Biomedical subjects

A V Shekdar

Publications and source records attributed to A V Shekdar.

5 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2005

Sustainable waste management in the Indian mining industry.

One of the important sectors that contribute to the national economy is the mining sector. During the mining of minerals and ores, waste materials in the form of overburden are generated. As these are not useful to the mine owners, they may be inappropriately disposed of into the environment, posing serious threat to the environment in the form of land degradation, water and air pollution. The present paper discusses the existing status of waste generation, its characteristics and the disposal methods being adopted in India. Impacts associated with waste disposal practices together with preventive measures for waste disposal are also discussed. Finally, strategies for improvements in existing waste management and for incorporating the same in the overall development plan for the mines are suggested.

Coal↗

PubMed2003

Treatment and disposal of refinery sludges: Indian scenario.

Crude oil is a major source of energy and feedstock for petrochemicals. Oily sludge, bio-sludge and chemical sludge are the major sludges generated from the processes and effluent treatment plants of the refineries engaged in crude oil refining operations. Refineries in India generate about 28,220 tons of sludge per annum. Various types of pollutants like phenols, heavy metals, etc. are present in the sludges and they are treated as hazardous waste. Oily sludge, which is generated in much higher amount compared to other sludges, contains phenol (90-100 mg/kg), nickel (17-25 mg/kg), chromium (27-80 mg/kg), zinc (7-80 mg/kg), manganese (19-24 mg/kg), cadmium (0.8-2 mg/kg), copper (32-120 mg/kg) and lead (0.001-0.12 mg/ kg). Uncontrolled disposal practices of sludges in India cause degradation of environmental and depreciation of aesthetic quality. Environmental impact due to improper sludge management has also been identified. Salient features of various treatment and disposal practices have been discussed. Findings of a case study undertaken by the authors for Numaligarh Refinery in India have been presented. Various system alternatives have been identified for waste management in Numaligarh Refinery. A ranking exercise has been carried out to evaluate the alternatives and select the appropriate one. A detailed design of the selected waste management system has been presented.

Environmental Monitoring↗

PubMed2001

Health-care waste management in India.

Health-care waste management in India is receiving greater attention due to recent regulations (the Biomedical Wastes (Management & Handling) Rules, 1998). The prevailing situation is analysed covering various issues like quantities and proportion of different constituents of wastes, handling, treatment and disposal methods in various health-care units (HCUs). The waste generation rate ranges between 0.5 and 2.0 kg bed-1 day-1. It is estimated that annually about 0.33 million tonnes of waste are generated in India. The solid waste from the hospitals consists of bandages, linen and other infectious waste (30-35%), plastics (7-10%), disposable syringes (0.3-0.5%), glass (3-5%) and other general wastes including food (40-45%). In general, the wastes are collected in a mixed form, transported and disposed of along with municipal solid wastes. At many places, authorities are failing to install appropriate systems for a variety of reasons, such as non-availability of appropriate technologies, inadequate financial resources and absence of professional training on waste management. Hazards associated with health-care waste management and shortcomings in the existing system are identified. The rules for management and handling of biomedical wastes are summarised, giving the categories of different wastes, suggested storage containers including colour-coding and treatment options. Existing and proposed systems of health-care waste management are described. A waste-management plan for health-care establishments is also proposed, which includes institutional arrangements, appropriate technologies, operational plans, financial management and the drawing up of appropriate staff training programmes.

Cities↗

PubMed2001

Evaluation of multifarious solid waste management systems--a goal programming approach.

Globally the waste management systems are becoming resource generative by incorporating energy and material recovery components in the systems. These systems are expected to meet several objectives and thus cannot be analysed effectively by optimising models using single objective like cost minimisation. To study the system's performance under varying priority structures of the conflicting objectives an interactive goal programming model of multi-objective planning of the system is proposed. The model is applied to visualise the system performance for a typical county region and accordingly its utility has been demonstrated. The application highlights the effect of change in priority structure on the extent of meeting the objectives. The proposed analytical tool facilitates the use of the model for tactical and strategical planning not only in developed countries like the UK but would provide better insight in developing energy and material recovery units in developing countries like India.

Conservation of Natural Resources↗

PubMed2001

Isolation and characterisation of organochlorine pesticides residues from landfill sites.

Organochlorine pesticides (OClPs) have been analysed in the soil samples collected from landfill site, which was abandoned for more than ten years. The most commonly used OClPs of the region were identified and analysed in the soil samples collected at various depths. The method involves extraction of OClPs by soxhlet assembly, concentration cleanup by alumina and florisil columns and gas chromatographic analysis. Among OClPs analysed, g-HCH concentration was found maximum at 5 m layer and minimum at the bottom layer. p,p'-DDT was not found in any of the layers, this could be due to its degradation into its metabolites like p,p'-DDE and p,p'-DDD. p,p'-DDE was detected in 2 m, 5 m and bottom (7 m) layer while p,p'-DDD was found only at 2 m level.

Environmental Monitoring↗