Arsenic emission

In response to the widespread arsenic contamination (Appendix D), many governments have instituted regulations on the disposal of arsenic-bearing wastes and arsenic emissions from ore smelters and... 

Chein, H., Hsu, Y.-D., Aggarwal, S.G. et al. (2006) Evaluation of arsenical emission from semiconductor and opto-electronics facilities in Hsinchu, Taiwan. Atmospheric Environment, 40(10), 1901-7. 

Globally, volcanoes release about 17 150 metric tons (t) of arsenic per year into the atmosphere (It equals 1000 kg (Matschullat, 2000), 300). Other significant natural sources of gaseous arsenic emissions include geothermal vents, wind erosion of soils and sediments, forest and coal seam fires, and sea spray ((Cullen and Reimer, 1989), 740 (Nriagu, 1989) Chapter 3). Under reducing conditions in soils, fungi and... 

Arsenic in air and wind-blown sediments 3.21.1 Arsenic emission sources... 

Volcanic eruptions are the major natural source of atmospheric arsenic (about 17 150 tyear-1). Considerable arsenic is also released by burning vegetation (approximately 125-3345 tyear-1), especially forest fires (Matschullat, 2000) (Galasso, Siegel and Kravitz, 2000), 849. Microbial activity in soils is another likely source of extensive arsenic emissions to the atmosphere with perhaps as much as 26 200 tyear-1 (Matschullat, 2000), 300-301. 

Arsenic is ubiquitous in the Earth s crust arsenic ranks 20th among the elements in abundance. In nature, arsenic is widely but sparsely distributed. It is associated with igneous and sedimentary rocks, particularly with sulfidic ores. Arsenic enters the aquatic environment indirectly from industrial and other air emission, and directly from localized effluent discharges. There is general agreement that most man-caused atmospheric input is due to smelting operations and fossil-fuel combustion. Arsenic emission to the atmosphere was calculated with the factors listed in Table 2 . ... 

The ratio of total natural to anthropogenic arsenic emissions into the environment was estimated by Chilvers and Peterson (1987) to be 60 40, but more recent data have suggested some decline in anthropogenic emissions, at least into the atmosphere. 

WiCKSTEOM G (1982) Arsenic emission from the Novaky power station. Work Environ Health 9 2-... 

Arsenic is present in igneous and sedimentary rocks and ores mainly in the form of sulphides, arsenides, and sulpharsenides. Weathering, volcanism, dissolution in water, biological and anthropogenic activities lead to arsenic emissions into the atmosphere, the terrestrial and aquatic environment. 

In order to reach high sensitivity and sufficient detection limits for the determination of the arsenic species the arsenic emission lines at 189.04, 193.7, 200.33, and 234.94 nm were studied using triphenylarsine as reference substance. The most sensitive arsenic line at, 193.7 nm is interfered by a strong carbon line and thus the wavelength at 189 nm has been used for arsenic identification according to Mothes and Wennrich (1997). A total of 24 arsenic containing compounds have been detected in the dichlor-omethane extracts and thermal desorption investigation, respectively (Thurow et al., 1999). The presence of arsenic was confirmed by the five characteristic lines between 180 and 210 nm (see Fig. 13). 

Lewisite Destruction Process Rather than incinerate lewisite and its byproducts as originally proposed, the modified plan called for lewisite to be chemically neutralized with the collected arsenate salts and neutralizing solution inunediately stabilized in concrete without any incineration. This approach removed concerns regarding the potential for arsenic emissions during incineration. 

Table 2 calculates the amount of arsenic emission to the atmosphere from various sources of arsenic [10]. 

Table 2. Arsenic emission factors for the United States (1968) [10]...

The other principal source of arsenic emission to the atmosphere in the US is cotton ginning dust. Cotton ginning dust and the combustion of cotton gin wastes have been reported as creating significant concentration of arsenic in the air downward from these operations [10]. It has also been reported that a seasonal variation of arsenic concentration in the atmosphere is observed which coincides with the cotton farming activities of harvesting and ginning [3]. 

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