Laboratory Equipment

Pollution-Extracting Plants Clean Soil

There are ways to clean heavy-metal-polluted soil, according scientists that attended a two-day forum in Beijing. A total of 300 soil scientists and ecology experts attended the 2012 Forum on Heavy Metal Soil Remediation and Ecological Restoration.

Chen Tongbin, researcher with Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources research under Chinese Academy of Sciences says, “Heavy metals, different from organic pollutants, are non-biodegradable and can’t be separated from the polluted soil. They can cause serious pollution to farmland and drinking water.” Chen’s team is running a project to clean polluted soil in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region by using the Chinese fern, Pteris vittata L that has a strong capacity to extract arsenic from the soil.

Read more: http://www.laboratoryequipment.com/news-Pollution-Extracting-Plants-Clean-Soil-060112.aspx

Not All Kitchen Fans Effective

Here’s the recipe from a new study for minimizing indoor air pollution from cooking – which can produce levels of indoor air pollution higher than those encountered in heavily polluted outdoor air: turn on the range exhaust fan and cook on the back burners. The study appears in ACS’ journal Environmental Science & Technology.

Brett Singer and William Delp, from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, explain that cooking with gas burners on stovetops and in ovens can produce unhealthy levels of indoor air pollution. Exhaust fans mounted in hoods over cooktops and downdraft systems that suck air directly from the cooking surface can remove those pollutants. These systems vary widely in price, loudness, power consumption and effectiveness in removing pollution. But the authors note that there is no rating standard to help consumers know which hood is best at capturing pollutants. They set out to measure the performances of seven different over-the-range hood designs.

Read more: http://www.laboratoryequipment.com/news-Not-All-Kitchen-Fans-Effective-in-Removing-Exhaust-053112.aspx

Molecular Sieve Helps Fukushima Cleanup

A Sandia National Laboratories technology has been used to remove radioactive material from more than 43 million gallons of contaminated wastewater at Japan’s damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. Sandia researchers had worked around the clock following the March 2011 disaster to show the technology worked in seawater, which was pumped in to cool the plant’s towers.

“It’s the kind of thing that sends a chill,” says Mark Rigali, manager of the geochemistry group at Sandia. “We’ve helped really make a difference in the world. These are the kinds of successes we want to see with all our intellectual property.”

Read more: http://www.laboratoryequipment.com/news-Molecular-Sieve-Helps-Fukushima-Cleanup-053012.aspx

Beetle-Ridden Pine Trees Contribute to Forests’ Haze

The hordes of bark beetles that have bored their way through more than 6 billion trees in the western U.S. and British Columbia since the 1990s do more than damage and kill stately pine, spruce and other trees. A new study finds that these pests can make trees release up to 20 times more of the organic substances that foster haze and air pollution in forested areas. It appears in ACS’ journal Environmental Science & Technology.

Read more: http://www.laboratoryequipment.com/news-Beetle-Ridden-Pine-Trees-Contribute-to-Haze-in-Forests-052412.aspx

Pollution Intensifies Thunderstorms, Warms Atmosphere

Pollution is warming the atmosphere through summer thunderstorm clouds, according to a computational study published in Geophysical Research Letters. How much the warming effect of these clouds offsets the cooling that other clouds provide is not yet clear. To find out, researchers need to incorporate this new-found warming into global climate models.

Pollution strengthens thunderstorm clouds, causing their anvil-shaped tops to spread out high in the atmosphere and capture heat — especially at night, says lead author and climate researcher Jiwen Fan of the Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.

Read more: http://www.laboratoryequipment.com/news-Pollution-Intensifies-Thunderstorms-Warms-Atmosphere-052112.aspx

Plastic Litter in the Ocean is Underestimated

While working on a research sailboat gliding over glassy seas in the Pacific Ocean, oceanographer Giora Proskurowski noticed something new: The water was littered with confetti-size pieces of plastic debris, until the moment the wind picked up and most of the particles disappeared.

After taking samples of water at a depth of 16 feet (5 meters), Proskurowski, a researcher at the Univ. of Washington, discovered that wind was pushing the lightweight plastic particles below the surface. That meant that decades of research into how much plastic litters the ocean, conducted by skimming only the surface, may in some cases vastly underestimate the true amount of plastic debris in the oceans, Proskurowski says.

Read more: http://www.laboratoryequipment.com/news-Wind-Pushes-Plastic-Deep-Distorts-Pollution-Estimates-043012.aspx

Air Pollution Linked to Early Death in the U.K.

In a study appearing this month in the journal Environmental Science and Technology, MIT researchers report that emissions from cars, trucks, planes and power plants cause 13,000 premature deaths in the United Kingdom each year.

The researchers analyzed data from 2005, the most recent year for which information is available. They found that among the various sources of emissions in the country, car and truck exhaust was the single greatest contributor to premature death, affecting some 3,300 people per year. By comparison, the researchers note, fewer than 3,000 Britons died in road accidents in 2005.

Read more: http://www.laboratoryequipment.com/news-Air-Pollution-Linked-to-Early-Death-in-the-UK-042312.aspx

Fish Getting Sick at Deepwater Horizon Site 2 Years Later

Open sores. Parasitic infections. Chewed-up-looking fins. Gashes. Mysterious black streaks. Two years after the drilling-rig explosion that touched off the biggest offshore oil spill in U.S. history, scientists are beginning to suspect that fish in the Gulf of Mexico are suffering the effects of the petroleum.

The evidence is nowhere near conclusive. But if those suspicions prove correct, it could mean that the environmental damage to the Gulf from the BP disaster is still unfolding and the picture isn’t as rosy as it might have seemed just a year ago.

And the damage may extend well beyond fish. In the past year, research has emerged showing deep-water coral, seaweed beds, dolphins, mangroves and other species of plants and animals are suffering.

Read more: http://www.laboratoryequipment.com/news-Fish-Sick-at-Deepwater-Horizon-2-Years-Later-042012.aspx

Green-Glowing Fish Aids Pollution Research

Understanding the damage that pollution causes to both wildlife and human health is set to become much easier thanks to a new green-glowing zebrafish.

Created by a team from the Univ. of Exeter, the fish makes it easier than ever before to see where in the body environmental chemicals act and how they affect health. The fluorescent fish has shown that estrogenic chemicals, which are already linked to reproductive problems, impact on more parts of the body than previously thought.

Read more: http://www.laboratoryequipment.com/news-Glowing-Fish-Aids-Research-Into-Pollution-041912.aspx

Researchers Urge Monitoring of Microplastics in Oceans

Large quantities of globally produced plastics end up in the oceans where they represent a growing risk. Above all very small objects, so-called microplastic particles, are endangering the lives of the many sea creatures. An estimate of how greatly the oceans are polluted with microplastic particles has so far failed in the absence of globally comparable methods of investigation and data. Together with British and Chilean colleagues, scientists of the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research in the Helmholtz Association have now analyzed all published studies on this topic and have proposed standardized guidelines for the recording and characterization of microplastic particles in the sea.

Read more: http://www.laboratoryequipment.com/news-Guidelines-Proposed-to-Monitor-Microplastics-in-Oceans-041812.aspx

Harmful Diesel Emissions Cut Due to Truck Requirements

New research from North Carolina State Univ. shows that federal requirements governing diesel engines of new tractor trailer trucks have resulted in major cuts in emissions of particulate matter (PM) and nitrogen oxides (NOx) – pollutants that have significant human health and environmental impacts.

“These requirements for new emission control technologies have increased costs for truck owners and operators, and we wanted to know whether there was any real benefit,” says Chris Frey, professor of civil, construction and environmental engineering at NC State and co-author of a paper describing the research. “We found that there is a huge reduction in both PM and NOx emissions.”

Read more: http://www.laboratoryequipment.com/news-Advancements-in-Diesel-Vastly-Cut-Emissions-041612.aspx

Mini Sensors Could Improve Climate Models

An air sampler the size of an ear plug is expected to cheaply and easily collect atmospheric samples to improve computer climate models.

“We now have an inexpensive tool for collecting pristine vapor samples in the field,” says Sandia National Laboratories researcher Ron Manginell, lead author of the cover story for the Review of Scientific Instruments, the often-cited journal of the American Institute of Physics.

The novel design employs a commonly used alloy to house an inexpensive microvalve situated above the sample chamber.

Read more: http://www.laboratoryequipment.com/news-Mini-Sensors-Could-Improve-Climate-Models-041112.aspx

Newer Cookstoves Emit More Dangerous Particles

The first real-world, head-to-head comparison of “improved cookstoves” (ICs) and traditional mud stoves has found that some ICs may at times emit more of the worrisome “black carbon,” or soot, particles that are linked to serious health and environmental concerns than traditional mud stoves or open-cook fires. The report, which raises concerns about the leading hope as a clean cooking technology in the developing world, appears in ACS’ journal Environmental Science & Technology.

Read more: http://www.laboratoryequipment.com/news-Improved-Cookstoves-Can-be-More-Dangerous-than-Mud-Stoves-040412.aspx