Publications

Tea, produced from the evergreen plant, Camellia Sinensis, is the most widely consumed beverage in the world after water. Although tea processing has now diversified into various speciality end products such as instant, white, oolong, iced, flavoured, and various blends, the most abundantly produced tea product in the world is fermented black tea. Black tea production is essentially a “dry” process, as no water is used at any of the production process steps. However liquid waste is generated due to the use of water for cleaning process equipment and factory premises. The waste exits the factory as coloured liquid effluent that must be treated before being discharged into rivers, lakes and other fresh water bodies. This paper presents findings of a study carried out to evaluate the performance of a combined adsorption and advanced oxidation process in removing colour from tea industry wastewater. The variables explored were the effects of sorbent mass, oxidant dosage, solution pH, agitation rate and temperature, on the decolouration of tea industry effluent. The results indicate that the combined adsorption and advanced oxidation is most effective at pH 3 wherein the effluent colour was reduced from 478 Pt-Co colour units to 8 Pt-Co colour units. The latter meets the NEMA recommended limit for discharge of colored effluents.

Background: Dyspepsia is one of the major indications for upper gastrointestinal endoscopy. Other indications include dysphagia, odynophagia and gastrointestinal bleeding. Endoscopy is an expensive procedure that is out of reach of many patients in resource constrained region such as western Kenya. We reviewed endoscopy records from both public and private health institutions spanning ten years. Objective: To determine the pattern of referral and endoscopy diagnoses in patients referred for upper gastrointestinal endoscopy in Eldoret, Kenya. Design: Retrospective chart review. Setting: Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital, private hospitals and private clinics in Eldoret, Kenya Subjects: One thousand six hundred and ninety (1690) Patients who underwent upper GI endoscopy from 1993 to 2003 were reviewed after obtaining clearances from the respective institutions. Information on age, sex, symptoms, and endoscopy diagnosis were extracted and subjected to statistical analysis. Results: The most common symptom was dyspepsia in 1059 (62.7%) followed by dysphagia in 224 (13.3%). Others were referred with diagnosis of cancer of the stomach or oesophagus. Common endoscopy diagnoses were cancer of the oesophagus in 199 (11.8%) and duodenal ulcer in 186 (11.0%). The majority of the patients (30.4%) had normal endoscopy findings. Of the 1059 patients with dyspepsia, only 154 (14.5%) had duodenal ulcer and 34 (3.2%) had gastric ulcers, the majority, 37.2% had normal endoscopy findings. Conclusion: Dyspepsia was main reason for referral, but the majority of such patients had normal findings. Cancer of the oesophagus was the main diagnosis in patients with dysphagia. In view of the cost of endoscopy, only those with dyspepsia and alarm symptoms be referred for the procedure.