A new home-made diffusive bag-type passive sampler called Lanwatsu was developed for benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene and xylene monitoring in roadside air. The passive samplers were outdoor validated and deployed together with two commercial passive samplers, Ultra I SKC Inc. and Radiello, for daily roadside air monitoring in East Asian cities including HoChiMinh, Hanoi, Cantho, Danang, Vungtau, Hue (Vietnam), Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia), Kyoto, Osaka (Japan), Nanjing (China) and Singapore in 2011. High daily benzene concentrations of 87, 52, 32, 23, 13, 12 and 48 µg/m³ were observed in HoChiMinh, Hanoi, Cantho, Danang, Hue, Vung Tau (Vietnam), and Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia), respectively. Kyoto and Osaka (Japan) were clean with daily benzene concentrations below 2.3 μg/m³. The daily benzene concentrations in Nanjing (China) and Singapore were 5.6 and 6.9 μg/m³, respectively. The three passive samplers were equivalent. Passive sampling by the Lanwatsu passive sampler is acceptable for daily outdoor benzene monitoring.
The present study reported the improvement of biological treatment for the removal of recalcitrant dyes including aniline blue, reactive black 5, orange II, and crystal violet in contaminated water. The biodegradation efficiency of Fusarium oxysporum was significantly enhanced by the addition of mediators and by adjusting the biomass density and nutrient composition. A supplementation of 1% glucose in culture medium improved the biodegradation efficiency of aniline blue, reactive black 5, orange II, and crystal violet by 2.24, 1.51, 4.46, and 2.1 folds, respectively. Meanwhile, the addition of mediators to culture medium significantly increased the percentages of total removal for aniline blue, reactive black 5, orange II, and crystal violet, reaching 86.07%, 68.29%, 76.35%, and 95.3%, respectively. Interestingly, the fungal culture supplemented with 1% remazol brilliant blue R boosted the biodegradation up to 97.06%, 89.86%, 91.38%, and 86.67% for aniline blue, reactive black 5, orange II, and crystal violet, respectively. Under optimal culture conditions, the fungal culture could degrade these synthetic dyes concentration up to 104 mg/L. The present study demonstrated that different recalcitrant dye types can be efficiently degraded using microorganism such as F. oxysporum.