Penyingkiran boron dalam larutan akuas secara penjerapan telah dikaji dengan menggunakan penjerap komposit yang menggabungkan zeolit, batu kapur, karbon teraktif dan buangan arang sekam padi. Parameter optimum seperti pH, masa sentuhan optimum dan dos bahan penjerap dikaji. Kajian isoterma penjerapan dan kinetik penjerapan turut dijalankan. Hasil penyelidikan menunjukkan penyingkiran boron paling optimum berlaku pada pH5 dan masa sentuhan optimum ialah pada minit ke 120. Dos optimum bagi penyingkiran boron dalam larutan akuas ialah pada dos 280 g/L dan penyingkiran yang dapat dilakukan ialah sebanyak 50.49%. Dalam kajian isoterma, model isoterma Langmuir dan Freundlich telah diaplikasikan dan hasil kajian membuktikan bahawa kajian isoterma penjerapan adalah mematuhi model isoterma Langmuir (R2 = 0.8792). Nilai kapasiti penjerapan maksimum (qm) yang diperoleh daripada model isoterma Langmuir adalah 1.8985 mg/g. Kajian kinetik penjerapan dijalankan untuk mengetahui mekanisme proses penjerapan dan hasil kajian menunjukkan kadar kinetik bagi penjerapan boron ini adalah mematuhi model kinetik tertib kedua. Pekali korelasi yang diperoleh untuk model kinetik tertib kedua ini adalah 0.9929. Ini mencadangkan bahawa kinetik penjerapan boron adalah dipengaruhi oleh proses kimia.
Climate change is a major global issue with significant consequences, including effects on air quality and human well-being. This review investigated the projection of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) attributable to air pollution under different climate change scenarios.
The purpose of this paper is to examine the 2014 post-flood waste management in affected area. For this purpose, Pasir Mas in Kelantan was chosen as the sample area and interviews were conducted with the residents. The interviews aim to gather information about post-flood waste produced,sources of the waste, actions taken by the residents and related authorities bodies to clear the waste, impact of the waste on their living surroundings and health, and assistance needed to manage the waste. A total of 39 respondents consisted of 20 men and 19 women were selected at random for focus group discussion. These respondents represent persons of age 25 years old and above, local and whose living quarters have been affected by the flood. The large volume of mud left by the flood has been identified by the participants as the main source of the post-flood waste. In addition, good cooperation between government agencies and the residents is important to speed up the waste clearing works.However, residents are in much needed support, awareness and education about the impact of long due waste clearing on their health and living environment.
Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) play an important role in the generation of ground level ozone and secondary organic aerosol. Most tropical countries such as Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Brunei experience high ozone pollution. Beside ozone, oxides of nitrogen (NOx) from vehicular emissions also play an important role in photochemical pollution. NOx, particularly nitric oxide (NO), helps to ‘clean up’ ozone concentrations close to traffic in the ambient air of urban areas. Thus, knowledge of the chemistry of ozone-VOCs-NOx and finding the sources of VOCs are crucial to proceed with an appropriate mitigation strategy. Thus, the detection of ozone precursors and related VOCs is thoroughly discussed. This review finds that the inertness, hydrophobicity, and the effect of the artefact materials are very significant factors to be explored in the selection of the sorbent materials. In the SEA region, relative humidity is relatively high and exceeds 90% during the northeast monsoon. Thus, the hydrophobic properties of the sampling material need careful consideration. Further to the effect of relative humidity (RH), the artefact effect of the material itself is a challenge to be optimized and multi-sorbent material in a single tube could be a viable choice to minimize the effect of the unwanted signal in the spectrum.
Road transport contribute over 70% of air pollution in urban areas and is the second largest contributor to the total carbon dioxide emissions in Malaysia at 21% in 2016. Transport-related air pollutants (TRAPs) such as NOx, SO2, CO and particulate matter (PM) pose significant threats to the urban population’s health. Malaysia has targeted to deploy 885,000 EV cars on the road by 2030 in the Low Carbon Mobility Blueprint (LCMB). This study aims to quantify the health co-benefits of electric vehicle adoption from their impacts on air quality in Malaysia. Two EV uptake projections, i.e. LCMB projection, and Revised EV Adoption (REVA) projection, and five electricity generation mix scenarios were modelled up to 2040. We used comparative health risk assessment to estimate the potential changes in mortality and burden of diseases (BoD) from the emissions in each scenario. Intake fractions and exposure-risk functions were used to calculate the burden from respiratory diseases (PM2.5, NOx, SO2, CO), cardiovascular diseases and lung cancer (PM2.5). Results showed that along with a net reduction of carbon emissions across all scenarios, there could be reduced respiratory mortality from NOx by 10,200 mortality (176,200 DALYs) and SO2 by 2,600 mortality (45,400 DALYs) per year in 2040. However, there could also be additional 719 mortality (9,900 DALYs) per year from PM2.5 and 329 mortality (5,600 DALYs) from CO per year. The scale of reduction in mortality and BoD from NOx and SO2 are significantly larger than the scale of increase from PM2.5 and CO, indicating potential net positive health impacts from the EV adoption in the scenarios. The health cost savings from the reduced BoD of respiratory mortality could reach up to RM 10 billion per year in 2040. In conclusion, EV is a way forward in promoting a sustainable and healthy transport future in Malaysia.
In the present study, we determined the levels of chlorinated pesticide residues in surface water samples collected from the Charsadda district (KPK, Pakistan). SPME-GC-ECD with COMBI PAL CTC autosampler was used for extraction and analysis of 20 organochlorine pesticides in the collected water samples. For maximum efficiency of the SPME procedure, several parameters were studied, including the extraction and desorption time of the fiber, solution pH, agitation of samples, and stirring speed, etc. This method showed good liner response, with R2 values in the range of 0.9887 to 0.9999 for all pesticides. This method also provided good percent recoveries at 1 µg L−1 (87.5 to 106.0%) and at 2 µg L−1 (88.5 to 109.2%). Lower limits of detection for all 20 chlorinated pesticides were found to be lower than their maximum permissible contamination levels. Approximately 50% of the surface water samples collected from the Charsadda district were found to be contaminated with the pesticides γ-BHC, heptachlor, aldrin and dieldrin, with maximum concentrations of 0.023, 0.108, 0.014 and 0.013 µg L−1, respectively. For adults and children, the cancer risk from water due to contamination by various pesticides ranged from 0 to 33.29 × 10−6. The non-carcinogenic risk from each pollutant in the water samples of the Charsadda district was found to be in the order of heptachlor > aldrin > dieldrin > γ-BHC. However, the pesticides α-BHC, β-BHC, heptachlor epoxide, chlordane, endrin, 4,4′-DDD, endrin ketone, 4,4′-DDT, endosulfan sulfate and methoxychlor were not detected in any of the surface water samples of investigated in the present study.