Journal of Safety Promotion and Injury Prevention
Year:2013 | Volume:1 | Issue:2|Papers Count:7

Backgrounds and Aims: Ammonia removal from air to prevent severe damage to the environment and living organisms is very important. Biofiltration is an efficient, easy, cost-effective, and environmentally friendly process for degradation of ammonia from waste air. The aim of this study is to investigate the efficiency of biological filtration using a compost and scallop bed for ammonia removal.Materials and Methods: According to the ammonia removal method a column with 14cm inner diameter and 45cm height made from transparent Plexiglas was used. The column was filled up to 25 cm with compost and scallop (with a scallop: compost ratio of 1: 4).In this study, performance of the biofilter was studied under 10 different flow rates (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10 lit/min) and 5 different concentrations (0-20, 20-40, 40-60, 60-80 and 80-100 ppm) at a temperature of 25 degrees Celsius.Results: The results of this study showed that efficiency is decreased when the flow rate or concentration is increased because the microbial population is reduced. The efficiency was reduced by 84.6-98.2 percent. Maximum efficiency occurred at a 0.19g/ (m3.h) loading rate. Efficiency was in 0-20 concentration intervals at a flow rate of 1 lit/min and at an Empty Bed Residence Time (EBRT) of 240 seconds.Conclusion: The results show that a biofilter with a compost and scallop bed is efficient for ammonia removal from air. Results can be optimized in the design and operation of biological systems to be used in the industrial control of ammonia gas.

Backgrounds and Aims: Aluminum and in particular its compounds make up a large proportion of the pollutants coming from the aluminum foundry. In several studies conducted on the harmful effects of aluminum in recent decades, it has been identified as a neurotoxic metal. Chronic occupational exposure through inhalation of dust is a common problem in aluminum foundries. Investigation of the exposure of various occupational groups in two aluminum foundry plants to aluminum aerosols.Materials and Methods: To study the occupational exposure of foundry workers to respirable aerosols of aluminum, personal sampling was conducted from the breathing zone of 63 workers at two foundries in the south of Tehran city following NIOSH method No.0600. Then samples were treated using NIOSH Institute optimized method No.7013 and analyzed by high sensitivity graphite atomic absorption.Collected data were analyzed with SPSS V.16 statistical software using an independent sample t-test and ANOVA.Result: The average of aluminum respirable aerosols in A and B factories were 3.21±2.33 and 3.31±2.15 mg/m3 respectively. The one-way ANOVA indicated that occupational exposure among various occupational groups (Similar Exposure Group) in Foundry A had no significant difference (p=0.089), but differences between the exposure of melting and assembling groups in Foundry B are significant (p=0.044). In general, in exposure frequency to aerosols in aluminum foundries, a significant difference was observed between melting and assembling groups (p=0.005) as well among abrading and assembling groups (p=0.02).Conclusion: Most of the exposures to aluminum in foundry workers exceeded the current limits given by ACGIH Institute and the Iranian occupational exposure limits. According to the occupational exposure of both foundries and the absence of differences among variables involved in the exposure, the high exposure of melting and abrading groups compared to assembling groups can be attributed to the nature of these units in the production of aluminum aerosols.

Backgrounds and Aims: Characteristic property among Tehran offensive and non-offensive drivers using Cloninger, s treatment and Character Inventory questionnaire was studied.Materials and Methods: A cross- sectional study was carried out after coordinating with traffic police.300 drivers: 150 offensive (drivers with more than ten penalty points and 150 non-offensive drivers with less than ten penalty points in one year prior were selected randomly. Data was collected using Cloninger, s treatment and Character Inventory standard questionnaire by trained experts in three different routes of Tehran.Results: The average age was 20-34 years (82% male, 18% female). Based on Cloninger, s treatment and Character Inventory standard questionnaire, a significant differences was observed in novelty seeking, harm avoidance, reward dependence, self-directive ness, co-operation (p<0.001) and persistence (p<0.013) among offensive and non-offensive drivers. By one score increasing of novelty seeking the chance of to be offencer will be increased 4.5 times (OR=4.520, p<0.007), in harm avoidance will be half (OR=0.504, p<0.045) and in reward dependence will be one fourth (OR=0.278, p<0.033).Conclusion: Novelty seeking sub scale of Cloningers treatment and Character Inventory questionnaire was higher and harm avoidance and reward dependence was lower among offensive drivers.

Backgrounds and Aims: Using Geographical Information System (GIS) can decreases the burden of road traffic injuries effectively by identification of hot spot to modification in hazardous areas. The aim of the study was determining geographical distribution of human risk factors associated with road traffic injuries by using Geographical Information System (GIS) in Iran.Materials and Methods: The national database of road traffic injuries registered by the Iranian traffic Police (Rahvar NAJA) was used. The human risk factors were investigated by recognition of the hazardous points and geographical distribution of associated risk factors. The Hot Spot Analysis and Map clustering approaches were employed to meet the objectives.Results: The mean age of injured subjects was 34 years and the most affected age group was 20-39 years. Death and injury occurrence within out of cities ways were 0.3% and 28% respectively. Geographical distribution of risk factors also showed that roads of Northern provinces i.e. (Gilaan and Mazandaran) were the hazardous rising as well as Qazvin to Rasht and Qom to Tehran roads. Sistan and Balochestan Provinces and Tehran had the highest (4.8%) and the lowest (0.1%) rates of road traffic injuries leading to death in the country.Conclusions: Northern provinces and its leading axes by hazardous rising and Sistan and Balochestan province with fatal injuries need to identify the cause of injuries’ and, if necessary, more tighten regulations and more controls by the traffic police must be applied.

Backgrounds and Aims: The Tehran province was subject to the second highest incidence of fatalities due to traffic accidents in 1390. Most studies in this field examine rural traffic accidents, but this study is based on the use of logit models and artificial neural networks to evaluate the factors that affect the severity of accidents within the city of Tehran.Materials and Methods: Among the various types of crashes, head-on collisions are specified as the most serious type, which is investigated in this study with the use of Tehran’s accident data. In the modeling process, the severity of the accident is the dependent variable and defined as a binary covariate, which are non-injury accidents and injury accidents. The independent variables are parameters such as the characteristics of the driver, time of the accident, traffic and environmental characteristics. In addition to the prediction accuracy comparison of the two models, the elasticity of the logit model is compared with a sensitivity analysis of the neural network.Results: The results show that the proposed model provides a good estimate of an accident's severity. The explanatory variables that have been determined to be significant in the final models are the driver’s gender, age and education, along with negligence of the traffic rules, inappropriate acceleration, deviation to the left, type of vehicle, pavement conditions, time of the crash and street width.Conclusion: An artificial neural network model can be useful as a statistical model in the analysis of factors that affect the severity of accidents. According to the results, human errors and illiteracy of drivers increase the severity of crashes, and therefore, educating drivers is the main strategy that will reduce accident severity in Iran. Special attention should be given to a driver’s age group, with particular care taken when they are very young.

Backgrounds and Aims: In the tropical regions of Iran, scorpion stings are one of the most important medical and health problems. Knowing about their epidemiologic aspects might lead to the employment of appropriate preventive methods. Therefore, these studies were done in Qom province for this purpose.Materials and Methods: This research is a descriptive cross-sectional study which has been done in all of the urban and rural areas of Qom province from 2001 to 2011, and all the cases which were referred to the only available hospital were assessed, examined, treated and subsequently followed. Finally, a questionnaire including demographic, epidemiologic and clinical data was completed for the patients. Chi square tests were used for the evaluation of the hypothesis.Results: In total, 790 cases of scorpion stings were referred to the hospital during the period of study. Most of the cases were males (60.25%) in the 10-24 age groups. The most cases occurred during spring and summer. Hands and feet were the most common location of scorpion stings. 18.7% of envenomed cases were due to black scorpions. 74.4% of cases were from rural regions. 77.2% of the sufferers slept outdoors and on the ground. 20.5% of cases were surrounded by timber, dust and building materials.Conclusion: Based on these findings, scorpion stings are considered a public health problem in Qom province. Consequently, it is necessary to introduce health education programs for personal protection, in order to prevent possible injuries from scorpions, especially for the boy students that reside in rural areas. Also the villagers should use proper beds to sleep in the outdoors.