Abstract
As a result of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) crisis, meat and bone meal (MBM) production can no longer be used to feed cattle and must be safely disposed of or transformed. MBM specific incineration remains an alternative that could offer the opportunity to achieve both thermal valorization and solid waste recovery as ashes are calcium phosphate-rich material. The aim of this work is to evaluate ashes efficiency for in situ remediation of lead-contaminated aqueous solutions and soils, and to assess the bioavailability of lead using two biological models, amphibian Xenopus laevis larvae and Nicotiana tabaccum tobacco plant. With the amphibian model, no toxic or genotoxic effects of ashes are observed with concentrations from 0.1 to 5g of ashes/L. If toxic and genotoxic effects of lead appear at concentration higher than 1mg Pb/L (1ppm), addition of only 100mg of ashes/L neutralizes lead toxicity even with lead concentration up to 10ppm. Chemical investigations (kinetics and X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis) reveals that lead is quickly immobilized as pyromorphite [Pb10(PO4)6(OH)2] and lead carbonate dihydrate [PbCO3·2H2O]. Tobacco experiments are realized on contaminated soils with 50, 100, 2000 and 10000ppm of lead with and without ashes amendment (35.3g ashes/kg of soil). Tobacco measurements show that plant elongation is bigger in an ashes-amended soil contaminated with 10000ppmofleadthanonthereferencesoilalone.Tobaccomodelpointsoutthatashespresenttwobeneficialactionsastheydonotonlyneutralize lead toxicity but also act as a fertilizer. © 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Meat and bone meal ashes; Lead; Toxicity; Genetic effects; Xenopus larvae; Tobacco