OBJECTIVE To present the protocol and the early results of a urothelial carcinoma (UC) screening analysis performed in a risk population of coke workers. METHODS Between June 2006 and October 2008, 171 male workers (mean age 43 years), employed in a Ligurian coke plant (Italiana Coke S.r.l) and exposed to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) for a median period of 16 years, underwent scree...

Coal classification schemes have been developed over many years from studies of the physical and chemical properties of coals as a method of dividing coals into various categories according to their behaviour during carbonisation and combustion. Although there is no universally accepted scheme, most coal classification schemes are based on two main types of parameters:a)volatile matter, and b)c...

Many host factors or biomarkers are involved in the process of early DNA damage induced by occupational exposure to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) as seen in coke-oven workers. This paper aimed to identify complicated causal interrelationship of various biomarkers using the path analysis. In this analysis, we included 235 subjects (166 coke-oven workers and 69 nonexposed controls) whose...

Regeneration of the coked catalyst is an important process of fluid catalytic cracking (FCC) in petroleum refining, however, this process will emit environmentally harmful gases such as nitrogen and carbon oxides. Transformation of N and C containing compounds in industrial FCC coke under thermal decomposition was investigated via TPD and TPO to examine the evolved gaseous species and TGA, NMR ...

In this study constructed wetlands (CWs) were used to remove three heavy metals (Zn, Cu and Pb). The two tested substrates were made of coke and gravel, respectively. First order dynamic model was appropriate to describe removing of Zn and Cu. The experimental results showed that first dynamic removal rate constants of Zn in CWs with coke and gravel were 0.2326 h and 0.1222 h, respectively. And...

Calcined coke is a competitive material for making carbon anodes for smelting of alumina to aluminum. Calcining is an energy intensive industry and a significant amount of heat is exhausted in the calcining process. Efficiently managing this energy resource is tied to the profit margin and survivability of a calcining plant. To help improve the energy efficiency and reduce natural gas consumpti...

Exploring the associations between genetic polymorphisms of metabolic enzymes and susceptibility to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH)-induced chromosomal damage is of great significance for understanding PAH carcinogenesis. Cytochrome P450, glutathione S-transferase, microsomal epoxide hydrolase, NAD(P)H:quinone oxidoreductase, and N-acetyltransferase are PAH-metabolizing enzymes. In this s...

BACKGROUND The incidence of hospital admissions for respiratory and cardiovascular diseases in areas close to operating coke works in England and Wales was investigated. METHODS A small area study using distance from source as a proxy for exposure was undertaken in subjects aged 65 or over and children under 5 years within 7.5 km of four coke works (1991 estimated populations 87 760 and 43 93...

The run length of cracking furnaces is limited by the formation of coke on the internal skin of the reactor tubes. The reaction mechanism of thermal cracking of hydrocarbons is generally accepted as free-radical chain reactions. On the basis of the plant output data and the insight in the mechanisms for coke formation in pyrolysis reactors, a kinetic model describing the coke formation has been...