The Tamil Nadu State Council for Science and Technology, Chennai, has awarded the Rs1.10-lakh research project to Dr P.N. Sudha, Professor of Chemistry, Dhanabagyam Krishnaswamy Mudaliar College for Women, Vellore.

According to Dr. Sudha, the two-year project is aimed at the removal of chromium from leather wastes through a cost-effective method.

Leather shavings, owing to high protein content, are often used in the manufacture of poultry feed, along with corn flour. It was found, after an analysis of the poultry feed collected from different chicken shops, that the samples contained very high concentration of chromium. Chickens that ate the feed were often found to have high levels of chromium in different parts of the body.

Land filling of leather wastes caused pollution of the environment since leaching of the wastes resulted in polluting the land and the water resources in the vicinity. The use of the leather wastes as chicken feed was a good alternative, provided the chromium and other toxic substances were properly removed, she said.