Recently, increasing concern about pollution of groundwater by organic chemicals has led to research on the use of various adsorbents. This study addressed the sorption of phenol and organic compounds by two organoclays and a coal/mineral complex (ARO). The organoclays used were a bentonite from Brazil (SVC) and Wyoming bentonite (SWy) with quaternary ammonium salt (ABDMA). Swelling capacity of the sorbents in toluene, diesel, gas, Varsol and kerosene were measured. Absorption of organic compounds served as an ASTM D 281-95 base, which resulted in the following order for ABDMA-SVC: gas > toluene > kerosene > diesel > Varsol. ABDMA-SWy absorbed in the following order: gas > toluene > Varsol > diesel > kerosene. ARO absorbed: gas > toluene >diesel > Varsol > kerosene. Sorption of phenol followed the order of ABDMA-SVC > ABDMA-SWy > ARO. The adsorption data show that the materials prepared were effective in sorbing phenol, and that the Brazilian clay was the most efficient of the three materials.

Estrogen (ER) and progesterone (PR) receptors in the normal uterine cervix, cervical intraepithelial neoplasia and invasive carcinoma were studied in consecutive samples from Hospital do Câncer, São Paulo, between 1996 and 1997. Tissue was collected by removing a fragment of the tumoral area using a 5-mm diameter biopsy punch, followed by removal of a macroscopically normal area as close as possible from the tumor. Histopathological confirmation was obtained for all specimens analyzed. A total of 24 normal tissues, 17 cases of cervical intraepithelial neoplasia and 7 of invasive carcinomas were studied. The ER/PR ratio was determined by immunohistochemistry using monoclonal antibodies specific for each receptor. Adjacent tissue slides were submitted to generic PCR for human papillomavirus (HPV) DNA detection followed by typing by dot blot hybridization. About half (45.8%) of the tumors were HPV DNA positive while 29.1% of the patients were also HPV positive in their respective normal tissue. ER was negative in the tumoral epithelium of 11 HPV-positive patients (P = 0.04). There was a trend in the ER distribution in normal tissue that was opposite to that from lesions, but it was not statistically significant (P = 0.069). No difference in ER distribution in stromal tissues was observed between HPV-positive and HPV-negative tissues. PR staining was negative in the epithelium of all cases studied. The results obtained from this small number of cases cannot be considered to be conclusive but do suggest that factors related to viral infection affect the expression of these ER/PR cervix receptors.