Between October 1982 and September 1983, an outbreak of cholera occurred in Transkei. A total of 678 patients with clinical illness were reported in a review of positive laboratory results. Subsequent to each report, the health department personnel began a rigorous contact-tracing process during which data on the environment were collected. A total of 1,157 standardised forms listing 6,615 pers...

Europe's obligate cave-dwelling amphibian Proteus anguinus inhabits subterranean waters of the north-western Balkan Peninsula. Because only fragments of its habitat are accessible to humans, this endangered salamander's exact distribution has been difficult to establish. Here we introduce a quantitative real time polymerase chain reaction-based environmental DNA (eDNA) approach to detect the pr...

Slovenian karst areas extend over 43% of the country; limestones and dolomites of the Mesozoic era prevail. In Slovenia karst groundwater contributes up to 50% of the total drinking water supply. The quality of water is very high, despite the fact that it is extremely vulnerable to pollution. The present article is a study and a review of the potential and actual sources of pollution to the gro...

Sun protection creams were formulated with a commercial rosemary extract and with thermal waters from different springs in the Northwest Spain. A six month stability study was carried out and microbiological and chemical stability, as well as sensorial characteristics, were evaluated. In all creams, the mesophilic count always remained low (under 10 cfu/mL) and most of them showed greater antio...

The arsenic content of well water in certain areas of Oregon can range up to 30 to 40 times the U.S.P.H.S. Drinking Water Standard of 1962, where concentrations in excess of 50 ppb are grounds for rejection. The elevated arsenic levels in water are postulated to be due to volcanic deposits. Wells in central Lane County, Oregon, that are known to contain arsenic rich water are in an area underla...

The exploration of unconventional shale energy reserves and the extensive use of hydraulic fracturing during well stimulation have raised concerns about the potential effects of unconventional oil and gas extraction (UOG) on the environment. Most accounts of groundwater contamination have focused primarily on the compositional analysis of dissolved gases to address whether UOG activities have h...

The process of hydraulic fracturing for recovery of oil and natural gas uses large amounts of fresh water and produces a comparable amount of wastewater, much of which is typically transported by truck. Truck transport of water is an expensive and energy-intensive process with significant external costs including roads damages, and pollution. The integrated development plan (IDP) is the industr...

In Egypt, nineteen water springs with temperatures exceeding 35 degrees C, which can be considered thermal waters, were reported. The radiological aspects of thermal water in three northern regions of Egypt (Gulf of Suez, Cairo, and Bahariya Oasis) were investigated. The activity concentrations of natural radionuclides of 226Ra, 40K, total uranium and 210Pb (210Po) in water samples were determi...

Bacterial indicators and bacteriophages suggested as potential indicators of water quality were determined by public laboratories in water from springs, household water wells, and rural and metropolitan water supplies in north-eastern Spain. Indicator bacteria were detected more frequently than bacteriophages in springs, household water wells and rural water supplies. In contrast, positive bact...