmental and ecotoxicological risk assessment of pollution with light crude oil for an oil exploatation field

Global development of transportation dependent on internal combustion engines, involves major increases in the consumption of fossil fuels obtained by extracting crude oil from depths by means of wells and refining it. In this context, protection of environment and groundwater quality is an increasingly difficult objective to maintain, requiring modern methods to address possible negative effects on the environment. The current research assesses the degree of eco-toxicological and environmental risk for an oil exploitation area in case of an accidental pollution scenario with crude oil. The entire risk spectrum was analysed through a set of qualitative and quantitative risk assessment tools to highlight and quantify the most important effects caused by petroleum products on biotope and biocenoses. The primary aim of the research is to identify vulnerable environmental reservoirs for accidental oil pollution and to establish the best tools to quantify the environmental and ecotoxicological risk of groundwater contamination. The results obtained from the area showed a low to medium risk of contamination of the saturated and unsaturated area with crude oil expressed as TPH (total petroleum hydrocarbons) and a low risk of contamination with volatile organic compounds type BTEX associated contamination of biocenoses that can directly or indirectly interact with potentially polluted areas.

EVOLUTION OF POLLUTANTS EMISSIONIN RELATION TOROAD TRAFFIC IN THE CITY OF LOME (TOGO) FROM 2010 TO 2019

The automobile fleet in Togo has increased in the last decades with a patchwork of vehicles that are in majority older than ten (10) years. Until 2019, the car fleet in Togo was almost dependent upon petroleum products, and was consequentlya source of air pollutants emission. Lome is the capital city of Togo with the characteristic of having the highest road traffic volume that significantly impacts air quality. In accordance with the EMEP/EEA air pollutant emission inventory guide and the COPERT method, emissions of carbone monoxide (CO), nitrogen oxides (NOx), non-methane volatile organic compounds (NMVOCs) and particulate matter (PM) are respectively estimated to: 2621.674 tCO 82.444 tNOx 558.778 tNMVOC and 7.241 tPM. In the time series 2010-2019, emissions of CO, NMVOCs and NOx fell overall with average yearly rates by respectively 83,0234 66,4888 and 0,8073 t/year whereas the PM emission rose(0,8208 t/year).

Assessing state of water protection zones of Volga River within Ilyinka village area (Astrakhan region)

Anthropogenic pollution of water basins may become a serious threat for ecosystems and human health. Pollutants are transferred through food chains or directly when untreated water is used, released to soil through subsoil waters or during floods. The increased anthropogenic load on rivers’ hydrosystems, especially in their del-tas, is becoming rampant these days. The goal of the research is to study the coastal areas and to assess the state of vegetation. To achieve this goal, standard methods of biotesting and bioindication were applied in the territories of two water-protection zones – those of the Volga River and the Nozhovskiy erik (shallow channel in the Volga delta – translator’s note) near the Ilyinka village. The water quality in the Volga River, within the examined range, is stably characterized as “dirty” (4th class). The exceeded level of maximum permissible concentrations for petroleum products, heavy metals (mercury, zinc, molybdenum), sulfides and phenols is observed. The research has not revealed the impact of the quality of water on phytotoxicity of the soil and indices of abundance of the vegetation that grows in this territory. Toxicity of soils is weak in the area of the Nozhovskiy erik, it is very weak in the area of the Volga River: the germination capacity of the test object (watercress) ranges between 67 and 88%, morpho-metric indices of plants do not differ much from those in control groups. Within the summer period the monitoring sites were characterized by the maximum frequency-abundance indices of typical representatives of the local flora, which are camel thorn (Alhagi pseudalhagi) and greater burdock (Arctium lappa). Vegetation in these areas is abundant, its state is assessed as satisfactory.