In Sweden exist about 1200 artificial turfs. Artificial turfs contain a layer of rubber granulates, which counts as microplastics and can emit to the environment. The emitted amount is uncertain but estimated to 475 tons/year. According to Swedish environmental code, artificial turfs can be classified as an environmental hazardous activity and the operators have a responsibility to reduce emissions. The purpose of this study was to investigate the work being done to reduce microplastic emissions from artificial turfs operated by Sweden’s municipalities and how it relates to the general rules of consideration in the environmental code. A web-survey was sent to all municipalities in Sweden. The result indicated that there is a high level of awareness of the problem among the municipalities. 68% have identified pathways for rubber granulates from the artificial turfs to the environment. Most common identified pathways were players, via stormwater and snow clearance. 87% have taken protective measures to reduce emissions. Most common measures taken were hard surface around the turf, granulate traps/filter in stormwater wells and collection areas for snow. Some municipalities are also testing and investigating alternative infill material. A majority were aware of the Swedish environmental protection agency’s guidance. The general rules of consideration were applicable to reduce emissions of microplastic. The reuse of rubber granulates when refilling the turfs and the investigation for alternative infill material could increase. Knowledge and insight among the operators, players and maintenance are key factors to limit the emissions along with proper protective measures.

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A preparação de partículas pela técnica de granulação por solidificação de material fundido em leito fluidizado tem se destacado no âmbito da indústria farmacêutica. As vantagens do uso deste método têm atraído muitos pesquisadores para aprimorar e colocar em prática tal técnica de preparo. A principal vantagem deste processo é dispensar o uso de solventes e diminuir o tempo de preparo dos granulados para compressão. O objetivo do presente trabalho foi o desenvolvimento e estudo desta técnica de granulação, usando a lactose tipo spray-dried como substrato e como agente aglutinante uma dispersão do polímero polietilenoglicol 4000 contendo indometacina como fármaco modelo. Outra motivação para este trabalho foi realizar a caracterização físico-química dos granulados obtidos e avaliar um possível aumento da solubilidade deste fármaco de classe II. Resultados obtidos durante estudos preliminares mostram que a solubilidade da indometacina foi consideravelmente aumentada com o uso do PEG e análises físico-química indicaram que não há interação entre a indometacina e o PEG. O método utilizado na granulação consistiu na atomização da dispersão liquefeita de PEG 4000 contendo 25% de indometacina sobre o substrato a fim de obter grânulos contendo estes três componentes. Um estudo prévio da fluidodinâmica da lactose provou ser predominante o regime de leito fluidizado. Para viabilizar a obtenção destas dispersões sólidas, foram estudadas as variáveis do processo como vazão da dispersão carreador/fármaco, vazão do ar de atomização e quantidade total de dispersão adicionada, aplicando para tal um planejamento fatorial tipo Box-Behnken. O leito fluidizado se mostrou eficiente para a granulação e os granulados obtidos foram considerados de boa qualidade baseando-se na sua caracterização por densidades aparente e compactada, fluidez, distribuição granulométrica, doseamento do fármaco e perfil de dissolução in-vitro. Granulados de dois tamanhos médios diferentes e com ótima fluidez foram escolhidos para as análises seguintes. A integridade e ausência de interação do fármaco com os demais componentes destes granulados foram comprovadas por calorimetria exploratória diferencial, difração de raios-X, infravermelho, microscopia de plataforma quente e microscopia de varredura eletrônica. As micrografias mostraram visivelmente que as formas dos cristais de indometacina presentes no granulado apresentaram as características da forma y (II), que é a mesma da indometacina padrão. A dissolução de cápsulas gelatinosas duras contendo os lotes de grânulos escolhidos mostraram que no meio tampão fosfato (pH 7,2) foi liberado até 99% da indometacina. Porém, em meio HCl 0,1N; obteve-se liberação de até 28% da indometacina, o que corresponde a um aumento de 14,5 vezes a liberação obtida com a indometacina padrão. / Recently, there is a renewed interest in the fluidized bed hot melt granulation for the preparation of solid dosage forms in the pharmaceutical industry and academy. The several advantages of this technique have attracted may researchers, but the main advantage are undoubtedly the solvent free operation and the short processing times. The aim of this work was to develop and study this granulation technique using spray-dried lactose as substrate and a dispersion of indomethacin in hot melted polyethylene glycol 4000 and as the binder. Another goal in this work was to characterize the granules obtained and to evaluate any increase in indomethacin solubility in the solid dispersions. The results of preliminary evaluation of indomethacin/polyethylene glycol physical mixtures and solid dispersions showed a considerable increase in the drug solubility, while no chemical or physical interaction with the carrier could be observed. Before the granulation experiments the fluid dynamic behavior of the lactose was characterized as fluidization regime. The method of granulation consisted in the atomization of hot melted polyethylene glycol containing 25% of indomethacin onto the fluidized bed of lactose. In order to study the granulation process, a Box-Behnken design was applied to verify the effects of spray air flow rate, drug/carrier feed rate and total amount of drug/carrier added to granules. The fluidized bed showed to be an effective method for hot melt granulation and the granules quality can be considered adequate, based on their characteristics of apparent and compacted densities, flowability, particle size distribution, indomethacin content and in-vitro dissolution profile. From the whole set of experiments, two granule batches were chosen based on their mean particle sizes and excellent flow indexes, to verify any drug/PEG/lactose interaction during the granulation process. The non existence of interaction was proved by differential scanning calorimetry, X-ray powder diffraction, Fourier transform Infra-red, hot stage microscopy and scanning electron microscopy. The scanning electron microscopy showed that indomethacin crystals with the characteristic shape of the form y (II) could be observed in the granules, indicating that its crystalline form did not change during processing. The dissolution profiles of indomethacin from hard gelatin capsules containing the granules showed the release of 99% of the drug in phosphate buffer media (pH 7.2). However, in acidic media (HCl 0,1N) 28% of the total indomethacin was released, which corresponded to a 14.5 fold increase when compared to the pure indomethacin release under the same conditions.

Idrott är en stor bidragande faktor till social hållbarhet i Sverige, bland annat genom att främja folkhälsa, aktivera unga som gamla samt skapa gemenskap och sysselsättning. Enbart fotbollen aktiverar över 850 000 människor årligen i Sverige. En av anledningarna som möjliggör den höga aktiviteten är att en stor del av fotbollen sker på konstgräs. Konstgräs gör det möjligt att spela året om och ökar tillgängligheten. Dock beräknas konstgräsplaner vara den näst största källan till utsläpp av mikroplaster i Sverige. Därför har denna uppsats undersökt vilka barriärer som utgör de största hindren för aktörer i Lunds kommun att minska spridningen av gummigranulat från sina verksamheter. Den använda metoden har varit kvalitativa intervjuer med aktörer inom kommunen och föreningslivet, och en analys av materialet har gjorts utifrån Stephen Trudgills (1990) barriärer för arbete med miljöfrågor. Teorin utgår från att sex barriärer som behöver överkommas för att gå från problem till lösning, dessa barriärer är; enighet, kunskap, teknik, ekonomi, socialt, politisk. Utifrån intervjuerna var samtliga intervjupersoner tydliga med att konstgräs är viktigt för deras verksamheter och de var eniga om att det finns en situation med granulatspridning men det fanns tveksamheter kring problemställningen och omfattningen av problemet som grundades i osäker kunskap samt att befintlig kunskap inte kommuniceras ut bra nog. De presenterade en stor mängd tekniska lösningar som finns att tillgå men alternativen måste utvärderas i fråga om ekologisk och social lämplighet. Samtliga intervjupersoner såg ekonomi som en avgörande barriär och det finns potential att nyttja ekonomiska incitament mer för att påverka verksamheterna. Frågan om ansvar för granulatspridningen bör specificeras samtidigt som intervjupersonerna tryckte på vikten av samarbete och de visade en öppenhet för att dela med sig av erfarenheter och kunskap. Det uttrycktes behov av tydliga riktlinjer från beslutsfattare som stöd i den operativa verksamheten gällande hanteringen av konstgräsplaner. Det behövs dessutom mer forskning, gällande mikroplaster i allmänhet och konstgräs i synnerhet. / Sports are a big contributing factor to social sustainability in Sweden. It promotes public health, activates the population and creates community. Soccer alone activates over 850 000 people each year in Sweden. One of the reasons for the high activity is that a big part of soccer is played on artificial turf fields. Artificial turf makes it possible to play all year round and increases the accessibility. Artificial turf is however, calculated to be the second largest source of micro plastic emissions in Sweden. This essay has therefore studied what barriers constitute the biggest obstacles for stakeholders in the municipality of Lund to limit the emissions of granulates from the artificial turfs. The used method was qualitative interviews with participants from the municipality and soccer teams, and an analysis of the material was made based on a theory of barriers for working with environmental issues by Stephen Trudgill (1990). The theory consists of six barriers needed to go from problem to solution and the barriers are; agreement, knowledge, technology, economy, social and political. Based on the interviews the interviewees were all in agreement about the importance of artificial turf for their businesses and they were all aware of a situation with emissions of granulates, but there was doubt about the problem and the extent of the problem, which was based on lack of knowledge and poorly communicated knowledge. They presented plenty of technological solutions but these alternatives must be evaluated considering their ecological and social appropriateness. All interviewees considered economy to be an important barrier and there is potential to further use economic incitements. The question of responsibility needs to be specified, but the interviewees also highlighted the need for cooperation and showed an openness towards sharing experiences and knowledge. There was expressed opinions about the need for more political directives to support operative decisions. In addition, more research is needed, regarding micro plastics in general and artificial turf in particular.

A preparação de partículas pela técnica de granulação por solidificação de material fundido em leito fluidizado tem se destacado no âmbito da indústria farmacêutica. As vantagens do uso deste método têm atraído muitos pesquisadores para aprimorar e colocar em prática tal técnica de preparo. A principal vantagem deste processo é dispensar o uso de solventes e diminuir o tempo de preparo dos granulados para compressão. O objetivo do presente trabalho foi o desenvolvimento e estudo desta técnica de granulação, usando a lactose tipo spray-dried como substrato e como agente aglutinante uma dispersão do polímero polietilenoglicol 4000 contendo indometacina como fármaco modelo. Outra motivação para este trabalho foi realizar a caracterização físico-química dos granulados obtidos e avaliar um possível aumento da solubilidade deste fármaco de classe II. Resultados obtidos durante estudos preliminares mostram que a solubilidade da indometacina foi consideravelmente aumentada com o uso do PEG e análises físico-química indicaram que não há interação entre a indometacina e o PEG. O método utilizado na granulação consistiu na atomização da dispersão liquefeita de PEG 4000 contendo 25% de indometacina sobre o substrato a fim de obter grânulos contendo estes três componentes. Um estudo prévio da fluidodinâmica da lactose provou ser predominante o regime de leito fluidizado. Para viabilizar a obtenção destas dispersões sólidas, foram estudadas as variáveis do processo como vazão da dispersão carreador/fármaco, vazão do ar de atomização e quantidade total de dispersão adicionada, aplicando para tal um planejamento fatorial tipo Box-Behnken. O leito fluidizado se mostrou eficiente para a granulação e os granulados obtidos foram considerados de boa qualidade baseando-se na sua caracterização por densidades aparente e compactada, fluidez, distribuição granulométrica, doseamento do fármaco e perfil de dissolução in-vitro. Granulados de dois tamanhos médios diferentes e com ótima fluidez foram escolhidos para as análises seguintes. A integridade e ausência de interação do fármaco com os demais componentes destes granulados foram comprovadas por calorimetria exploratória diferencial, difração de raios-X, infravermelho, microscopia de plataforma quente e microscopia de varredura eletrônica. As micrografias mostraram visivelmente que as formas dos cristais de indometacina presentes no granulado apresentaram as características da forma y (II), que é a mesma da indometacina padrão. A dissolução de cápsulas gelatinosas duras contendo os lotes de grânulos escolhidos mostraram que no meio tampão fosfato (pH 7,2) foi liberado até 99% da indometacina. Porém, em meio HCl 0,1N; obteve-se liberação de até 28% da indometacina, o que corresponde a um aumento de 14,5 vezes a liberação obtida com a indometacina padrão. / Recently, there is a renewed interest in the fluidized bed hot melt granulation for the preparation of solid dosage forms in the pharmaceutical industry and academy. The several advantages of this technique have attracted may researchers, but the main advantage are undoubtedly the solvent free operation and the short processing times. The aim of this work was to develop and study this granulation technique using spray-dried lactose as substrate and a dispersion of indomethacin in hot melted polyethylene glycol 4000 and as the binder. Another goal in this work was to characterize the granules obtained and to evaluate any increase in indomethacin solubility in the solid dispersions. The results of preliminary evaluation of indomethacin/polyethylene glycol physical mixtures and solid dispersions showed a considerable increase in the drug solubility, while no chemical or physical interaction with the carrier could be observed. Before the granulation experiments the fluid dynamic behavior of the lactose was characterized as fluidization regime. The method of granulation consisted in the atomization of hot melted polyethylene glycol containing 25% of indomethacin onto the fluidized bed of lactose. In order to study the granulation process, a Box-Behnken design was applied to verify the effects of spray air flow rate, drug/carrier feed rate and total amount of drug/carrier added to granules. The fluidized bed showed to be an effective method for hot melt granulation and the granules quality can be considered adequate, based on their characteristics of apparent and compacted densities, flowability, particle size distribution, indomethacin content and in-vitro dissolution profile. From the whole set of experiments, two granule batches were chosen based on their mean particle sizes and excellent flow indexes, to verify any drug/PEG/lactose interaction during the granulation process. The non existence of interaction was proved by differential scanning calorimetry, X-ray powder diffraction, Fourier transform Infra-red, hot stage microscopy and scanning electron microscopy. The scanning electron microscopy showed that indomethacin crystals with the characteristic shape of the form y (II) could be observed in the granules, indicating that its crystalline form did not change during processing. The dissolution profiles of indomethacin from hard gelatin capsules containing the granules showed the release of 99% of the drug in phosphate buffer media (pH 7.2). However, in acidic media (HCl 0,1N) 28% of the total indomethacin was released, which corresponded to a 14.5 fold increase when compared to the pure indomethacin release under the same conditions.