Leaf samples of tropical trees, i.e. Dryobalanops lanceolata (Kapur paji), Dipterocarpaceae and Macaranga spp. (Mahang), Euphorbiaceae were analyzed for 21 chemical elements. The pioneer Macaranga spp. exhibited higher concentrations for the majority of elements compared to the emergent species of Dryobalanops lanceolata, which was attributed to the higher physiological activity of the fast growing pioneer species compared to emergent trees. Lead showed rather high concentrations in several samples from the Bakam re-forestation site. This is suggested to be caused by emissions through brick manufacturing and related activities in the vicinity. A comparison of Dryobalanops lanceolata samples collected in 1993, 1995 and 1997 in the Lambir Hills National Park revealed that certain heavy metals, i.e. Co, Cu, Mn, Ni, Pb and Ti showed higher values in 1997 compared to the previous years, which could indicate an atmospheric input from the haze caused by the extensive forest fires raging in Borneo and other parts of Southeast Asia.
The East Coast of Peninsular Malaysia faces the South China Sea and is vulnerable to oil pollution because of intense petroleum production activities in the area. The South China Sea is also a favored route for supertankers carrying crude oil to the Far East. Consequently, oil spills can occur, causing pollution and contamination in the surrounding areas. Residual oil spills stranded on coastal beaches usually end up as tar-balls. Elucidating the sources of tar-balls using a molecular marker approach is essential in assessing environmental impacts and perhaps settling legal liabilities for affected parties. This study utilizes a multimodal molecular marker approach through the use of diagnostic ratios of alkanes, hopanes, and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) to determine the source, distribution and weathering of tar-balls. Hopane ratios (e.g., C29/C30, and summation C31-C35/C30 ratios) were used to identify the sources of tar-balls. The weathering effects were distinguished by using alkanes, namely the unresolved complex mixture (UCM) and low molecular weight/high molecular weight (L/H) ratios. Similarly, PAHs were also used for the determination of weathering processes undergone by the tar-balls. This multimodal molecular marker gave a very strong indication of the sources of tar-balls in this study. For example, 16 out of 17 samples originated from South East Asian Crude Oil (SEACO) with one sample from Merang, Terengganu originating from North Sea Oil (Troll). The TRME-2 sample may have come from a supertanker's ballast water discharge. The second possibility is that the tar-ball may have been transported via oceanographic currents. All 'weathered' sample characterizations were based on the presence of UCM and other ratios. The multimodal molecular marker approach applied in this study has enabled us to partially understand the transport behavior of tar-balls in the marine environment and has revealed insights into the weathering process of tar-balls.
Studies on marine debris have gained worldwide attention since many types of debris have found their way into the food chain of higher organisms. Thus, it is crucial that more focus is given to this area in order to curb contaminations in sea food. This study was conducted to quantify plastic debris buried in sand at selected beaches in Malaysia. Marine debris was identified according to size range and distribution, and this information was related to preventive actions to improve marine waste issues. For the purpose of this study, comparison of plastic waste abundance between a recreational beach and fish-landing beaches was also carried out, since the different beach types represent different activities that produce debris. Six beaches along the Malaysian coastline were selected for this study. The plastic types in this study were related to the functions of the beach. While recreational beaches have abundant quantities of plastic film, foamed plastic including polystyrene, and plastic fragment, fish-landing beaches accumulated line and foamed plastic. A total of 2542 pieces (265.30 g m(-2)) of small plastic debris were collected from all six beaches, with the highest number from Kuala Terengganu, at 879 items m(-2) on Seberang Takir Beach, followed by Batu Burok Beach with 780 items m(-2). Findings from studies of Malaysian beaches have provided a clearer understanding of the distribution of plastic debris. This demonstrates that commitments and actions, such as practices of the 'reduce, reuse, recycle' (3R) approach, supporting public awareness programmes and beach clean-up activities, are essential in order to reduce and prevent plastic debris pollution.
In this study, we analyzed hydroxylated polychlorinated biphenyls (OH-PCBs) in urine of both PCB transport workers and PCB researchers. A method to monitor OH-PCB in urine was developed. Urine was solid-phase extracted with 0.1% ammonia/ methanol (v/v) and glucuronic acid/sulfate conjugates and then decomposed using β-glucuronidase/arylsulfatase. After alkaline digestion/derivatization, the concentration of OH-PCBs was determined by HRGC/HRMS-SIM. In the first sampling campaign, the worker's OH-PCB levels increased several fold after the PCB waste transportation work, indicating exposure to PCBs. The concentration of OH-PCBs in PCB transport workers' urine (0.55~11 μg/g creatinine (Cre)) was higher than in PCB researchers' urine (
Ash produced from a hospital waste incinerator was treated using a high temperature melting process at 1200 degrees C. The quality of the produced slag was characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray fluorescence (XRF), leaching tests and sequential chemical extraction of metals. The slag contained large amounts of SiO(2,) CaO, Al(2)O(3), Sn, Ni, Cu, Ba and B. XRD analysis revealed a moderate crystal structure for the melted slag and identified the main crystals as quartz (SiO(2)), kaolinite (Al(2)Si(2)O(5)(OH)(4)), albite (NaAlSi(3)O(8)) and gibbsite (Al(OH)(3)). The observed crystal structure assists in preventing the leaching of heavy metals from the slag. Furthermore, the leaching results found the produced slag to comply with disposal limits set by the US EPA. Results from sequential chemical extraction analysis showed that metals in the slag exhibited the strongest preference to be bound to the residual fraction (stable fraction), which is known to have very low leaching characteristics. Melting was found to stabilize heavy metals in hospital waste successfully and therefore it can be an acceptable method for disposal.
Stepping into the new globalizes and paradigm shifted era, a huge revolution has been undergone by the electrochemical industry. From a humble candidate of the superconductor resources, today electrosorption has demonstrated its wide variety of usefulness, almost in every part of the environmental conservation. With the renaissance of activated carbon (AC), there has been a steadily growing interest in this research field. The paper presents a state of art review of electrosorption technology, its background studies, fundamental chemistry and working principles. Moreover, recent development of the activated carbon assisted electrosorption process, its major challenges together with the future expectation are summarized and discussed. Conclusively, the expanding of electrosorption in the field of adsorption science represents a potentially viable and powerful tool, leading to the superior improvement of pollution control and environmental preservation.
Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) occur as contaminants in different types of food predominantly from environmental pollution, food packaging and food processing and the levels found depend on the source of the contamination. PAHs emissions from automobile traffic and industry activities were shown to influence the PAHs levels and profiles in vegetables and fruits grown nearby. The present study was carried out to determine the levels of PAHs in samples of tomato, cabbage and apple, collected from six different places of urban and rural areas of plantation in Dhaka city. Eight PAHs listed in the priority pollutant of US Environment Protection Agency and regarded as carcinogens were analyzed in this study. The analytical method involved saponification with methanolic KOH, liquid-liquid extraction with cyclohexane, clean-up on silica gel column and determination by Gas chromatography and mass spectrometry. The mean levels of total PAHs were 9.50 μg/kg in tomato, 8.86 μg/kg in cabbage and 4.05 μg/kg in apple. Of the carcinogenic PAHs, benzo(a)anthracene was the most representative, being found in 89% of all samples analysed. Chrysene was not detected in any sample.
The disposal of industrial paper mill sludge waste is a big issue and has a great importance all over the world. A study was conducted to determine the chemical properties of recycled paper mill sludge (RPMS) and assess its possibilities for land application. RPMS samples were collected from six different paper mills in Malaysia and analyzed for physical and chemical properties, heavy metals, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, (13)C-NMR spectra and for the presence of dioxins/furans. The RPMS was dewatered, sticky with a strong odour, an average moisture of 65.08%, pH 7.09, cation exchange capacity (CEC) 14.43 cmol (+) kg(-1), N 1.45, P 0.18, K 0.12, Ca 0.82, Mg 0.73, Na 0.76 and Al, 1.38%. The polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and heavy metals levels were below the standard Class 2 limits. The dioxin and furan were in below the standard concentration of Class 1. The most prominent peak in the (13)C-NMR spectra of RPMS was centered at 31 ppm, proving the presence of methylene (-CH2) groups in long aliphatic chains, with lipids and proteins. The signal at 89 ppm and highly shielded shoulder at 83 ppm were due to presence of cellulose carbon C-4, and the peak at 63 and 65 ppm was due to the cellulose carbon spectrum. The RPMS therefore contains significant amount of nutrients with safe levels of heavy metals and PAHs for environment and can be used as a fertilizer and soil amendment for land application.
The efficiency of the extraction and removal of pollutants from food and the environment has been an important issue in analytical science. By incorporating inorganic species into an organic matrix, a new material known as an organic-inorganic hybrid material is formed. As it possesses high selectivity, permeability, and mechanical and chemical stabilities, organic-inorganic hybrid materials constitute an emerging research field and have become popular to serve as sorbents in various separaton science methods. Here, we review recent significant advances in analytical solid-phase extraction employing organic-inorganic composite/nanocomposite sorbents for the extraction of organic and inorganic pollutants from various types of food and environmental matrices. The physicochemical characteristics, extraction properties, and analytical performances of sorbents are discussed; including morphology and surface characteristics, types of functional groups, interaction mechanism, selectivity and sensitivity, accuracy, and regeneration abilities. Organic-inorganic hybrid sorbents combined with extraction techniques are highly promising for sample preparation of various food and environmental matrixes with analytes at trace levels.
A novel adsorbent, palm fatty acid coated magnetic Fe3O4 nanoparticles (MNP-FA) was successfully synthesized with immobilization of the palm fatty acid onto the surface of MNPs. The successful synthesis of MNP-FA was further confirmed by X-Ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) and Energy dispersive X-Ray spectroscopy (EDX) analyses and water contact angle (WCA) measurement. This newly synthesized MNP-FA was applied as magnetic solid phase extraction (MSPE) adsorbent for the enrichment of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), namely fluoranthene (FLT), pyrene (Pyr), chrysene (Cry) and benzo(a)pyrene (BaP) from environmental samples prior to High Performance Liquid Chromatography- Diode Array Detector (HPLC-DAD) analysis. The MSPE method was optimized by several parameters such as amount of sorbent, desorption solvent, volume of desorption solvent, extraction time, desorption time, pH and sample volume. Under the optimized conditions, MSPE method provided a low detection limit (LOD) for FLT, Pyr, Cry and BaP in the range of 0.01-0.05 ng mL(-1). The PAHs recoveries of the spiked leachate samples ranged from 98.5% to 113.8% with the RSDs (n = 5) ranging from 3.5% to 12.2%, while for the spiked sludge samples, the recoveries ranged from 81.1% to 119.3% with the RSDs (n = 5) ranging from 3.1% to 13.6%. The recyclability study revealed that MNP-FA has excellent reusability up to five times. Chromatrographic analysis demonstrated the suitability of MNP-FA as MSPE adsorbent for the efficient extraction of PAHs from environmental samples.
With growing population and urbanization, there is an increasing exploitation of natural resources, and this often results to environmental pollution. In this review, the levels of heavy metal in lentic compartments (water, sediment, fishes, and aquatic plants) over the past two decades (1997-2017) have been summarized to evaluate the current pollution status of this ecosystem. In all the compartments, the heavy metals dominated are zinc followed by iron. The major reason could be area mineralogy and lithogenic sources. Enormous quantity of metals like iron in estuarine sediment is a very natural incident due to the permanently reducing condition of organic substances. Contamination of cadmium, lead, and chromium was closely associated with anthropogenic origin. In addition, surrounding land use and atmospheric deposition could have been responsible for substantial pollution. The accumulation of heavy metals in fishes and aquatic plants is the result of time-dependent deposition in lentic ecosystems. Moreover, various potential risk assessment methods for heavy metals were discussed. This review concludes that natural phenomena dominate the accumulation of essential heavy metals in lentic ecosystems compared to anthropogenic sources. Amongst other recent reviews on heavy metals from other parts of the world, the present review is executed in such a way that it explains the presence of heavy metals not only in water environment, but also in the whole of the lentic system comprising sediment, fishes, and aquatic plants.
The biosphere is polluted with metals due to burning of fossil fuels, pesticides, fertilizers, and mining. The metals interfere with soil conservations such as contaminating aqueous waste streams and groundwater, and the evidence of this has been recorded since 1900. Heavy metals also impact human health; therefore, the emancipation of the environment from these environmental pollutants is critical. Traditionally, techniques to remove these metals include soil washing, removal, and excavation. Metal-accumulating plants could be utilized to remove these metal pollutants which would be an alternative option that would simultaneously benefit commercially and at the same time clean the environment from these pollutants. Commercial application of pollutant metals includes biofortification, phytomining, phytoremediation, and intercropping. This review discusses about the metal-accumulating plants, mechanism of metal accumulation, enhancement of metal accumulation, potential commercial applications, research trends, and research progress to enhance the metal accumulation, benefits, and limitations of metal accumulators. The review identified that the metal accumulator plants only survive in low or medium polluted environments with heavy metals. Also, more research is required about metal accumulators in terms of genetics, breeding potential, agronomics, and the disease spectrum. Moreover, metal accumulators' ability to uptake metals need to be optimized by enhancing metal transportation, transformation, tolerance to toxicity, and volatilization in the plant. This review would benefit the industries and environment management authorities as it provides up-to-date research information about the metal accumulators, limitation of the technology, and what could be done to improve the metal enhancement in the future.
Charcoal production activities at the Matang Mangrove Forest Reserve (MMFR) in Peninsular Malaysia have a potential to emit volatile compounds such as Hg back into the ambient environment, raising concerns on the public health and safety. The present study was aimed at analyzing Hg concentration from different plant/animal tissues and sediment samples (in total 786 samples) to understand clearly the Hg distribution at the MMFR. Leaves of Rhizophora spp. showed higher Hg concentration with an increasing trend from young, to mature, to senescent and decomposing stages, which was possibly due to accumulation of Hg over time. The low Hg concentration in Rhizophora roots and bark suggests a limited absorption from the sediments and a meagre accumulation/partitioning by the plant tissue, respectively. In the case of mangrove cockles the concentration of Hg was lower than the permissible limits for seafood consumption. Although the mangrove gastropod - Cassidula aurisfelis Bruguière had rather elevated Hg in the muscle tissue, it is still less than the environmental safely limit. Beside the chances of atmospheric deposition for Hg, the sediment samples were found to be unpolluted in nature, indicating that in general the MMFR is still safe in terms of Hg pollution.
The Klang area of Peninsular Malaysia has experienced rapid industrial growth with intense activities, which can increase the concentration of pollutants in the environment that significantly impact on habitats and the human health. The purpose of this study was to determine the levels of selected heavy metals (Cu, Zn, Ni, Fe, and Pb) in the heart, lung, brain, liver, kidney, muscle tissues, and feathers of house crow, Corvus splendens, in Klang, Peninsular Malaysia. House crow samples were collected from the Klang area through the Department of Public Health at Majlis Perbandaran Klang. Quantitative determination of heavy metals was carried out using atomic absorption spectrophotometer (AAS). The result shows the presence of heavy metals in all biological samples of house crows. For heavy metals in all the house crow tissues analyzed, Fe concentrations were the highest, followed by those of Zn, Cu, Pb, and Ni. The feathers and kidney accumulated high concentrations of Pb, whereas the liver accumulated high concentrations of essential heavy metals (Fe > Zn > Cu > Ni). Significant variations were also detected in the concentrations of Pb among adult and juvenile and male and female bird samples. The results also revealed significant positive correlations between Pb metal concentration in the breast feathers and all internal organs. Accumulation of toxic heavy metals in feathers reflected storing and elimination processes, while the accumulation of toxic heavy metals in the kidney can be consequential to chronic exposure. The present study clearly shows the usefulness of house crow breast feather as a suitable indicator for heavy metal accumulation in the internal organs of house crows in the Klang area.
Malaysia is a developing country in Southeast Asia, with rapid industrial and economic growth. Speedy population growth and aggressive consumerism in the past five decades have resulted in environmental pollution issues, including products containing polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs). PCBs and PBDEs are classified as persistent organic pollutants (POPs) by the Stockholm Convention due to their persistence, bioaccumulation in the environment and toxicity to humans and wildlife. These compounds are known to cause liver dysfunction, thyroid toxicity, developmental neuro-toxicity and possibly cancer. PCBs in air, mussels, pellets, seawater, fresh water, and human breast milk samples were analyzed in Malaysia, while studies on the pollution level of PBDEs in Malaysia were conducted on mussels, soils, leachate and sediment samples. PCBs in breast milk collected from Malaysia was the highest among Asian developing countries, with mean concentration of 80 ng/g lipid weight. On the other hand, the mean concentration of PCBs in mussels collected from Malaysia recorded the second lowest, with 56 ng/g and 89 ng/g lipid weight in two studies respectively. The concentrations of PBDEs in mussels taken from Malaysia fall in the range of 0.84-16 ng/g lipid weight, which is considerably low compared to 104.5 ng/g lipid weight in Philippines and 90.59 ng/g in Korea. Nevertheless, there are limited studies on these compounds in Malaysia, particularly there is no research on PBDEs in breast milk and sediment samples. This review will summarize the contamination levels of PCBs and PBDEs in different samples collected from Asian countries since 1988 until 2010 with a focus on Malaysia and will provide needed information for further research in this field.
This work presents a study of human hair as a bio-indicator for detection of heavy metals as part of environmental health surveillance programs project to develop a subject of interest in the biomedical and environmental sciences. A total of 34 hair samples were analyzed that consisting of 29 samples from sanitation workers and five samples from students. The hair samples were prepared and treated in accordance to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) recommendations. The concentrations of heavy metals were analyzed using the energy dispersive X-ray fluorescence (EDXRF) technique by X-50 Mobile X-ray Fluorescence (XRF) at Oceanography Institute, Universiti Malaysia Terengganu. The performance of EDXRF analyzer was tested by Standard Reference Material (SRM 2711) Montana Soil which was in good agreement with certified value within 14% deviations except for Hg. While seven heavy metals: Mn, Fe, Ni, Cu, Zn, Se, and Sb were detected in both groups, three additional elements, i.e. As, Hg and Pb, were detected only in sanitation workers group. For sanitation workers group, the mean concentration of six elements, Mn, Fe, Cu, Zn, Se, and Sb, shows elevated concentration as compared to the control samples concentration. Results from both groups were compared and discussed in relation to their respective heavy metals concentrations.