The human health risks of cadmium (Cd), lead (Pb), and nickel (Ni) in fifty regular and slim cigarette brands available in the Serbian market were evaluated. Distributions on per-cigarette basis concentrations of these metals, as determined by graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrometry, were used as inputs in the probabilistic risk assessment. The contents of these metals in cigarettes varied significantly. Larger quantities of the studied metals were observed in regular cigarettes than in slim cigarettes, but the concentration levels per cigarette tobacco mass were higher in slim cigarettes. The metal concentrations in counterfeit cigarettes were marginally higher than those in authentic brands. Based on the mean concentrations, Pb was the most abundant toxic metal, followed by Ni and Cd. The calculated values of the cumulative hazard index (HI) and incremental lifetime cancer risk (ILCR) indicated a low non-carcinogenic risk and low but not negligible carcinogenic risk from Cd, Pb, and Ni. The mean HI and ILCR values obtained using probabilistic and deterministic approaches were similar. A Monte Carlo simulation was employed to minimize the uncertainty of health risk estimation. The sensitivity analysis revealed that the most influential factor was cigarette mass followed by Cd content.

A high consumption of solid fats is linked to increased inflammation and a risk of cardiovascular diseases. Hence, in recent years, there has been increasing interest in the development of oleogels as a fat substitute in food products. Oleogels are edible gels that contain a large amount of liquid oils entrapped in a 3D network and that can potentially be applied to spreads, bakery goods, meat, and dairy products in order to lower their saturated fat content while maintaining a desirable food texture and mouthfeel. In this work, alginate cryogels were studied as templates for three different edible oils in the process of oleogel formation. Two different freezing regimes to obtain cryogels were employed in order to evaluate better the textural and morphological capabilities of cryogels to adsorb and retain edible oils. It was shown that rapid freezing in liquid nitrogen produces alginate cryogels with a lower density, higher porosity, and a greater ability to adsorb the tested oils. The highest uptake and holding oil capacity was achieved for olive oil, which reached a value of 792% and 82%, respectively. The best chewiness was found for an oleogel containing olive oil, whereas oleogels with the other two tested oils showed better springiness. Hence, the results presented in this work demonstrated that alginate-based cryogels can be effectively used as templates for oleogels and potentially find applications in the food industry.

Carbon cryogel (CC) has been prepared through sol gel polycondensation of resorcinol with formaldehyde in basic aqueous solution followed by freeze-drying and carbonization. Porous properties of CC analyzed by gravimetric McBain method confirmed the expected surface area and degree of mesoporosity. Obtained powdered material was used for the removal of pesticide imidacloprid from aqueous solutions under regular batch adsorption procedure. A set of several isotherm models including Langmuir, Freundlich, Temkin, Dubinin–Radushkevich, Brouers–Sotolongo, Redlich–Peterson, Sips, Toth, Jovanovic, Hurkins–Jura, Halsey and Radke–Prausnitz model was used for nonlinear fitting of equilibrium data. Several models fitted with quite high correlation coefficients. Bangham and Elovich model fitted suitably for kinetic study indicating that pesticide diffusion into carbons pores is important step which dictates the process rate. Suitability of kinetic models decreased with the increase in adsorbent dosage. Imidacloprid uptake was not influenced by the solution pH.

Horse chestnut kernel was used as the precursor for the preparation of powdered activated carbon using phosphoric acid as the activating agent. Batch adsorption experiments for the adsorption of cationic dye methylene blue from aqueous solutions were carried out using the obtained carbon as adsorbent. Equilibrium and kinetic experiments were conducted. The equilibrium data were fitted with the Langmuir, Freundlich and Temkin theoretical isotherm models. The best results was obtained in the case of Langmuir model, which indicates that monolayer adsorption occurs on finite number of the active adsorption sites on the carbon surface. The kinetic data were fitted with pseudo-first, pseudo-second, Elovich and interparticle diffusion model. Pseudo-second order model and Elovich model showed the best results of the kinetic data. The increasing of the solution pH led to a higher uptake of methylene blue due to the fact that competitive adsorption of methylene blue cation and proton exists in acidic solutions. The adsorption capacity for methylene blue in equilibrium study was significant (168.93 mg g-1). Comparison of the adsorption capacities of methylene blue onto activated carbons derived from various alternative precursors proves chestnut kernel to be efficient and low-cost material which could be substantially deployed in the future.