Cyanide toxicity and their environmental impact are well known. Nevertheless, they are still used in the mining, galvanic and chemical industries. As a result of industrial activities, cyanides are released in various forms to all elements of the environment. In a natural environment, cyanide exists as cyanogenic glycosides in plants seeds. Too much consumption can cause unpleasant side effects. However, environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) is the most common source of cyanide. Live organisms have the ability to convert cyanide into less toxic compounds excreted with physiological fluids. The aim of this paper is to review the current state of knowledge on the behaviour of cyanide in the environment and its impact on the health and human life.

Due to the specific structure of surfactants molecules they are applied in different areas of human activity (industry, household). After using and discharging from wastewater treatment plants as effluent stream, surface active agents (SAAs) are emitted to various elements of the environment (atmosphere, waters, and solid phases), where they can undergo numerous physic-chemical processes (e.g., sorption, degradation) and freely migrate. Additionally, SAAs present in the environment can be accumulated in living organisms (bioaccumulation), what can have a negative effect on biotic elements of ecosystems (e.g., toxicity, disturbance of endocrine equilibrium). They also cause increaseing solubility of organic pollutants in aqueous phase, their migration, and accumulation in different environmental compartments. Moreover, surfactants found in aerosols can affect formation and development of clouds, which is associated with cooling effect in the atmosphere and climate changes. The environmental fate of SAAs is still unknown and recognition of this problem will contribute to protection of living organisms as well as preservation of quality and balance of various ecosystems. This work contains basic information about surfactants and overview of pollution of different ecosystems caused by them (their classification and properties, areas of use, their presence, and behavior in the environment).

No abstract

Knowledge about the metal content of wine is very important, for many reasons. Depending on the element, its quantity varies in wine from ng/L to mg/L. Despite the fact that metals are not directly connected to the taste and aroma of the wine, their content should be determined and controlled, because excess is undesirable, and in some cases prohibited, due to potential toxicity. Several analytical procedures for metal determination are applied. However, due to sensitivity, low limit of detection and speed of analysis, inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) is one of the most frequently used techniques. The aim of this study was to reveal specific relationships between the wine samples or between the chemical variables in order to classify the wines according to their metal content by application of chemometric analysis. For metals content determination, two techniques, ICP-MS and inductively coupled plasma-optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES), were applied. Data obtained showed that none of the wine samples surpassed the toxic levels reported for metals in the literature, thus, these wines appeared to be safe as regards the risk associated with the potentially toxic metals intake. However, specific correlations between metals and specific aspects of the wines themselves have been found.

No abstract

No abstract

No abstract

No abstract