American Journal of Environmental Sciences最新文献

{"title":"Willingness to Pay for Water Hyacinth Control in Nepal","authors":"Umesh Khatri, R. Thapa-Parajuli, U. Paudel","doi":"10.3844/AJESSP.2018.226.233","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3844/AJESSP.2018.226.233","url":null,"abstract":"Water Hyacinth (WH) has become a growing problem across Asia, specifically in Nepal. Infestations of this weed have reached critical proportions in freshwater bodies, causing environmental, economic, agricultural and social problems. These problems have corresponding monetary values. This study elicits the willingness of visitors and local people to control WH in the Phewa Lake in Nepal. Considering three scenarios encircling different socio-economic variables, we estimated the people’s willingness to pay for cleaning WH from the lake. Willingness to Pay (WTP), befitting contingent valuation method, was employed using 13 sample points to capture heterogeneity. We estimated Logit regression coefficients to achieve the elasticity of the demand curve. The findings reveal that the mean WTP for the first scenario, to remove the WH for one year, was NPR 920.51. Similarly, the mean WTP for the second scenario, representing the minimum annual impact, was NPR 717.38 only. Finally, mean WTP for the third scenario that keeps the impact at a low level in the lake for ten years was NPR 1848.17. Based on the preference of beneficiaries and the level of WTP for different scenarios, Nepal government should first prioritize on keeping very low impact of the weed in the lake rather than removing WH from the lake at once to yields highest possible benefit from the lake. Number of visit, assistance and expenditure are the pertinent factors to offset the WTP of beneficiaries which were significant at 5% level of significance. Moreover, the estimated demand curve is relatively inelastic meaning that small increase in beneficiary’s utility lead to big marginal increase in WTP of visitors and local people.","PeriodicalId":7487,"journal":{"name":"American Journal of Environmental Sciences","volume":"19 4 1","pages":"226-233"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"78302993","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Utilization of Banana, Pineapple and Watermelon Wastes-Substrate: As Consortiums to Remediating Cyanide Polluted Soil","authors":"F. O. Nduka, Samuel Chibuike Ubani, V. Okpashi, N. Nwankwo, Sandra A. Gometi, B. C. Nwaso, O. Nwodo","doi":"10.3844/AJESSP.2018.77.85","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3844/AJESSP.2018.77.85","url":null,"abstract":"The act of processing cassava for varied food products has come with unguided and wide-spread contamination of cyanide in the environment. The need for effective reduction in cost to enable remediation of cyanide-contaminated sites from cassava mill factories is the purpose of this investigation. This involves bio-stimulation of organic wastes with indigenous microorganisms to degrade cyanide. The application of organic wastes as a substrate for the removal of cyanide was adopted. Banana, pineapple, and watermelon wastes were selected and bio-stimulated in cyanide contaminated soil. Each set-up containing 100 g of Cassava Mill Effluent (CME) contaminated soil was added with varied percent - 1, 5 and 10% of pineapple, banana, and watermelon waste, respectively. The monitoring of cyanide reduction was studied for 28 days. Periodic collection of soil samples from each set-up was done at four days interval to determine total cyanide concentration, total heterotrophic bacteria, and enzymes activities. Results indicated that after 28 days of applying the 10% watermelon, 5% pineapple and 1% banana waste, the 10% watermelon waste gave a better cyanide reduction compared to pineapple and watermelon waste treatment. The one phase-decay equation of 1% - banana, 5% - pineapple and 10% - watermelon waste treatment gave the shortest disintegration rate. The soil physicochemical properties, agro waste, microbial population, soil enzymes activities, soil microbial respirometric index, the bio-parameters sensitivity, carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus were determined. The first order kinetics model revealed by the nth order algorithm; pineapple waste treated soil had the highest reduction rate - 0.9098/day of CME with half-life - 6.98 days. The 1% banana and 10% watermelon treated soil samples have the cyanide reduction rates - 0.9315/day and 0.8997/day. The cyanide reduction rate was significantly higher than the untreated contaminated CME (control) soil - 0.8975/day. The microbial counts and the three agrowaste treatment samples increase in day 4-16 (2.20×108 to 6.40×108 CFU/g) for 5% - pineapple; 1% - banana increased from 20×108 to 8.90×108 CFU/g (day 20 - 28) and 10% - banana increased -1.20×108 to 8.70×108 CFU/g (day 4-20); 1% - watermelon increased from 8.40×108 to 8.80×108 CFU/g (day 20-24) and 10% watermelon increased from -8.10×108 to 8.70×108 CFU/g (day 24-28), than the control which showed increase from 3.40×108–7.20×108 CFU/g (day 4-12) during the 28 days of remediation study. Soil organic carbon content gave a positive correlation with microbial biomass, carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus, as well as microbial population, basal soil respiration and soil enzyme - catalase, lipase, dehydrogenase, urease and phosphatase activity. Soil contamination decreased (p<0.05) catalase, urease and dehydrogenase activities in all the waste treated soil compared to the control set-up. Owing to the use of this agro-waste-banana, pineapple and watermelon has proved to b","PeriodicalId":7487,"journal":{"name":"American Journal of Environmental Sciences","volume":"12 1","pages":"77-85"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-04-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"87107362","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"A Review of Effects of Environmental Change on Human Health","authors":"U. Paudel","doi":"10.3844/AJESSP.2018.95.109","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3844/AJESSP.2018.95.109","url":null,"abstract":"Current knowledge production on the effects of environmental exposures on human health reflects technological, social and economic development broadly; theoretical and methodological advancements in social science and medicine more specifically. Human health and the welfare mainly rely on refurbishing and protecting the integrity of the natural systems such as fresh air, safe water, biodiversity, toxic waste management and proper land reform which upkeep life in the natural environment and abating the human impact that has a negative impact on ecologically sustainable development. A massive number of scientific evidence are available in the enlightenment of environmental health issues, however, scanty literatures are found covering economically valued effects of environmental change on communicable and non-communicable diseases. Ergo, this review paper has reviewed selected papers from 1990 to 2018 and tried to identify the research gaps in effect within some components of environmental health economic issues in South Asia and Nepal. More importantly, nationally representative economic evaluation of environmental effects (air pollution, water resource management, toxic pollutants and biodiversity loss) on human infectious and non-infectious diseases are the lack for the policymakers and economic evaluation of effects of climate change on health is the unreached area of researchers in Nepal. Moreover, none of the Nepal based scientific papers are found published regarding the association of climate change with malnutrition, rate of chemical exposure to dare human health and human stress including psychosocial factors Obtaining these unreached literatures are worthy of climate policy development and implementation in developing countries associating with universal health coverage.","PeriodicalId":7487,"journal":{"name":"American Journal of Environmental Sciences","volume":"137 1","pages":"95-109"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-04-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"73216699","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Determining the Hazardous Medical Waste Generation Rates of Private Health Care Facilities-Case Study from Dhaka City of Bangladesh","authors":"Md. Yousuf Rumi, R. Karim","doi":"10.3844/AJESSP.2018.203.211","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3844/AJESSP.2018.203.211","url":null,"abstract":"Many developing countries are lagging behind the developed countries to properly manage their hazardous healthcare waste. These waste pose a significant epidemiological risks to the general people. To estimate the epidemiological risks and to establish parameters of any waste management plan, quantitative estimation of healthcare waste generation is essential. Most researches on quantitative estimation of healthcare wastes to date, have not addressed the differences in waste generation trends between the government and private healthcare sectors. This study was carried out to estimate the hazardous healthcare waste generation from private healthcare sector of Bangladesh; with a future aim do the same for government healthcare sector. A total of 50 privates healthcare facilities of different categories from Dhaka North City Corporation (DNCC) and Dhaka South City Corporation (DSCC) were selected for this study following a random sampling technique. Secondary data was obtained from PRISM Bangladesh (PRISM Bangladesh Foundation is a non-profit voluntary development organization established in 1989. In the context of environmental management, PRISM Bangladesh operates in different areas of Bangladesh with the assistance and support of UN organizations such as UNDP, UNICEF, UNDRO and UNCDF.) for these 50 healthcare facilities and personal visits to waste treatment sites were made. The estimated the hazardous healthcare waste generation rate for the private healthcare sector was found to be 0.17 kg bed-1 day-1 on per patient per day basis and an overall of 6796 kg daily. The estimated waste quantity and the proportion of hazardous healthcare waste to total healthcare waste was found to vary significantly due to different parameters related to the type and size of healthcare facility, seasonal variation etc. Based on the findings of this research, more accurate strategic planning of waste management systems for developing countries can be established by governments and municipal authorities to reduce the epidemiological risks.","PeriodicalId":7487,"journal":{"name":"American Journal of Environmental Sciences","volume":"43 1","pages":"203-211"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-04-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"88092839","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Climate Impacts and Adaptation Strategies of the Bangladeshi Coastal Communities","authors":"E. Alam","doi":"10.3844/AJESSP.2018.195.202","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3844/AJESSP.2018.195.202","url":null,"abstract":"Bangladesh is considered one of the most vulnerable countries to climate variability, fluctuation and extreme climatic events. Bangladeshi coastal communities are continuously adopting self-instinct survival strategies in order to cope with changing climatic conditions. This paper discusses the impact of climate change on livelihoods and documents current and future adaptation strategies of the Bangladeshi coastal communities from documentary sources. Later, it undertook validation processes of these finding by field visits, observations and Focus Group Discussions (FGDs). The findings suggest that climate change effects on local community may include, but not limited to, livelihood, migration and health in Bangladesh. To offset the effects of extreme climatic events, vulnerable communities are often forced to migrate within the country. The findings of the research indicate that those who migrated to another area were able to secure new places to reside but in locations that made them susceptible to other forms of disaster.","PeriodicalId":7487,"journal":{"name":"American Journal of Environmental Sciences","volume":"17 1","pages":"195-202"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-04-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"74239276","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Effect of Ecological Factors on Snails Infection by Schistosoma japonicum in Central Sulawesi, Indonesia","authors":"Sutrisnawati Mardin, T. W. Sardjono, L. Fitri, Aulanniam, Achmad Ramadhan","doi":"10.3844/AJESSP.2018.55.62","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3844/AJESSP.2018.55.62","url":null,"abstract":"In Central Sulawesi, Napu valley and Lindu Lake (Indonesia), Schistosoma are spread in the host snails (Oncomelania hupensis lindoensis).  In the present work, the influence of ecological factors on the spreading of Schistosoma japonicum cercariae infection in the snails were analyzed. The Oncomelania hupensis lindoensis snails were collected and analyzed by ring method in the form of graphs and matrices. The results showed that, the ecological environment and such as temperature, pH, humidity, light  intensity, dissolved oxygen, and salinity, as well as food, have significant effect on the increase of cercariae infected snails. These results also reflect that Schistosomiasis  is still a health problem that could potentially be re-emerging diseases, especially in those areas and therefore much interesting must considered to break their cycle in nature.","PeriodicalId":7487,"journal":{"name":"American Journal of Environmental Sciences","volume":"110 1","pages":"55-62"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-04-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"81252840","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Geochemistry of Siloam and Tshipise Geothermal Springs, Limpopo Province, South Africa","authors":"O. S. Durowoju, J. Odiyo, Georges-Ivo Ekosse","doi":"10.3844/AJESSP.2018.63.76","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3844/AJESSP.2018.63.76","url":null,"abstract":"Geothermal springs are natural geological phenomena that occur throughout the world, and South Africa (SA) is endowed with several springs of this nature. Most of the geothermal springs in SA (31%) are found in Limpopo Province. Assessment of geochemistry of Siloam and Tshipise geothermal springs were undertaken during 2014 winter (May – July) and summer (October – December) seasons. Water samples were collected from the springs and stored at low temperatures (+/- 4°C) for analysis of hydrochemical parameters and acidification was carried out before trace metals analyses. The results show that Siloam and Tshipise geothermal springs water are not suitable for drinking due to high pH, high fluoride concentrations and some metals such as Hg, Ni and Pb. Various index methods such as Sodium Percentage (SP), Sodium Absorption Ration (SAR), Residual Sodium Carbonate (RSC), Permeability Index (PI), Kelly’s index (KR) and Electrical Conductivity (EC) were used to evaluate groundwater quality for irrigation and most of the index has a similar result. Hence, the spring water is suitable for irrigation purposes. The water type is Na-Cl in both seasons for both site except for Siloam in winter having Na-HCO3. There were slight variations in the hydrochemical compositions of geothermal spring water, although they were not significant (p>0.05). However, there were significant differences in mean trace elements concentrations in geothermal spring water in summer compared to winter season (p<0.1) for both Siloam and Tshipise springs. This can be attributed to the rainfall in summer which aids in more dissociation of rock particles and the release of more trace elements. Variations in mean trace elements concentrations could also be linked to the differences in fundamental changes in water chemistry from deep sources of the geothermal springs. It has thus been established and/or inferred that the dominant processes controlling the geothermal water are geothermal gradient, silicate weathering, mineral dissolution, cation exchange and inverse cation exchange.","PeriodicalId":7487,"journal":{"name":"American Journal of Environmental Sciences","volume":"15 1","pages":"63-76"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-03-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"81851622","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Effect of Climate Change on Sal (Shorea robusta Gaertn. f.) Forest of Kumaun Himalaya","authors":"Sanjay Kumar, N. Chopra","doi":"10.3844/AJESSP.2018.185.194","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3844/AJESSP.2018.185.194","url":null,"abstract":"Phenophase of three common co-occuring woody plant species that varied in stature (tree Vs shrub) were examined in a sal forest of Kumaun Himalaya. The significance of phonological research lies in the fact that it constitutes a synthetic approach to evaluating plant response to the local environment. Monthly counts of leaves, flowers, fruits and shoot measurement were made on 150 tagged twigs on ten individuals of each species for initiation, completion and duration of different phenological events. In all species, leaves emerged during March-May on the onset of warm and dry summer season. Across all the species, peak leaf area per shoot (9.87-179.14 cm2), leaf extension period (5-7 weeks), shoot extension growth (9.23-20.11 cm), shoot extension period (24-25 weeks) varied considerably. A significant relationship was found between shoot diameter, shoot length and leaf area extension across all species. Increasing day length/temperature induce flowering in S. robusta and M. paniculata during hot dry summer and the first heavy rain in month of August act as a flowering cue in M. philippinensis during the rainy season.","PeriodicalId":7487,"journal":{"name":"American Journal of Environmental Sciences","volume":"15 1","pages":"185-194"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-03-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"82017066","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Health Risk Assessment of Heavy Metals Contamination in Edible Fish Species from the Barekese Reservoir in Kumasi, Ghana","authors":"Eric Gyimah, O. Akoto, Collins Nimako","doi":"10.3844/OFSP.11839","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3844/OFSP.11839","url":null,"abstract":"Heavy metals pollution and it resultant accumulation to toxic levels in the Barekese Reservoir may threaten human health through the consumption of fish from the Reservoir. The presence and concentrations of arsenic and some other heavy metals (Hg, Pb, Ni, Cr, and Cd) were determined in muscle tissues of widely distributed and highly consumed fish species from the Barekese reservoir using Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometry. A total of 45 fish samples comprising three species (Oreochromis niloticus, Tilapia zilli and Heterotis niloticus) were analyzed for their metals levels. Heavy metals concentrations (mg/kg, w.w) recorded showed varying trends of detection among muscle tissues of selected fish species. However, Hg, Ni, Cr and Cd were detected in muscle tissues of all fish species examined in the study. Indices for non-carcinogenic and carcinogenic risks were estimated for children and adult upon their consumption of fish from the Reservoir. Results of the study indicated a significant levels of exposure to Hg, Ni, Cr and Cd through the consumption of fish species from the Reservoir. Health risk assessment also revealed that children are at a relatively higher non-carcinogenic risk through the consumption of metals in Heterotis niloticus whiles the consumption of Cr from all examined fish species from the Reservoir could pose cancer risk health effects to humans with adults being at a higher risk. The present study therefore concludes that anthropogenic activities along the Offin River and within the Reservoir’s catchments are deteriorating the quality of fish from the Reservoir and could pose a significant adverse health risk to consumers.","PeriodicalId":7487,"journal":{"name":"American Journal of Environmental Sciences","volume":"74 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-03-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"88959780","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Sulfur Dioxide (So 2 ) and Heavy Metals Accumulation in Soils around Oil Refineries: Case Study from Three Southern Oil Refineries in the State of Kuwait","authors":"Laila S. Gharib, M. A. Sarawi","doi":"10.3844/AJESSP.2018.12.43","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3844/AJESSP.2018.12.43","url":null,"abstract":"Geochemical and statistical analysis of Sulfur dioxide, Total Organic Carbon (TOC) and heavy metal pollutants (Pb, Cd, Zn, Cu, Ni, Fe, Mn, Cr and V) was conducted to soil samples around major oil refineries (Mina Ahmadi, Mina Abdullah and Shuaiba), industries and scanty residential areas in Al-Ahmadi governorate at the southern region of the State of Kuwait. High level of SO2 was found in soil samples of the adjacent area of the refineries (15,000-23,000) ug g-1 and TOC ranging between 0.01 to 1.62 μg g-1 in the soil samples. Furthermore, trace metal analysis in sediment samples revealed high metal levels in the sequence of Fe (17.153 μg g-1) > Zn (151.08 μg g-1) > Ni (112.78 μg g-1) > Pb (27.71 μg g-1) > Mn (404.27 μg g-1) > Cd (0.08 μg g-1) > Cu (23.79 μg g-1) > Cr (56.23 μg g-1) > V (36.53 μg g-1). Cr and V were within the permissible limit. Accordingly, the soil analysis demonstrated that the area around Mina Abdullah refinery was the most polluted area and Shuaiba refinery was the least polluted area, indicating the significance of pollution due to the increase of emissions from the refineries and factories in the area. The level of pollution is alarming, health effected and environmental monitoring is highly recommended.","PeriodicalId":7487,"journal":{"name":"American Journal of Environmental Sciences","volume":"39 1","pages":"12-43"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-03-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"80931616","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}