Occupational exposure to paint solvents and particulate material in car repair shops

Aims: We evaluated solvents and total particulates exposures in auto body repair shops together with a search of painter's related complaints. Methods: 26 painters exposures were evaluated by pumped personal sampling; solvents were retained in charcoal sorbent tubes and the particulates in PVC filters. Painter's personal habits and their work characteristics were obtained through a questionnaire, applied in a private interview. For the symptoms the Q16 questionnaire was used, added of questions about complaints during the painting. Results: High exposures were detected during spray painting. For solvents, the TLV-STEL adjusted for the mixtures was surpassed in six evaluations. However, as repaint is a short-term operation, it makes the average concentrations weighed for the work shift lower than the TLV-TWA adjusted for the mixtures. Total particulate concentrations had surpassed the TLV-TWA in four of the evaluations. Symptoms frequency in the Q16 questionnaire was higher for painters than for the controls (Mann-Whitney test U=193; p=0.008), and they showed positive correlations with the age (Spearman r=0.354, t=1.85, p=0.076), the number of years in the profession (Spearman r=0.433, t=2.35, p=0.027) and the alcoholic beverage consumption (Spearman r=0.457, t=2.516, p=0.019). Conclusions: The painting work done at car repair shops can result in high solvent and particulate exposures, although they are short-term operations. Their acute and chronic effects for the painters do not have been clearly evidenced in the present study, continuing deserving multidisciplinary attention.

Amostragem da emissão de material particulado em ambientes externos

The concern of the society with regard to the pollution if becomes each bigger and necessary time. This pollution generates damage for who is in contact, as much in economic terms how much in quality of life. The particulate matter is one of the main polluting the air, being the most harmful to human health, fine particles and ultra fine (below 2.5 μm in diameter). With this, this work had as objective to mensurar the pollution of air for material particulado through samplings in an urban center, in a siderurgical industry, a conventional coal bunker and a forest fire. The equipment used for the sampling of particles had been the DataRam4 (model DR 4000) and the Impactador de Andersen, both developed by company THERMO SCIENTIFIC. The first equipment uses a system of nefelometry and the second uses a gravimetrical system of sampling. During the carried through samplings, it can be observed in some cases the difficulty in the breath, badly be and low visibility that this type of pollutant can cause. In most cases the results were disturbing. In industry, conventional coal bunker and in the forest were measured values high concentration for particles smaller diameters. Peak concentrations issued were: 40,000 μg/m³, 182,000 μg/m³ and 400,000 μg/m³ for the industry, conventional coal bunker and forest, respectively. Already in the urban centre were satisfactory results, always staying within the limit allowed by the rules in force so far in the country

Ecological impacts from syngas burning in internal combustion engine: Technical and economic aspects

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

Atmospheric pollution effects on childhood health: an environmental study in the Paraíba Valley

OBJETIVOS: estimar as correlações entre os níveis de poluentes atmosféricos e o número de internações por doença respiratória em crianças, em hospital universitário. MÉTODOS: trata-se de um estudo ecológico de série temporal. Os dados sobre poluentes atmosféricos foram obtidos junto à CETESB e os dados sobre internação hospitalar, junto ao SAME do Hospital Universitário de Taubaté, Brasil. O estudo se refere a dados e internação do ano de 2001. Para estudar as correlações dos valores dos poluentes entre si e entre as internações, utilizou-se da técnica de correlação de Pearson. Foram estimados os riscos relativos para internação por doença respiratória comparando os quartis dos agentes poluentes com os valores do primeiro quartil. A significância estatística adotada foi alfa = 5%. RESULTADOS: foram internadas 158 crianças com doença respiratória no ano de 2001 (30% do total de internações no ano). Os poluentes estiveram correlacionados entre si e houve correlação positiva, entre o número de internação e dióxido de enxofre e material particulado; houve aumento de 25% no risco de internação comparando o quarto quartil e o primeiro quartil. CONCLUSÕES: houve correlação positiva entre número de internações por doenças respiratórias e poluentes atmosféricos.

Pre-harvest sugarcane burning: Determination of emission factors through laboratory measurements

Sugarcane is an important crop for the Brazilian economy and roughly 50% of its production is used to produce ethanol. However, the common practice of pre-harvest burning of sugarcane straw emits particulate material, greenhouse gases, and tropospheric ozone precursors to the atmosphere. Even with policies to eliminate the practice of pre-harvest sugarcane burning in the near future, there is still significant environmental damage. Thus, the generation of reliable inventories of emissions due to this activity is crucial in order to assess their environmental impact. Nevertheless, the official Brazilian emissions inventory does not presently include the contribution from pre-harvest sugarcane burning. In this context, this work aims to determine sugarcane straw burning emission factors for some trace gases and particulate material smaller than 2.5μm in the laboratory. Excess mixing ratios for CO2, CO, NOX, UHC (unburned hydrocarbons), and PM2.5 were measured, allowing the estimation of their respective emission factors. Average estimated values for emission factors (g kg-1 of burned dry biomass) were 1,303 ± 218 for CO2, 65 ± 14 for CO, 1.5 ± 0.4 for NOX, 16 ± 6 for UHC, and 2.6 ± 1.6 for PM2.5. These emission factors can be used to generate more realistic emission inventories and therefore improve the results of air quality models. © 2012 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.

Hidrocarbonetos policíclicos aromáticos e outras substâncias orgânicas na combustão de madeira para produção de carvão e em particulado atmosférico da cidade de Campo Grande /MS

Pós-graduação em Química - IQ

Biodiesel de mamona no diesel interior e metropolitano em trator agrícola

A demanda de recursos energéticos pelos sistemas de produção, aliada à escassez dos combustíveis fósseis, tem motivado a produção do Biodiesel, que é um combustível obtido de fontes renováveis. O objetivo deste trabalho foi realizar dois ensaios: o primeiro dinâmico, para avaliar o desempenho operacional utilizando como parâmetro o consumo de combustível, e o segundo, estático, para mensurar a opacidade da fumaça (material particulado) do motor de um trator agrícola, operando com diesel metropolitano e interior misturados ao Biodiesel de mamona, em sete proporções. O trabalho foi conduzido no Departamento de Engenharia Rural da UNESP/Jaboticabal - SP. Os resultados mostraram que o tipo de diesel influenciou no consumo de combustível e na opacidade da fumaça, sendo o diesel metropolitano de melhor qualidade; observou-se, também, que à medida que a proporção de Biodiesel aumentou, o mesmo ocorreu para o consumo de combustível; entretanto, a opacidade da fumaça reduziu com o acréscimo de Biodiesel até B75.

Combined cycle versus one thousand diesel power plants: pollutant emissions, ecological efficiency and economic analysis

The increase in the use of natural gas in Brazil has stimulated public and private sectors to analyse the possibility of using combined cycle systems for generation of electrical energy. Gas turbine combined cycle power plants are becoming increasingly common due to their high efficiency, short lead times, and ability to meet environmental standards. Power is produced in a generator linked directly to the gas turbine. The gas turbine exhaust gases are sent to a heat recovery steam generator to produce superheated steam that can be used in a steam turbine to produce additional power. In this paper a comparative study between a 1000 MW combined cycle power plant and 1000 kW diesel power plant is presented. In first step, the energetic situation in Brazil, the needs of the electric sector modification and the needs of demand management and integrated means planning are clarified. In another step the characteristics of large and small thermoelectric power plants that use natural gas and diesel fuel, respectively, are presented. The ecological efficiency levels of each type of power plant is considered in the discussion, presenting the emissions of particulate material, sulphur dioxide (SO2), carbon dioxide (CO2) and nitrogen oxides (NOx). (c) 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Determination of ecological efficiency in internal combustion engines: The use of biodiesel

This paper evaluates and quantifies the environmental impact from the use of some renewable fuels and fossils fuels in internal combustion engines. The following fuels are evaluated: gasoline blended with anhydrous ethyl alcohol (anhydrous ethanol), conventional diesel fuel, biodiesel in pure form and blended with diesel fuel, and natural gas. For the case of biodiesel, its complete life cycle and the closed carbon cycle (photosynthesis) were considered. The ecological efficiency concept depends on the environmental impact caused by CO(2), SO(2), NO(x) and particulate material (PM) emissions. The exhaust gases from internal combustion engines, in the case of the gasoline (blended with alcohol), biodiesel and biodiesel blended with conventional diesel, are the less polluting; on the other hand, the most polluting are those related to conventional diesel. They can cause serious problems to the environment because of their dangerous components for the human, animal and vegetable life. The resultant pollution of each one of the mentioned fuels are analyzed, considering separately CO(2), SO(2), NO(x) and particulate material (PM) emissions. As conclusion, it is possible to calculate an environmental factor that represents, qualitatively and quantitative, the emissions in internal combustion engines that are mostly used in urban transport. Biodiesel in pure form (B100) and blended with conventional diesel as fuel for engines pollute less than conventional diesel fuel. The ecological efficiency for pure biodiesel (B100) is 86.75%: for biodiesel blended with conventional diesel fuel (B20, 20% biodiesel and 80% diesel), it is 78.79%. Finally, the ecological efficiency for conventional diesel, when used in engines, is 77.34%; for gasoline, it is 82.52%, and for natural gas, it is 91.95%. All these figures considered a thermal efficiency of 30% for the internal combustion engine. Crown Copyright (C) 2008 Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Performance of an Anaerobic Baffled Reactor (ABR) in treatment of cassava wastewater

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Sedimentation rates of tripton in Jurumirim Reservoir (São Paulo, Brazil)

Sedimentation rates of particulate material and some physicochemical parameters of water were determined in October, January, April and July 1990-91 at seven stations in the Jurumirim Reservoir (São Paulo, Brazil), three located in the Paranapanema arm, three in the Taquari arm and one near the dam. Higher sedimentation rates of tripton were found in the Paranapanema arm, followed by those from the Taquari arm and the dam. Suspended matter (2.5-48.7 mg · 1-1) and chlorophyll-a (0.7-8.1 mg · m-3) concentrations in the Paranapanema arm were in general higher resulting in lower water transparency (0.3-1.7m) than in the Taquari arm. Temporal and spatial variations in the tripton sedimentation rates were mainly influenced by allochthonous input at the stations near the river mouth. The settling fluxes at station near the dam of the reservoir were affected rather by a small autochthonous production (65 g C ass m-2 ;yr-1), indicated by a higher organic content (64-87%). Therefore, sedimentation rates measured by bottom traps were affected by sediment ressuspension especially at isothermal conditions. With respect to sedimentation, the riverine, the transition and the lacustrine zones commonly found in reservoires could be distinguished. The extent of the riverine zone in each arm of the Jurumirim Reservoir depends on the seasonal change of allochthonous input.

Utilização de macrófitas aquáticas flutuantes no tratamento de efluentes de carcinicultura

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

Tratamento de efluentes de piscicultura utilizando sistema tipo wetland povoado com espécies de macrófitas aquáticas de três tipos ecológicos diferentes

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Simulação computacional de gaseificação de madeira de pequeno prte empregando um gaseificador downdraft

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

Vitrocerâmicas de alta resistência mecânica obtidas a partir da cristalização do sistema SiO2-Al2O3-MgO-Li2O com adição de ZrO2 e B2O3

Pós-graduação em Engenharia Mecânica - FEG