Determination of polycyclic aromatic compounds and heavy metals in sludges from biological sewage treatment plants

Influence of different bulking agents on the disappearance of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) during sewage sludge composting

“…It is a content close to the PAH content in the sewage sludge coming from the South-East part of Poland (Baran and Oleszczuk, 2003). It was also comparable to the data presented by other authors elsewhere (Bodzek et al, 1997;Pérez et al, 2001;Stevens et al, 2003). Three-ring PAHs were predominant (48.7%) in the sludge, mostly acenaphthylene (12.4%) and acenaphthene (38.7%).…”

“…It results from the fact that it is characterised by a rich variety of nutrients, a considerable amount of organic matter and physical properties that improve soil structure (El-Naim et al, 2004;García-Gil et al, 2004). However, numerous studies have shown that sewage sludge can contain mutagenic and carcinogenic pollutants such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (Bodzek et al, 1997;Stevens et al, 2003;Baran and Oleszczuk, 2003a). An introduction of sludge into the soil results in a increase of its PAHs content (Smith et al, 2001;Petersen et al, 2003;Baran and Oleszczuk, 2003b), which poses a danger of the uptake of these compounds by plants (Oleszczuk and Baran, 2005), and hence entering the human organism.…”

Genotoxicity of bioremediated soils from the Reilly Tar site, St. Louis Park, Minnesota.

“…One possible reason for this direct-acting mutagenic activity may be that the BS process contained activated sludge from a municipal wastewater treatment facility that had a high input from industrial sources. The sludge may have contained nitroarenes, which are direct-acting mutagens, are highly mutagenic (61), and have been detected in sludge from wastewater treatment plants from an industrial area (62 diet. The BP sample also contained fungi in addition to bacteria, which may have changed the metabolism in the BP reactor.…”

Determination of heterocyclic aromatic amines (HAs) content in samples of household-prepared meat dishes

“…This permitted making initial risk assessment of exposure to food-ingested exogenous carcinogens by the populace of this most environmentally polluted region in Poland, where several components of the natural environment (airborne particulate matter, drinking water, sewage sludge) are contaminated with numerous organic ecotoxicants [20,21]. In addition, standard coefficients of cancer incidence and mortality found within the past 10 years in this region became exceptionally high pointing to a particularly grave public health problem [22].…”