Preface

Environmental contamination is a serious problem for our society worldwide, which contin‐ uously needs new monitoring and implementation of strategies for the preservation of envi‐ ronmental quality on the best plausible mode. Although a wise terminology with no strict definition is given for emerging pollutants, they can be defined as xenobiotic, synthetic or natural. In addition, different microbial communities that are not usually monitored or regu‐ lated have the possibility to introduce, by themselves, into the different environments and, then, exert unfavorable ecological and/or human health consequences.

Emerging pollutants are closely associated with multiple man-made activities such as indus‐ try, transport, food production and urbanization, which are necessary for the development of our modern society. In several cases, discharge of emerging pollutants into the environ‐ ment has likely occurred for an extensive period of time, but detection, identification and quantification may not have been performed until new strategies and methodologies for rec‐ ognition were developed. In other cases, synthesis of new chemicals or novel applications are forms of use for known contaminants, and final disposal of preexisting chemicals, not necessarily toxic, can generate new sources of emerging pollutants in multiple environmen‐ tal compartments.

Few regulatory agencies have proposed methods for establishing provisional safety levels of emerging pollutants. According to the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), these xenobiotics include mainly "…compounds found in phar‐ maceuticals, personal care products, pesticides, industrial and household products, metals, surfactants, industrial additives and solvents". The US Environment Protection Agency (US EPA) states that an emerging pollutant "… is a chemical or material that is characterized by a perceived, potential, or real threat to human health or the environment or a lack of pub‐ lished health standards….". However, today there is no international consensus on the term "emerging pollutants" and it remains problematic. It is not easy to conclude which type of xenobiotic, belonging to different classes, should or should not be included in the list of these contaminants because they represent a changing reality, dependent on perspective as well as timing. Emerging pollutants are currently not included in international legislation mostly because there is not enough information on toxicity, behavior and ecotoxicological effects to establish threshold values. In general, the chemical structure of emerging pollu‐ tants comprises diverse, and origin, and they can be released from either point or diffuse pollution sources, i.e., effluents of wastewater treatment plants from urban or industrial areas and atmospheric deposition or from crop and animal activities. Despite the rate of sci‐ entific publications covering the problematic of "emerging pollutants" input into the envi‐ ronment, the frequency of occurrence, the last fate and the deleterious effects, the knowledge of the real effects of this particular type of xenobiotic remains fragmentary.

Although a vast literature is available on emerging pollutants, this book contains important investigations into the diverse chemical hazards encountered in both anthropogenic and natural environments and provides valuable information about the genotoxicity of several xenobiotics that can negatively influence the health of humans and ecosystems.

This book begins with a chapter presenting an overview of the current advantages and disad‐ vantages of the employ of the rough set theory as a mathematical approach employed for data analysis in the field of air pollution management including the main methodological and op‐ erational contributions as an integrated approach for climate risk evaluation as well as man‐ agement when developing air quality management strategies. The second chapter provides a review of data concerning the employment of exogenous and endogenous nitrogen oxide spe‐ cies implicated in a large diversity of vital functions as well as their use in the medical field against pathogens' infection highlighting the versatility of these nitrosative compounds. The third chapter describes a study employing a simple, fast, and inexpensive method combining solid-phase extraction and ultraviolet spectrophotometry for simultaneous preconcentration and determination of benzophenone and sulisobenzone compounds in wastewater samples. The fourth chapter is focused on the removal of pollutants from wastewater samples by em‐ ploying magnetic nanomaterials, particularly affected by heavy metals and dyestuffs. Lastly, this book includes a final chapter presenting an approach combining solar photodecomposi‐ tion and biocarbon adsorption for removing a mixture of antibiotics, e.g., enrofloxacin, oxyte‐ tracycline, cephalexin and amoxicillin from the polluted surface water.

The editors of *Emerging Pollutants - Some Strategies for the Quality Preservation of Our Environ‐ ment* are enormously grateful to all the contributing authors for sharing their knowledge and insight into this book project. They have made an extensive effort to arrange the infor‐ mation included in every chapter. This book is designed to provide some strategies for the preservation of our environmental quality focusing on the different categories of environ‐ mental pollutants and their negative consequences on living organisms. The contributions made by the specialists in this field of research are gratefully acknowledged. We hope that the information presented in this book will continue to meet the expectations and needs of all those interested in the different aspects of the ecotoxicology field. The publication of this book is of high importance for those scientists, chemists, technologists, as well as engineers belonging to academia, governmental and nongovernmental institutions and environmental entities, who make use of these different investigations to understand both basic and ap‐ plied aspects of how the known and newly emerging pollutants can affect our society and to guide them in the future investigations.

### **Sonia Soloneski, PhD, and Marcelo L. Larramendy, PhD**

School of Natural Sciences and Museum National University of La Plata La Plata, Argentina **Chapter 1**

**Provisional chapter**

**Rough Set Applied to Air Pollution: A New Approach to**

This study presents a rough set application, using together the ideas of classical rough set approach, based on the indiscernibility relation and the dominance-based rough set approach (DRSA), to air micro-pollution management in an industrial site with a high environmental risk rate, such as the industrial area of Syracuse, located in the South of Italy (Sicily). This new data analysis tool has been applied to different decision problems in various fields with considerable success, since it is able to deal both with quantitative and with qualitative data and the results are expressed in terms of decision rules understandable by the decision-maker. In this chapter, some issue related to multi-attribute sorting (i.e. preference-ordered classification) of air pollution risk is presented, considering some meteorological variables, both qualitative and quantitative as attributes, and criteria describing the different objects (pollution occurrences) to be classified, that is, different levels of sulfur oxides (SOx), nitrogen oxides (NOx), and

particular application are presented and discussed: examples of 'if, … then' decision rules, attribute relevance as output of the data analysis also in terms of exchangeable or indispensable attributes/criteria, of qualitative substitution effect and interaction bet-

**Keywords:** industrial areas, air pollution, meteorological attributes, rough set approach

Air pollution in a region depends mainly on the emission of pollutants and on local meteorological conditions. The probability of air pollution occurrences may be estimated by simple

) as pollution indicators. The most significant results obtained from this

**Rough Set Applied to Air Pollution: A New Approach to**

© 2016 The Author(s). Licensee InTech. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

© 2018 The Author(s). Licensee IntechOpen. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use,

distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

DOI: 10.5772/intechopen.75630

**Manage Pollutions in High Risk Rate Industrial Areas**

**Manage Pollutions in High Risk Rate Industrial Areas**

Agata Matarazzo

**Abstract**

methane (CH4

ween them.

**1. Introduction**

Agata Matarazzo

Additional information is available at the end of the chapter

Additional information is available at the end of the chapter

http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.75630

#### **Rough Set Applied to Air Pollution: A New Approach to Manage Pollutions in High Risk Rate Industrial Areas Rough Set Applied to Air Pollution: A New Approach to Manage Pollutions in High Risk Rate Industrial Areas**

DOI: 10.5772/intechopen.75630

#### Agata Matarazzo Agata Matarazzo

Although a vast literature is available on emerging pollutants, this book contains important investigations into the diverse chemical hazards encountered in both anthropogenic and natural environments and provides valuable information about the genotoxicity of several

This book begins with a chapter presenting an overview of the current advantages and disad‐ vantages of the employ of the rough set theory as a mathematical approach employed for data analysis in the field of air pollution management including the main methodological and op‐ erational contributions as an integrated approach for climate risk evaluation as well as man‐ agement when developing air quality management strategies. The second chapter provides a review of data concerning the employment of exogenous and endogenous nitrogen oxide spe‐ cies implicated in a large diversity of vital functions as well as their use in the medical field against pathogens' infection highlighting the versatility of these nitrosative compounds. The third chapter describes a study employing a simple, fast, and inexpensive method combining solid-phase extraction and ultraviolet spectrophotometry for simultaneous preconcentration and determination of benzophenone and sulisobenzone compounds in wastewater samples. The fourth chapter is focused on the removal of pollutants from wastewater samples by em‐ ploying magnetic nanomaterials, particularly affected by heavy metals and dyestuffs. Lastly, this book includes a final chapter presenting an approach combining solar photodecomposi‐ tion and biocarbon adsorption for removing a mixture of antibiotics, e.g., enrofloxacin, oxyte‐

The editors of *Emerging Pollutants - Some Strategies for the Quality Preservation of Our Environ‐ ment* are enormously grateful to all the contributing authors for sharing their knowledge and insight into this book project. They have made an extensive effort to arrange the infor‐ mation included in every chapter. This book is designed to provide some strategies for the preservation of our environmental quality focusing on the different categories of environ‐ mental pollutants and their negative consequences on living organisms. The contributions made by the specialists in this field of research are gratefully acknowledged. We hope that the information presented in this book will continue to meet the expectations and needs of all those interested in the different aspects of the ecotoxicology field. The publication of this book is of high importance for those scientists, chemists, technologists, as well as engineers belonging to academia, governmental and nongovernmental institutions and environmental entities, who make use of these different investigations to understand both basic and ap‐ plied aspects of how the known and newly emerging pollutants can affect our society and to

**Sonia Soloneski, PhD, and Marcelo L. Larramendy, PhD**

School of Natural Sciences and Museum

National University of La Plata

La Plata, Argentina

xenobiotics that can negatively influence the health of humans and ecosystems.

tracycline, cephalexin and amoxicillin from the polluted surface water.

guide them in the future investigations.

VIII Preface

Additional information is available at the end of the chapter Additional information is available at the end of the chapter

http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.75630

#### **Abstract**

This study presents a rough set application, using together the ideas of classical rough set approach, based on the indiscernibility relation and the dominance-based rough set approach (DRSA), to air micro-pollution management in an industrial site with a high environmental risk rate, such as the industrial area of Syracuse, located in the South of Italy (Sicily). This new data analysis tool has been applied to different decision problems in various fields with considerable success, since it is able to deal both with quantitative and with qualitative data and the results are expressed in terms of decision rules understandable by the decision-maker. In this chapter, some issue related to multi-attribute sorting (i.e. preference-ordered classification) of air pollution risk is presented, considering some meteorological variables, both qualitative and quantitative as attributes, and criteria describing the different objects (pollution occurrences) to be classified, that is, different levels of sulfur oxides (SOx), nitrogen oxides (NOx), and methane (CH4 ) as pollution indicators. The most significant results obtained from this particular application are presented and discussed: examples of 'if, … then' decision rules, attribute relevance as output of the data analysis also in terms of exchangeable or indispensable attributes/criteria, of qualitative substitution effect and interaction between them.

**Keywords:** industrial areas, air pollution, meteorological attributes, rough set approach
