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Port causes environmental and health concerns in coastal cities if its operation and development are not made environmentally compatible and sustainable. An emission inventory is necessary to assess the impact of port projects or growth in marine activity as well as to plan mitigation strategies. In this study, a detailed emission inventory of total suspended particulate (TSP) matter, respirable particulate matter (PM10), sulphur dioxide (SO2) and oxides of nitrogen (NOx) for a port having operation and construction activities in parallel is compiled. The study has been done for 1 year. Results show that the maximum contribution of emission of air pollutants in the port area was from TSP (68.5%) and the minimum was from SO2 (5.3%) to the total pollutants considered in this study. Total TSP emission from all activities of the port was 4,452 tyr − 1 and PM10 emission was 903 tyr − 1 in the year 2006. Re-suspension of dust from paved roads was the major contributor of TSP and PM10 in the road transport sector. Construction activities of the port had contributed 3.9% of TSP and 7.4% of PM10 to total emission of particulate matter. Of the total particulate emissions from various port activities approximately 20% of TSP could be attributed to PM10. The sectoral composition indicates that major contribution of SO2 emission in the port was from maritime sector and major contribution of NOx was from road transport sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Twenty five stray rats (Rattus norvegicus) collected from different locations of Mumbai were presented to Dept. of Vety. Pathology for post-mortem and subsequent collection of samples for diagnosis of leptospirosis. All the rats were sacrificed and gross observations were noted. Whitish cysts of varying sizes containing a Cysticercus fasciolaris, metacestodal stage of Taenia taeniformis were noted on the liver of 9 out of 25 rats (36%) for which cat is definitive host whereas; the rat and mice are intermediate hosts. Findings in the present study indicate a potential need of risk assessment of cat population in Mumbai for Taenia taeniformis infection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Biogenic secondary organic aerosols (SOA) are generally considered to be more abundant in summer than in winter. Here, polar organic marker compounds in urban background aerosols from Mumbai were measured using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. Surprisingly, we found that concentrations of biogenic SOA tracers at Mumbai were several times lower in summer (8-14 June 2006; wet season; n = 14) than in winter (13-18 February 2007; dry season; n = 10). Although samples from less than 10% of the season are extrapolated to the full season, such seasonality may be explained by the predominance of the southwest summer monsoon, which brings clean marine air masses to Mumbai. While heavy rains are an important contributor to aerosol removal during the monsoon season, meteorological data (relative humidity and T) suggest no heavy rains occurred during our sampling period. However, in winter, high levels of SOA and their day/night differences suggest significant contributions of continental aerosols through long-range transport together with local sources. The winter/summer pattern of SOA loadings was further supported by results from chemical transport models (NAQPMS and GEOS-Chem). Furthermore, our study suggests that monoterpene- and sesquiterpene-derived secondary organic carbon (SOC) were more significant than those of isoprene- and toluene-SOC at Mumbai. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]