IRANIAN JOURNAL OF HEALTH AND ENVIRONMENT
Year:2010 | Volume:2 | Issue:4 (6)|Papers Count:8

Backgrounds and Objectives: Propylene glycol is applied in many industries as raw material and can be released to the environment through wastewater of such industries. The biological treatment of solutions containing high concentration of propylene glycol is difficult and some problems can be observed during this process. The main objective of this study was the investigation of electrochemical degradation of propylene glycol and the parameters influencing on improving removal efficiency.Materials and Methods: In this study the degradation of propylene glycol was made by passing an electrical current though the synthetic waste water containing propylene glycol. In order to investigate this process several types of electrode with applied voltage ranging between 5 to 50 V was used. Due to the effect of NaCl concentration on removal efficiency which was mentioned in the literature, the experiment was performed for different NaCl concentrations.Results: In optimum condition, the maximum removal efficiency of propylene glycol (based on COD) was obtained equal to 90%. The results showed that rising applied voltage, NaCl concentration and retention time increase the removal efficiency. The optimum retention time was obtained equal to 50 min. The maximum removal was obtained when aluminum electrode was used. It can be attributed to the production of coagulant material such as Al+3 during this process.Conclusion: The results revealed that this process can be useful for treating the industrial wastewater containing propylene glycol.

Backgrounds and Objectives: Heavy metals in dust can enter to the human body through ingestion and inhalation. They can pollute the water and soil resources via atmospheric precipitation and accumulate in the plants tissue and enter human body by water and food. The aim of this study was measurement of the heavy metals in wet and dry atmospheric precipitation and effects of pollution sources at the ground surface on the concentration of heavy metals in the atmospheric precipitations.Materials and Methods: In this study the zanjan city was divided into 5 zones and wet and dry precipitations were collected in autumn, winter and spring (2008- 2009) from zones. The concentrations of Pb, Cd, Cr and Zn the collected precipitations were determined by Atomic Absorption spectroscopy method.Results: The averages of concentrations of Pb, Cd, Cr and Zn were 0.082, 0.286, 0.018, and 0.009 (mg/m 2.d) respectively. The correlation coefficients between Pb-Zn was 0.8 (P<0.01) and for Cr-Cd, Cd-Pb, and Cr-Pb were 0.89, 0.58 and 0.61 respectively.Conclusion: The results showed that the industrial sources of heavy metals play the main role in concentration of heavy metals in wet and dry atmospheric precipitation in Zanjan.The correlation coefficients showed that the lead and zinc result from a common source. This source can be the lead and zinc factories locating around the city. The measurement of heavy metals in atmospheric precipitation shows the effects of anthropogenic sources in air quality. The heavy metals concentration in atmospheric precipitation can be use as air pollution index.

Backgrounds and Objectives: Water contamination by pesticides is considered as an environmental problem today. In terms of agricultural development and diversity of plant pests, the use of pesticides has been increasing. Hamedan province has a suitable agricultural condition; it has enjoyed significant development in this respect. Among all the cities of Hamedan province, Hamedan city has the highest.rank in tiller crops.Therefore, yearly use of pesticides is increasing in this area; which could be a serious threat to water resources of the city. The aim of this survey was determinaton of Organophosphorous and Carbamat pesticides residue in drinking water resources of Hamadan in 2007.Materials and Methods: In this survey, 126 water samples were collected from 7 drinking water resources of Hamedan during 12 consecutivemonths in 2007. For determination of these pesticides,two methods (solid- phase extraction and Liquid-Liquid extraction) were adopted .and samples were analyzed by means of HPLC and GC/MS applying standard methods.Results: Final results showed that the most concentration of Chlorpyrifos and Carbaryl pesticides were found to be about 3.85 ppb (part per billion) and 1.8 ppb in spring and June respectively; the maximum concentration of Diazinon was about 36.5ppb in October (autumn).The minimum concentration of the three pesticides was detected in winter. According to the statistical test Two - Way ANOWA there were significant differences among pesticides concentrations in the water samples in different seasons (p<0.05) . However, there wasn’t a significant difference in pesticides concentrations in surface and ground water samples (p>0.05).Conclusion: Different studies have shown that pesticides residue concentration in water samples have a relationship with the amount of pesticides used in an area, physical and chemical refractory properties of pesticides; and environmental conditions. Thus, using resistant pollutants such as pesticides will be a serious threat to health of water consumers if they are not properly controlled.

Backgrounds and Objectives: Skin cancer is the most frequent malignancy in Iran. Exposure to the excessive ultraviolet radiation is an important factor in creating skin tumors. The purpose of this study is to determine how the ultraviolet index has been distributed in all townships throughout the country, to determine different kinds of skin cancer and to evaluate a geographical distribution of skin cancers with regard to the UV geographical distribution.Materials and Methods: This study is ecologic, descriptive and analytical in nature. A total number of 6921 skin cancer cases registered at the Center for Disease Control of Iran in 2004 were thoroughly analyzed and UV data were collected from the World Wide Web. With the help of ArcGIS software and SPSS, the statistical analysis was done.Results: The incidence rates were 10.13 for the total skin cancer, 7.53 for basal cell carcinoma, 1.79 for squamous cell carcinoma and 0.39 for malignant melanoma per 100000 population of Iran. The mean ultraviolet index differed from 9 in July to 3 in January. The correlation between the skin cancer incidence at the level of districts and ultraviolet index was not significantly observed.Conclusion: Skin cancer is a public health problem in Iran. Further research in this regard would lead to skin cancer registration improvement and more understanding of different climatic, cultural and behavioral factors in developing skin tumors. With this knowledge the possibility of more effective prevention of the most prevalent cancer in Iran can be created.

Backgrounds and Objectives: Drinking water quality after treatment and before reaching the consumer could be affected by distribution pipes, service lines and Home devices. The structure of water coolers, a home device that are widely used in warm months of the year, could potentially affect the quality of drinking water. The aim of this study was to assess the microbial and chemical quality of water from conventional water coolers.Materials and Methods: Water samples were collected from 29 water cooler systems at the Isfahan University of medical sciences. 29 control samples also obtained from the nearest drinking water taps. All samples were examined for total heterotrophic bacteria and physicochemical parameters including temperature, ph, turbidity and heavy metals.Results: All samples from the water cooler systems complied with the EPA guidelines for total heterotrophic bacteria count. There were no significant differences between the levels of heavy metals in water samples from the water cooler systems and taps. There was only a significant difference between the level of Cu in the water samples from cooler systems and taps.Conclusion: The overall results of this study indicated that the use of water cooler systems from hygienic point of view could not cause any problems for consumers.

Backgrounds and Objectives: Landfill site selection is an important action in integrated solid waste management process. Difference criteria should be paid attention in site selection, so using of special methods are necessary to assimilate the criteria. In this research, GIS software andAnalytical Hierarchy Process were used.Materials and Methods: First of all, maps were built in considering to economical, social and environmental factors, in next step, each layer, was graded. Low grade showed non coordination or less coordination and high grade showed more coordination.Results: Assimilate of graded map in AHP process, separates area into unsuitable, suitable and very suitable parts.Conclusion: Very suitable parts can have high priority in decision making and also suitable parts can have high priority for development projects in future.

Backgrounds and Objectives: Nitrogen compounds in wastewater are mainly in four types of organic, am-monia, nitrite and nitrate. Total nitrogen concentration in municipal wastewater is usually within 25 to 45 mg/L as nitrogen. The most important problem with nitrogen is its oxygen demand and human health effect.Materials and Methods: Anaerobic Baffled Reactor (ABR) is a system in which baffles are used to direct wastewater flow. During 9 months study, a 15 liter modified ABR (104*30*15 cm) with eight baffled com-partments was used for nitrification-denitrification processes. In the seventh compartment, the wastewater was aerated to oxidize ammonia to nitrite and nitrate. Results: Denitrification was done in the first four compartments with removal efficiency from 60 to 84 per- cent for nitrite and nitrate, respectively. During the shock loading study (4 times of the last influent), a sharp decrease in nitrogen removal rate was observed which was then returned to the previous efficiency after 11 days. Artificial neural network was used to evaluate and process the data in which the observed error in 10 patterns was less than 15 percent.Conclusion: Anaerobic baffled reactor with an influent of up to 200 mg/L has capability to remove total nitrogen concentration to less than the standard level of Iranian Department of Environment of 50 mg/L as nitrate and 10 mg/L as nitrogen.

Backgrounds and Objectives: A great part of organic compounds cause more pollution in natural waters meet, are chemical dye material. Azo dyes have more usage in different industries. Azo dyes not only give undesirable dye to the water but also have mutation potential and carcinogenesis effects in human and cause the production of toxic substances in water environments. The purpose of this study is investigation of iron powder, hydrogen peroxide and iron powder-hydrogen peroxide processes in removal of acid yellow 36 dye from aqueous solutions.Materials and Methods: This study was conducted in laboratory scale. At this experiment synthetic solution was made from acid yellow 36 dye, and the removal of acid yellow 36 dye was studied by iron powder, hydrogen peroxide and iron powder- hydrogen peroxide processes .Also effect of dye concentration, pH solution, hydrogen peroxide concentration, iron powder concentration and the time of contact on decolorization, were evaluated.Results: The results showed that iron powder - hydrogen peroxide process, compared to two other processes has high decolorization power. Removal efficacy of iron powder-hydrogen peroxide process with H2O2=23.33 ml / L, pH=3, iron powder 2000 mg/L and 60 minute, was about 97.9%.Conclusion: In general this investigation showed that, thismethod (Iron powder-hydrogen peroxide process) has high efficiency for removal of Azo dyes. But application this method in the industry,should be economically evaluated.