Tom Mahin

A number of different countries, and states and local regulatory agencies within countries, have struggled with developing effective odour regulations or guidelines. The challenge is to develop regulations or guidelines that both avoid odour annoyance conditions and are not excessively conservative. This paper will present highlights of odour regulations or guidelines in Europe, Asia, Australia, New Zealand and North America. A comparison between the different approaches will be presented. With a number of countries reporting an increase in complaints due to odours, the field of odour assessment is rapidly evolving. Complaints due to odours from livestock facilities are also significantly increasing in many countries. A comparison of approaches used to regulate livestock operations is also included in the paper. The potential impact of European olfactometry standardisation efforts to existing assumptions about odour annoyance or nuisance levels is analysed.

The search for the perfect "odor (odour, the international English spelling) regulation" most likely began a few thousand years ago in a community that smelled something annoying. That search continues today in societies throughout the world. However, different societies have inherently different levels of acceptance for odors in their communities. Ambient air holds a mixture of chemicals from the everyday activities of industrial and commercial enterprises that make up modern day society. Exposure to those chemicals in the ambient air has become a part of modern day life. However, from time to time, citizens find the odors of these chemicals annoying and objectionable and at some point may declare them a nuisance. Community odors remain one of the top air pollution complaints to regulators and government bodies. An odor nuisance usually is a result of a series of odor episodes experienced by a citizen or citizens. The frequency of these episodes, the duration of each odor...

Design: People living with HIV/AIDS (PLHIV) are at increased risk of diarrhoeal disease and enteric infection. This review assesses the effectiveness of water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) interventions to prevent disease among PLHIV. Methods: We searched MEDLINE, EMBASE, Global Health, The Cochrane Library, Web of Science, LILACS, Africa-wide, IMEMR, IMSEAR, WPRIM, CNKI, and WanFang. We also hand searched conference proceedings, contacted researchers and organizations, and checked references from identified studies. Eligible studies were those involving WASH interventions among PLHIV that reported on health outcomes and employed a controlled study design. We extracted data, explored heterogeneity, sub-grouped based on outcomes, calculated pooled effects on diarrhoeal disease using meta-analysis, and assessed studies for methodological quality. Results: Ten studies met the eligibility criteria and are included in the review, of which nine involved water quality interventions and o...

Adults and children living with HIV/AIDS are more susceptible to microbiological contamination of water. The 2008 WHO guidelines for people with HIV state that the “lack of … safe water and safe management of human waste exposes people with HIV to increased risk of transmission of waterborne and other enteric pathogens.” A number of different household water treatment (HWT) approaches can potentially be used depending on local availability in a particular area. Some examples of effective HWT are biosand filters, ceramic filters, SODIS, combined flocculationchlorination and chlorination. For water sources with high turbidity (seasonally or year round) the effectiveness of the HWT approach under high turbidity conditions should be considered as part of selecting the appropriate HWT approach. Biosand filters, ceramic filters, flocculationchlorination, and SODIS are effective at removing or inactivating Cryptosporidium and pathogenic bacteria commonly associated with persistent diarrhea depending on the turbidity of the water source. Combining chlorination with a preceding turbidity and Cryptosporidium oocyst removal step potentially provides optimal HWT for people living with HIV/AIDS.

Arsenic contamination of drinking water in rural Cambodia has driven the search for mitigation options. The Kanchan Arsenic Filter for household water treatment is being evaluated for its applicability as one potential solution to this crisis. In 2008, ten Kanchan filters, in 5 configurations, were tested over a 30 week period. Each filter treated 40 L/day. The ground water had arsenic and phosphate concentrations averaging 637 μg/L and 5.09 mg/L respectively, representing challenging source water. Arsenic removal averaged 9597% for all configurations. After the first week of start up, all but 1 in 224 samples achieved the Cambodian standard of 50 μg/L. Arsenic removal was not significantly affected by the flow rate or the cleaning of the filter. There was no apparent depletion of arsenic adsorption capacity over the 30 weeks (8400 L filtered). Iron and turbidity removals were also very high, improving the user acceptability of this technology.

There are currently an estimated 2 million children with HIV/AIDS worldwide, 90% of whom are in subSaharan Africa. Currently approximately 500,000 to 700,000 children acquire HIV infection per year and approximately 300,000 children died of AIDS in 2007. Children living with HIV/AIDS are at particular risk of chronic diarrhea from Cryptosporidium (Cryptosporidiosis) and if infected they are far more likely to suffer major complications or death. Cryptosporidiosis has been found to be a significant predictor of childhood death in subSaharan Africa. Studies in subSaharan Africa have shown a high prevalence of, cryptosporidiosis in children aged 636 months, particularly among children who are malnourished or HIV positive and during rainy seasons. For example, heavy rains from November 2005 to February 2006 in Botswana led to a dramatic increase in admissions and visits to hospitals and health centers of infants leading to the death of 22% of inpatient infants. Adequate sanitation and w...

Significant levels of naturally occurring phosphates in groundwater in some arsenic affected regions can potentially reduce removal efficiencies of some critical iron-based arsenic treatment systems that currently are among the most simple and low-cost treatment approaches. From March-December 2007, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), the Centre for Affordable Water and Sanitation Technology (CAWST) and LEDARS, a Bangladeshi NGO, conducted pilot testing in Bangladesh of the Kanchan Arsenic Filter. Because of the varying phosphate levels in groundwater in different districts in Bangladesh, the project also included an analysis of phosphate data from arsenic studies conducted by other organizations in high arsenic areas in Vietnam, Cambodia, West Bengal and Inner Mongolia and compared them to results from Bangladesh and Nepal.The results from the analysis indicated that the ratio of iron to phosphates in the groundwater might be a good indicator for the effectiveness of i...

... Tom Mahin, Municipal Services Section Chief Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection, Northeast Regional Office 205a Lowell St., Wilmington, MA 01887 Phone: (978) 661-7696, Fax: (978) 661-7615 email: thomas.mahin@state.ma.us ABSTRACT ... Wat. Sci. ...