A viable and cost-effective technology was explored in this present task for removal of heavy metal ions such as Cu2+, Ni2+, Zn2+, Cd2+, and Pb2+ from aqueous solution using three fruit peels such as orange peel (OP), lemon peel (LP), and banana peel (BP). The surface of the LP and lemon peel cellulose (LPC) was chemically modified. All these adsorbents were characterized by FT-IR, BET, and SEM. The widely used Langmuir adsorption isotherms were used to describe the adsorption equilibrium process. The adsorption capacity of metal ions such as Cu2+ and Ni2+ was found to be more than that of other metal ions. Upon comparison of the adsorbents, surface modified LPC (LPCACS) was found to show enhanced adsorption activity. A comparative study of adsorption was carried out with activated carbon (AC) also from which it was inferred that the order of the adsorption capacity is as follows: LPCACS > LPC > AC > LP.

Chitin is a cost-efficient and nontoxic biopolymer with potential for use in heavy metal chelation from industrial wastewater. In this study we report the binding strength of chitin and the common water contaminants mercury, copper, iron, nickel, chromium, lead, zinc, cadmium, silver, and cobalt. We have found that the strongest binding takes place with mercury and weakest with cobalt with binding constants of 1.16·105 M?1 and 3.96·103 M?1, respectively. We observed that the formal charge state of the heavy metal inversely affects the binding strength. The divalent metal cation?chitin interactions are all enthalpically driven binding reactions. These results serve to benchmark industrial wastewater treatment by chitin chelation.

Originally given at San Jose City Hall, Council Chambers, as part of FUSE the presentation was streamed live to Ars Virtua in Second Life [ http://slurl.com/secondlife/Seventh%20Eye/6/77/48] and is available as a podcast. The talk was entitled “The Environmental Health Clinic: on structuring participation in the environmental movement, or more specifically, in re-imagining, refiguring and rebuilding our relationships to natural systems”—intro below. However the presentation in 2nd life, its second life, underscores the questions about participation–what actions are available to your avatar? does it matter who you are? or that you are an avatar in the material and bodily questions involved in environmental health?

Intro:

Does anyone know what to do about global warming? I am guessing that everyone has a few ideas, no? But how does anyone one of us go about developing these ideas, trying them out, testing, developing, and learning more? And how many people are interested in doing something about climate change and other environmental issues? I don’t know anyone who is not. But somehow the bombastic “what you can do” guides in every green issue of a magazine do not foster a social movement; signing petitions, writing letters to political representatives doesn’t make me feel like I have made a vital contribution; using less gas, less paper, less energy doesn’t make me feel more effective, doesn’t draw on my specific situation/expertise/constraints—it all makes me feel impatient. But I get most impatient with the certainty (and morally superior tone) with which I am ordered to change to compact fluorescents, ride a bike, recycle, use bamboo flooring (substitute in 100 other ineffectual and symbolic actions). Haven’t looked into recycling the compact fluorescents and the neurotoxicant effects of the mercury released from this product; haven’t had their students arrested for participation in a bike ride; nor been hit by car; or colleagues arrested and prosecuted as “terrorists” for environmental activism; haven’t they tried to use the recycled glass, or plastics and delved into the strange and complex waste industry; haven’t they measured the formaldehyde and other emissions of the green materials….the point is there is not much certainty in complex socio-ecological systems,ally persuasive?

NOLA: Emergency Environmental Health Clinic. New Orleans, LA.

The Environmental Health Clinic at NYU is a clinic and lab, modeled on other health clinics at universities. However the project approaches health from an understanding of its dependence on external local environments; rather than on the internal biology and genetic predispositions of an individual.

The clinic works like this. You make an appointment, just like you would at a traditional health clinic, to talk about your particular environmental health concerns. What differs is that you walk out with a prescription not for pharmaceuticals but for actions: local data collection and urban interventions directed at understanding and
improving your environmental health; plus referrals, not to medical
specialists but to specific art, design and participatory projects,
local environmental organizations and local government or civil
society groups: organizations that can use the data and actions prescribed as legitimate forms of participation to promote social change.

As with traditional healthcare, the responsibility ultimately is managed by you. Attending the Environmental Health Clinic – and following up – is entirely voluntary. You decide whether or not to address an issue; you formulate the concerns, ask the questions, and come to the clinic only if you are interested in addressing these concerns. You draw on the clinic’s resources and expertise to help develop a reasonable course of action, which you can follow through or not. You are the one driving, as with traditional health care where you decide whether to smoke, exercise, or fill the prescription: you bear the costs and benefits of changing environmental health.

This inversion of health as an external phenomenon is not just a thought-experiment, but a growing concern. Take Pediatricians, for
example: trained to diagnose and treat bacterial and viral disease,
monitor for malnutrition and administer vaccinations. Pediatricians actually spend most of their office hours treating – according to Landrigan and the National Academies report – Asthma; Developmental Delays and Disorders (including Autism Spectrum); the increased rate of childhood cancers (an alarming 400-fold increase in some rare cancers); and increasingly now, obesity. All the conditions pediatricians spend their time on are ones in which the environment is implicated, yet this is not represented in medical curricula, or at least not proportionately to the time medical professionals spend, addressing these issues professionally.