The poor access to water quality for Nigerians has pushed for the designing of new trend silver nitrate impregnated locally made Point-Of-Use (POU) ceramic filters to enhance water purification efficiency for household use. This study utilized silver nitrate-molded ceramic filters prepared with Kaolin from Owode, silt soil, sodium silicate, sawdust, and distilled water in three varying proportions to ascertain pollution removal efficiencies. Heating was carried out by firing the filters at 900 °C and further preheating at 400 °C after dipping in silver nitrate solution. Silver nanoparticle and dissociated particle discharge from filter pot painted with 0.03 mg/g casein-covered nAg or AgNO 3 were estimated as an element of pH (5–9), ionic strength (1–50mM), and cation species (Na+, Ca2+, Mg2+). Silver delivery was constrained by disintegration as Ag+ and resulting cation exchange measures, paying little heed to silver structure applied. Water analysis for both heavy metals (Pb and Cd) and microbial load ( E. coli ) evaluated, corroborate the maximum removal efficiency. It was observed that kaolin-sawdust with the Silver nitrate filters showed a constant and effective removal of both heavy metals and disinfection of microbial loads. The minimum flow rates observed were 4.97 mL/min for batch filter used for Iju River water sample one (AF1) and 4.98 mL/min for batch filter used for Iju River water sample two (AF2) having porosity 49.05% and 50.00%, whereas the 5 mL/min higher flow rate was used for batch filter from borehole water sample one (BF1) and batch filter used for well water sample two (CF2) with porosity of 50.00%. Significantly, the results obtained show that the filters are suitable for point-of-use application in both the urban and rural areas of developing countries such as Nigeria
Background dose assessment has been carried out in and around a production company using Gamma Ray Spectrometer (Super Spec. 125 model). This was done to identify the zones that could pose health risks to workers. The geospatial maps for easy identification of radionuclides occurrence in the factory was determined using geospatial analysis. The highest exposure dose was found at the restaurant and factory areas whereas the lowest background dose was noted at the entrance of the company. The absorbed dose rate of 199.88nGry/h is 0.4 % higher than the world average value according to UNSCAER, 2000. The geospatial analysis revealed that the natural radionuclides in the region have a trend, NW-SE trending with significant re-deposition at the western part. This could be caused by the diffusion of chemical weathering and complexation of Dahomey (Benin) basin soil geology from human activities. The boxplot identified the radionuclides distributions which are in the order of magnitudes 40K>238U>232Th in the study area. Significantly, the geospatial analysis of the background gamma dose rate has revealed the hot spots in the area which may pose health risk to the workers if adequate measure is not taken to advise workers not to spend much time at the hot spot zone.
The gamma dose rates and the activity concentrations of Potassium-40, Uranium-238, and Thorium-232 in the study area were carried out using calibrated hand-held gamma detector, (RS-125 Gamma-Spectrometer) and NaI (Tl) gamma spectroscopy. The in-situ measurements result of dose rate indicates the hotspot at location 4 with a value of 100 nGyh-1, almost twice higher than the recommended limits. The results from NaI (Tl) gamma detector revealed the highest activity concentrations of Potassium-40, Uranium-238, and Thorium-232 to be 288.09, 96.49, 136.12 Bqkg-1 for sediments and 257.31, 66.93, 96.57 Bqkg for water, respectively. The highest mean activity concentration of Potassium-40 and Uranium-238 was observed in Catfish with values of 151.87 and 38.00 Bqkg-1, whereas the highest value for the activity of Thorium-232 was observed in Tilo Fish with a value of 89.02 Bqkg-1. In comparison, all the observed values are higher than the population-weighted average of 420.00, 32.00, and 45.00 Bqkg-1 for Potassium-40, Uranium-238, and Thorium-232 by UNSCEAR. Geologically, this may be attributed to the marine incursion of regional tectonic subsidence during transgression. Statistically, the correlation results confirmed that the enhanced outdoor dose rates at the coastlines environment were caused mainly by Uranium-238, followed by Thorium-232 and then Potassium-40 in magnitude. The mean hazard indices for the samples were observed to be within the world average values recommended by ICRP. The accumulation of radionuclides by fishes may be via ingestion and adsorption to surfaces, which culminate in speciation and mobility of radionuclides, alongside the feeding habits of fishes and other aquatic animals.
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