Avaliação do gerenciamento e disposição final dos resíduos químicos de laboratórios do IGCE, UNESP - Rio Claro/SP

Laboratory of Chemical Waste Management programs are being implemented in various universities of the country and the world, in recognition of the urgent need to change the reality of disregard for the environment, together with objective responsibility of the generator, and especially the awareness of sustainability. Analysis and research laboratories involve a range of waste in developing their studies with intrinsic characteristics related to their form of generation. The amount of waste generated in this segment is negligible compared to industrial activities, but the environmental issue is that these residues do not have a standard technique for treatment due to the potential variation of its composition. This research project, aiming their suitability and continuous improvement, aims to diagnose and analyze the current situation of the management and disposal of chemical waste generated by the laboratories IGCE UNESP, Campus Rio Claro / SP. Universities, through their research, teaching and extension, end up generating potentially hazardous chemicals that may contaminate the environment when they are disposed of improperly, with no concern for the environment and / or public health. Aiming to assist in improvements with respect to this issue, the purpose of this study is to understand the management and disposal of chemical waste from the IGCE, laboratories UNESP - Rio Claro / SP, in order to discuss the situation of such waste, and present proposals to reduce generation of the same and minimizing the environmental impact, thereby increasing the local hygiene through proper disposal. The research instrument used interviews, questionnaires, review of recent literature and observations were made in order to develop proposals for the management and disposal of waste. These proposals based on prevention and corrective control, where the preventive approach aims at lifting techniques and actions to reduce the generating sources and...

Could handling and acclimatization affect biomarker responses in oysters?

The aim of this study was to investigate whether handling and acclimatization could affect the biomarker responses in oysters Crassostrea gigas. Adult oysters were sampled in a farming area, subjected to handling stress during two hours (shell cleaning and transport), and then acclimatized in laboratory for 2, 3 and 4 weeks. Groups of five oysters were sampled before and after the handling (T0 and T1, respectively), and after 2, 3 and 4 weeks acclimatization. During the acclimatization, water was renewed daily, food given twice a day and temperature and salinity maintained at 22 °C and 25 ppt, respectively. One group, in another tank, was kept in similar conditions and was exposed for 1 week to 0.1 % diesel after the 2-weeks acclimatization period. After exposure, gills were immediately frozen in liquid N 2 for biochemical analyses. Higher expression of heat-shock proteins (HSP70) was observed after handling, and after acclimatization periods of 3-week and 4-week, compared to the T0 group. The diesel exposed group did not show elevated levels of HSP70, when compared to the 3-week acclimatized group. The activity of glutathione S-transferase (GST) was unchanged after handling, but was lower after all acclimatization periods, compared to the T0 group. Exposure to diesel caused an increase in GST activity compared to the 3-week acclimatized group, but not compared to T0. The activity of catalase (CAT), acetylcholinesterase (AChE), and the MDA levels remained unchanged during the whole experiment. These results point to the need of a special care in laboratory and field experiments employing HSP70 and GST as biomarkers. (Supported by CNPq-CTPetro to ACDB.). © 2008 Published by Elsevier Ltd.