The document discusses various advances in environmental hygiene, including carbon sequestration, bioremediation, rainwater harvesting, and eco-friendly technologies in India. Carbon sequestration methods aim to reduce carbon dioxide levels by storing carbon in plants, soil, underground formations, and the ocean. Bioremediation uses microorganisms to degrade pollutants into less toxic substances and has been applied to clean up soil, water, and other environmental sites. Rainwater harvesting techniques collect and store rainwater to replenish groundwater levels and ensure a sustained water supply. Eco-technologies developed in India utilize natural processes and green plants to treat pollution in water, soil, and air.

1. ADVANCES IN
ENVIRONMENTAL
HYGIENE
By: Abdulrahman Mohammed
(L-2012-V-21-D)
School Of Public Health and Zoonoses, GADVASU,
Ludhiana

2. DEFINITIONS
Environmental Hygiene: is that branch of public health that is concerned
with the control of all those factors in man’s surroundings or physical
environment which may have deleterious effect on human health and
wellbeing
Alternatively, it could be defined as all those aspects of public health that
are determined by physical, chemical, biological, social and psychological
factors in the environment.
 It also includes theories and practices of assessing, correcting, controlling
and preventing the factors present in the environment that can potentially
affect the health of present and future generations.
Environmental sanitation: refers to interventions to reduce people’s and
animals’ exposure to disease by providing a clean environment in which to
live and these measures break the cycle of disease.

3. Objectives of Environmental
Hygiene
 Prevention and control of:
 Biological hazards
 Chemical hazards
 Physical hazards
 Sociological hazards and psychological
hazards.

4. Scope of Environmental Hygiene
 Water supply
 Waste-water treatment and water pollution control
 Solid waste management
 Vector control
 Prevention and control of soil pollution
 Food hygiene
 Air pollution control
 Radiation pollution control
 Noise pollution control
 Occupational health

5. Scope of Environmental Hygiene
cont.…
 Housing with particular reference to public health aspects
 Urban and regional planning
 Environmental health aspects of air, sea or land transport
 Accident prevention
 Public recreation and tourism
 Sanitation measures during epidemics, emergencies, disaster and
population migration
 Wildlife and forest conservation
 Preventive measures to ensure freedom from health risk of the general
environment.

6. Advances in environmental hygiene
includes:
 Carbon sequestration
 Bioremediation
 Rain water harvesting and artificial recharge
 Echo-friendly technologies in India

7. Carbon sequestration
 Also known as “carbon capture”
 A geoengineering technique for the long-term storage of carbon
dioxide (or other forms of carbon) for the mitigation of global warming
 More than 33 billion tons of carbon emissions (annual worldwide)
 Ways that carbon can be stored (sequestered):
 In plants and soil “terrestrial sequestration” (“carbon sinks”)
 Underground “geological sequestration”
 Deep in ocean “ocean sequestration”
 As a solid material (still in development)

8. Terrestrial Carbon
Sequestration

9. Terrestrial Carbon Sequestration
 The process through which Co2 from the atmosphere is absorbed
naturally through photosynthesis & stored as carbon in biomass & soils.
 Tropical deforestation is responsible for 20% of world’s annual Co2
emissions, though offset by uptake of atmospheric Co2 by forests and
agriculture.
 Ways to reduce greenhouse gases:
 avoiding emissions by maintaining existing carbon storage in trees and soils
 increasing carbon storage by tree planting or conversion from conventional
to conservation tillage practices on agricultural lands

10. Terrestrial Carbon Sequestration
(continued)
 Carbon seq. rates differ based on the species of tree, type of soil,
regional climate, topography & management practice
 Pine plantations in SE United States can accumulate almost 100 metric tons of
carbon per acre after 90 years (~ 1 metric ton : 1 year)
 Carbon accumulation eventually reaches saturation point where
additional sequestration is no longer possible (when trees reach maturity,
or when the organic matter in soils builds back up to original levels
before losses occurred)
 After saturation, the trees or agricultural practices still need to be
sustained to maintain the accumulated carbon and prevent subsequent
losses of carbon back to the atmosphere

11. Geological Sequestration
 Storing of CO2
underground in rock
formations able to
retain large amounts of
CO2 over a long time
period
 Held in small pore
spaces (have held oil
and nat. gas for millions
of years)
Layers shown: Coal, brine aquifer, gas bearing
sandstone, gas bearing shale

12. Geological Sequestration
(case study)
 Midwest Geological Sequestration Consortium (Illinois Basin)
 assess geological carbon sequestration options in the
60,000 square mile Illinois Basin (Within the Basin are deep,
noneconomic coal resources, numerous mature oil fields
and deep saline rock formations with potential to store
CO2)
 Feb 2009: Successfully completed 8,000 ft deep injection
well
 By 2013, a total of one million metric tons of carbon dioxide
(roughly the annual emissions of 220,000 automobiles) is
expected to be stored within the formation.

13. Ocean Sequestration

14. Ocean Sequestration
 Carbon is naturally stored in the ocean via two pumps, solubility
and biological, and there are analogous man-made methods,
direct injection and ocean fertilization, respectively.
 Eventually equilibrium between the ocean and the atmosphere
will be reached with or without human intervention and 80% of
the carbon will remain in the ocean.
 The same equilibrium will be reached whether the carbon is
injected into the atmosphere or the ocean. The rational behind
ocean sequestration is simply to speed up the natural process.

15. Ocean Sequestration
 Carbon sequestration by
direct injection into the
deep ocean involves the
capture, separation,
transport, and injection
of CO2 from land or
tankers
 1/3 of CO2 emitted a
year already enters the
ocean
 Ocean has 50 times
more carbon than the
atmosphere

16. Current Status Carbon
Sequestration
 At the global level, the IPCC Third Assessment Report estimates that
~100 billion metric tons of carbon over the next 50 years could be
sequestered through forest preservation, tree planting and improved
agricultural management.
 Offset 10-20% of estimated fossil fuel emissions
 Carbon Sequestration is not yet viable at a commercial level
 Small scale projects demonstrated (lab experiments) but CS is still a
developing technology
 Concern with injecting carbon dioxide into ground or ocean
because fear of leaks into water table or escape of CO2 into a
massive bubble that can potentially suffocate humans and animals

17. Bioremediation
 Biodegradation - the use of living organisms such as bacteria, fungi, and
plants to degrade chemical compounds
 Bioremediation – process of cleaning up environmental sites
contaminated with chemical pollutants by using living organisms to
degrade hazardous materials into less toxic substances

18. Bioremediation: Purpose
 Initiative of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
 To counteract careless and even
negligent practices of chemical dumping
and storage, as well as concern over how
these pollutants might affect human
health and the environment
 To locate and clean up hazardous waste
sites

19. Bioremediation
 Environmental Genome Project
 Purpose is to study and understand the impacts of
environmental chemicals on human disease
 Why use bioremediation?
 Most approaches convert harmful pollutants into
relatively harmless materials such as carbon dioxide,
chloride, water, and simple organic molecules
 Processes are generally cleaner

20. Biotechnological approaches
 Biotechnological approaches are essential for
 Detecting pollutants
 Restoring ecosystems
 Learning about conditions that can result in human
diseases
 Converting waste products into valuable energy

21. Bioremediation Basics
 What needs to be cleaned up?
 Soil, water, air, and sediment
 Pollutants enter environment in many different ways
 Tanker spill, truck accident, ruptured chemical tank at
industrial site, release of pollutants into air
 Location of accident, the amount of chemicals
released, and the duration of the spill impacts the
parts of the environment affected

22. Bioremediation Basics

23. 9.2 Bioremediation Basics
 Chemicals in the Environment
 Carcinogens
 Mutagens
 Cause skin rashes, birth defects
 Poison plant and animal life

24. Fundamentals of Cleanup
Reactions
 Microbes convert chemicals into harmless substances
by either
 Aerobic metabolism (require oxygen) or anaerobic
metabolism (do not require oxygen)

25. Fundamentals of Cleanup Reactions
 Aerobic and
Anaerobic
Biodegradation

26. Stimulating Bioremediation
 Nutrient enrichment (fertilization) – fertilizers are added
to a contaminated environment to stimulate the
growth of indigenous microorganisms that can
degrade pollutants
 Bioaugmentation (seeding) –bacteria are added to the
contaminated environment to assist indigenous
microbes with biodegradative processes

27. Cleanup Sites and Strategies
 Soil Cleanup
 Ex situ bioremediation
 Slurry phase bioremediation
 Solid phase bioremediation
 Composting
 Land farming
 Biopiles
 In situ bioremediation
 Bioventing – pumping either air or hydrogen peroxide into
the contaminated soil

28. Cleanup Sites and Strategies

29. Cleanup Sites and Strategies
 Bioremediation of Water
 Wastewater treatment
 Groundwater cleanup

30. Cleanup Sites and Strategies

31. Cleanup Sites and Strategies

32. Applying Genetically Engineered Strains to Clean Up the
Environment
 Petroleum-Eating Bacteria
 Created in 1970s
 Isolated strains of pseudomonas from contaminated
soils
 Contained plasmids that encoded genes for breaking
down the pollutants

33. Applying Genetically Engineered Strains to Clean Up the
Environment
 E. coli to clean up heavy metals
 Copper, lead, cadmium, chromium, and mercury
 Biosensors – bacteria capable of detecting a variety of environmental
pollutants
 Genetically Modified Plants and Phytoremediation
 Plants that can remove RDX (Research Department Explosive) and TNT
(Trinitrotoluene)

34. Shrishti Eco-Research Institute, Pune, INDIA
 Develops eco-friendly technologies to control pollution of water, air and soil.
 Soil Scape Filter
 Stream Ecosystem
 Hydrasch Succession Pond
 Phytofiltration and Biox Process
 Green lake technologies
 Green bridge technologies
 Some of the Ecotechnological installations afre described
below

35. Soil Scape Filter
 It is the simulation of natural filtration of water or wastewater through the
well developed soils and fragmented rock materials below which give
purified water in the form of groundwater. Soil filter contains layers of bio-active
(i.e. biologically activated) soil.

36. Stream Ecosystem
 It involves the use of the natural slopes of the polluted drains, beds, banks
of streams or ponds to enhance the aerobic activity in water by
generating turbulence and providing shallow depths to allow sun– light to
reach the bottom

37. Hydrasch Succession Pond
 It is an application of ecological succession of aquatic plants depending
on characteristics of incoming effluents. Various green plants including
invasive species are successfully employed in these phytofiltration and
phytoremediation processes with ecoremediation to treat organic and
inorganic pollution.

38. Phytofiltration and Biox Process
 It involves the use of plant fibres, roots to remove suspended solids from
wastewater effectively in well designed tank.
 Some of the installations are solids by biosorption methods

39. Green lake technologies
 uses floating, submerged or food web help in the
purification process. These can be termed as
macrophyte ponds also .
 Macrophytes are capable to absorb large amounts
of inorganic nutrients such as N and P, and heavy
metals such as Cd, Cu, Hg Zn etc and to engineer the
growth of microbes to facilitate the degradation of
organic matter and toxicants.

40. Green bridge technologies
 uses filtration power of biologically originated cellulosic / fibrous
material in combination with sand and gravels and root systems of
green plants.

41. Ecotechnological Applications for the Control of Pollution in India

42. Efficacy of Green Bridge and Green
Lake treatment systems

43. RAIN WATER HARVESTING (RWH)
 RWH refers to collection and storage of rainwater and also other
activity such as harvesting surface water extracting ground
water , prevention of loss through evaporation and seepage.
 PURPOSES OF RWH
 Stored for ready use in containers
ground or below ground
 Charged into the ground for withdrawal later

44. BENEFITS OF RWH
Rainwater harvesting prevents flooding of
lowlying areas
Rain water harvesting replenishes the ground
water table and enables our dug wells and bore
wells to yield in a sustained manner
It helps in the availability of clean water by
reducing the salinity and the presence of iron
salts.
 RHH TECHNIQUES
 STORAGE OF RAINWATER ON SURFACE FOR FUTURE USE
 RECHARGE TO GROUND WATER

45. 1. SUBSURFACE DAMS

46. 2. CHECK DAMS

47. 3. ROOF TOP CATCHMENTS

48. 4. FARM PONDS

49. RECHARGE TO GROUND WATER
 Recharge bore pit
 Recharge well
 Spreading basins
 Ditches
 Hand pumps

50. RECHARGE BORE PIT

51. RECHARGE WELL

52. DITCHES

53. HAND PUMPS

54. SPREADING BASINS

55. References
 Sengupta, M. and Dalwani, R. (Editors). 2008. Ecotechnological Applications
for the Control of Lake Pollution. Proceedings of Taal 2007: The 12th World
Lake Conference: 864-867
 Sherikar A.T, Bachhil V.N and Thaplyal D.C. 2001.Textbook of elements of
veterinary public health. ICAR, New Delhi.
 Chu,S.C and Liaw,C.H 1995-1997 study of industrial rainwater catchment systems(I)-(III). Final Report of
Indus. Tech.Res.Inst

Liaw,S.C and Tsai,Y.L.2002. Application of rainwater retardation and retention for a healthy water
envirnoment in urban areas.Journal of water resources management
 Liaw,C.H., Chen,H.K, Chang, K.c. and Tsai, Y.l. 2000. Feasibility analysis of rainwater catchment systems
in taiwan,proc. East Asia 2000 Rainwater utilization symposium:131-144, oct.1,2000,Taipei,Taiwan.
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon_sequestration
 http://www.netl.doe.gov/technologies/carbon_seq/index.html
 http://www.princeton.edu/~chm333/2002/fall/co_two/oceans/

56. THINK GREEN
THANK YOU FOR LISTENING