JOURNAL OF HEALTH AND HYGIENE
Year:2013 | Volume:4 | Issue:3|Papers Count:8

Background & Objective: Water resources are affected by different pollutants because of population growth, increasing water demand, and development of industries. A group of these pollutants are petroleum compounds which contain hazardous compounds such as BTEX.These compounds may cause undesirable health effects.Methods: In this study, activated carbon along with ozonation process was used for petroleum hydrocarbon removal from water samples. Samples were taken from groundwater resources located around Tehran Petroleum Refinery Plant.Activated carbon dosages were equal to 0.5, 3, and 5.5 g/l, and ozone flow was 2.5 l/min. Response surface methodology based on Box-Behnken was used to assess the effect of independent variables on the response function and prediction of the best response value. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) was applied for statistical analysis of the responses.Results: High value for R2 (0.98) shows that removal of COD can be described by this model. Although the value of R2 adjusted (0.96) was less than R2, however, it can be concluded that the model has fit the experimental data favorably.Conclusion: Use of an oxidant together with activated carbon can increases removal efficiency for organic compounds. In this study it was observed that efficiency of petroleum compounds’ removal was greatly increased by addition of activated carbon as a catalyst with ozonation process.

Background & objectives: Understanding relationships between dietary factors and prevention of diabetes is increasing. Pre-diabetic patients should have an appropriate diet. The overall goal of this project was to investigate the effect of application of Trans-theoretical Model based education on enhancing nutritional behaviors in pre-diabetic individuals in Yazd city.Methods: This experimental-trial research with control group was conducted on randomized samples of 220 pre-diabetic patients referred to Yazd city health centers using Trans-theoretical Model to improve nutritional behaviors controlling diabetes. In order to achieve project goals, a multi-dimensional questionnaire was designed based on the model constructs and requirements and filled in a long with 72-hour recall and food frequency forms by participants before and after intervention.Results: Before intervention, measurements of stage of change construct revealed that majority of participants (i.e. 86.4% of experimental group and 79.1% of control group) were in the preaction stages (pre-contemplation, contemplation and preparation) in terms of nutritional behaviors. However, 21.4% of the experimental group and 73.4% of the control group were observed in the pre-action stages after the intervention.Conclusion: Type 2 diabetes is a global crisis that threatens health and economy of all nations.Scientific evidence shows that the vast majority of type 2 diabetes can be prevented through improving diet and lifestyle modification in pre-diabetic patients.

Background & Objectives: Dyes are one of the main pollutants in textile wastewater and due to their molecular structures, they are usually toxic, carcinogen and persistent in the environment. Therefore, the aim of present work was to compare efficiency of LECA and coral limestone to remove Reactive Orange 3R from aqueous solution.Methods: Present work is a basic-applicable study in which, LECA and coral limestone were used as efficient adsorbents for removal of Reactive Orange 3R. The adsorbent characteristics were determined by X-ray fluorescence and X-ray diffraction methods. Experimental parameters included; adsorbent concentration, contact time, dye concentration, and solution pH, which were tested in a batch system. In addition, data acquired from equilibrium constant were evaluated using various isotherm and kinetic models.Results: Results showed that dye removal efficiency for both adsorbents was increased with increasing contact time and adsorbent mass, while decreased with increasing solution pH and initial dye concentration. Dye removal efficiency increased with increasing contact time and reached to equilibrium after 180 minutes. At same condition, increasing initial dye concentration from 50 mg/L to 150 mg/L, decreased removal efficiency of coral limestone and LECA by 29 and 33%, respectively. Equilibrium data was fitted onto both Freundlich and Langmuir isotherm models with higher correlation coefficient (R2=0.987) found for Langmuir isotherm model. In addition, data for time-concentration profile was best fitted to both pseudo first order and pseudo second order kinetic model with higher correlation coefficient (R2>0.98) for pseudo second order kinetic model.Conclusion: Results reveal that coral limestone has higher efficiency than LECA in removal of Reactive Orange 3R dye. Tested adsorbents due to their appropriate density, rapid settling properties, and no residual in solution can be applied in dye removal easier than other adsorbents.

Background & Objectives: Accreditation is the most acceptable evaluation method leading to improvement in health system performance. Regarding to lack of national accreditation model for Primary Health Care (PHC), this study aimed to design national accreditation model for rural health centers.Methods: Firstly, suitable accreditation models were selected for benchmarking and surveyed for meeting relevant standards. After studying related textbooks and interview with experts; websites of medical sciences universities were also surveyed. Finally, the standards obtained based on experts’ perspectives were investigated.Results: Researchers recognized JCAHO and CCHSA as superior models; however, medical sciences universities’ web sites failed to have suitable standards. The obtained standards from all methods were delivered to experts in two rounds using Delphi Technique. Finally, all 55 standards were accepted.Conclusion: From this study, an extensive accreditation model with the highest number of standards related to primary health care was obtained. Researchers hope that its application to result in continuous quality improvement in rural health centers.

Background & Objectives: Work- Related musculoskeletal disorders are considered as one of the most common occupational disease among dentists. This study was conducted to determine prevalence of musculoskeletal disorders, work-related risk factors, and to provide control measures.Methods: This cross-sectional study was performed on 48 dentists in Semnan in 2011. Prevalence of musculoskeletal disorders and work-related risk factors were evaluated using standard Nordic questionnaire and Rapid Entire Body Assessment method, respectively. Data were analyzed using chi square test.Results: More than 80% of dentists complained about pain in at least one part of their body during last year. Prevalence of musculoskeletal disorders were 58, 54, 46, 37, and 4% for neck, wrist, back, shoulders, and legs, respectively. There was no significant difference in prevalence of WMSDs between genders. No significant correlation was observed between age, work experience, BMI, and daily practice period with WMSDs in neck, wrist, back, shoulders, and legs. Findings from REBA indicated that more than 90% of dentists’ postures were above moderate risk range and require control measures.Conclusion: Majority of postures of the subjects studied requires to be improved and that ergonomic interventions seem to be necessary.

Background & Objectives: Surfactants are organic chemical compounds that increase cleaning power of water through reducing surface tension. Linear alkyl benzene sulfonate (LAS) as an anionic surfactant may cause environmental problems especially eutrophication phenomenon in surface waters. The purpose of this study is to evaluate efficiency of extended aeration process in removal of LAS in Paveh city.Methods: This descriptive cross-sectional study was carried out for 12 months in 2008. Sampling was done at 8:00 am, 10:00 am, and 12:30 pm. Methylene blue method was used to determine LAS. In total, 108 samples were taken from inlet, outlet, and return sludge during the study. All the sampling and testing methods were performed according to standard method guidelines.Results: The results showed that efficiency of the system in removal of LAS, COD, and TSS in the warm seasons (i.e. April to September) were significantly higher than the cold seasons (p<0.001). According to the results, the average of LAS removal in winter and summer were 94.06% and 99.23%, respectively. Respective values for removal of COD and TSS were 89.1% and 72.1% in winter and 91.06% and 76.36% in summer. In addition there was a direct relationship between COD and TSS parameters with LAS (R2=0.98).Conclusion: It can be concluded that Paveh wastewater treatment has high performance in removal of anionic detergent in different seasons. So that, the parameters measured in all seasons (except concentration of LAS in winter) met the standards set to agriculture and surface water discharges.

Background & Objectives: Selection of the appropriate process is one of the most important issues prior to design and construct any wastewater treatment plant. Considering the importance of this issue, current study was carried out to assess wastewater treatment plants in operation in Ardebil, Tabriz, and Uremia in order to prioritize and select the most appropriate treatment process.Methods: Current descriptive-analytical study was conducted in 3 wastewater treatment plants of Ardebil, Tabriz, and Uremia in 2012 for a period of one year. Data were collected through a researcher-designed questionnaire.30 participants were selected using census method. Data were analyzed by “Expert Choice” software.Results: Biolak process with a weight of 0.421 was selected as an optimal treatment process and Activated Sludge with a weight of 0.356 and Aerated Lagoon process with 0.223 held next priorities. Within the criteria, technical criterion with a weight of 0.407 was determined as the most effective criterion and environmental and economical criteria took next priorities.Conclusion: Considering importance of the selection of municipal wastewater treatment process to allocate funding reasonably and to achieve desired results, it is necessary to evaluate processes based on economic and engineering criteria prior to choosing an appropriate process.

Background & Objectives: Monitoring and quality control of water resources are important tools to manage and protect these valuable resources. Hiroo River is the principal source of water supplies for Khalkhal and Kosar cities. The purpose of this work was to investigate water quality of Hiroo River by NSFWQI and WILCOX indices.Methods: In this descriptive cross-sectional study; pH, DO, BOD, TS, NO3, PO4, turbidity, temperature, fecal coliform, EC, Na, K, Ca, and Mg were determined. NSFWQI and WILCOX indices were applied. Data were analyzed by determining the above mentioned quality indices.Results: In the optimum situation, NSFWQI was related to S1 with the value of 74 in February 2009 indicating good water quality. Minimum value of 53 was determined for NSFWQI at S3 in August 2009 representing medium water quality.Conclusion: Water quality was good in upstream (S1) due to lack of contamination sources, however, discharging wastewater of Khalkhal and Givi cities to the river decreased water quality gradually in downstream (S2 and S4). Average of data obtained indicates that all the monitoring stations fall in C (medium) category based on NSFWQI classification.