JOURNAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH ENGINERING
Year:2018 | Volume:5 | Issue:3 |Papers Count:8

Background and Objectives: PM2.5 particulate matter is one of the major air pollutants in cities of Iran especially Tehran, which threaten health of Iranian people due to numerous health hazards. Risk levels of these particulate depend on spatial-temporal changes in the air. Hence, this study aimed spatial-temporal analysis of PM2.5 concentration in Tehran's air using the Geographic Information System.Material and methods: Hourly data of PM2.5 concentration was collected in 2016-2017 from 38 air pollution monitoring stations and was analyzed monthly, seasonally and annually. Inverse Distance Weighting interpolation method was used in order to present concentration maps of the PM2.5.Existence of spatial autocorrelation in data was analyzed by Moran's I and data clustering was accomplished by Global and Local Moran's I and finally Getis-Ord-Gi index was used to determine hot spots of this pollutant in Tehran.Results: Results of concentration maps of PM2.5 and global and local spatial autocorrelation with PM2.5 concentration hot spot analysis showed that the concentration of this pollutant has an incremental mode from the north to the south of Tehran so that areas in south of Tehran especially Ray stations were the most polluted areas in Tehran. In addition, results showed that the concentration of this pollutant was more in the two colder seasons so that most hot spots were identified in these seasons.Conclusion: Using several spatial analyses simultaneously showed that Tehran can be separated into two parts of non-polluted north and polluted south, which this issue should be considered by urban planners to improve Tehran's air quality.

Background& Objective: Today, it is very important to pay attention to the quality of groundwater and its trends for various uses of drinking, agriculture and public health. Water is essential adequate and desirable for these uses. The aim of this study was to determine the physical and chemical parameters of water in Darrehshahrcity and comparison with national and international standards and analysis using the relevant software for Different Consumption.Materials & Methods: To do this study 21 numbers of water samples were collected from 7 different stations in Darrehshahrcity and all parameters were analyzed according to the standard method of 2005 by device and titermeter. For data analysis, descriptive statistics, charts Piper, Schoeller, Wilcox and statistical tests were used.Results: The mean value of turbidity, electrical conductivity, total dissolved solids and total hardness, were 1.4NTU, 438m mhos/cm, 277mg/l and 144mg CaCO3/L respectively and also the mean value of nitrate, nitrite, sulfate, chloride, fluoride, calcium, magnesium, sodium, iron and manganese were 4.7 mg/l, zero, 31mg/l, 4.4mg/l, 0.3mg/l, 62.7mg/l, 12.76mg/l, 4.4mg/l, 0.03mg/l and 0.003 mg/l respectively.Conclusions: The results showed that all the investigated physico-chemical parameters were within the limit ofwater standard of Iran (1053), drinking water standards of World Health Organization and other International Standards. Schuler diagram indicate that Darehshahr water is in a good range for drinking and Wilcox diagram show that Darehshahr water is slightly salty waters (C2S1) and almost appropriate for agricultural purposes.

Background & objective: Mineral contaminations are the most important environmental problems in the urban area. The objectives of the present study was determination of concentration, spatial distribution and source determination of Iron, Zinc, Calcium, Copper, Manganese, and Nickel by Artificial Neural Network in Sanandaj city.Materials & Methods: The study area were divided into the five classes and the total number of 105 surface soil samples (0-10 cm) were collected. Contamination factor and Nemerow index were developed for estimation of metal concentration. In addition, the correlation and principle component analysis were conducted to find the origin of the considered elements in the soil samples. Moreover, IDW interpolation technique was applied for mapping the spatial distribution of the elements and ANN (multilayer perceptron) was applied to estimate the concentration.Results: Copper concentration in industrial area was very high and in the other hand, green and industrial area had the lowest and highest Nemerow index, respectively. Calcium concentration especially was affected by residential and high traffic areas. On the other hand, industrial and high traffic areas have the greatest impact on the Zinc and Copper concentration and Nickel, Iron and Manganese contamination was under combination effects of natural and anthropogenic factors.Correlation coefficients derived by ANN were 0.821, 0.661, 0.711, 0.767, 0.712, and 0.701 for Copper, Nickel, Zinc, Manganese, Iron, and Calcium, respectively.Conclusion: The concentration of Zinc, Calcium and Copper are mostly affected by human activities and Nickel, Iron, Manganese concentration are controlled by both anthropogenic and natural sources.According to the results, three-layer neural network is recommended for estimating metal concentration in the soil samples.

Background: The aim of this study was to assess the knowledge, attitude and practice of health science students of Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences about the outbreak of water and foodborne diseases in 2017.Methods: In this descriptive and analytic study, 335 students from school of Health and school of Health, Safety and Environment (HSE) were randomly assigned to the study. Data collecting tool was a researcher-made questionnaire containing 61 questions. The data were analyzed using SPSS 18 software.Results: The mean and standard deviation of knowledge, attitude and practice of students were (66.15 ± 61.15), (66.63 ± 14.68) ± 66.33 and (±21.55) ±65.96, respectively. Only 13.7, 6.6 and 24.5% of students had a good knowledge, attitude and good performance regarding the subject. Mean score of knowledge, attitude and practice among students of the School of Health was more than the students of HSE. The results showed a significant relationship between knowledge and attitude (p<0.001) and also attitude and practice (p<0.001). There is a significant relationship between the level of education, faculty, place of study, marital status, field of study and age with knowledge, attitude and practice (p<0.05).Conclusion: According to the average level of knowledge, attitude and practice of students, it seems necessary to plan for an effective intervention in order to improve the level of education of students who are studying in the field of health and will be the trustee of public health as people who guide other sectors of society.

Background and Objectives: Bisphenol A (BPA) is one of the toxic environmental pollutants that can be entered into aquatic ecosystems by raw wastewaters. In the current study, electrocoagulation used in the treatment of water and wastewater in a wide range was investigated for the removal of BPA.Materials and Methods: All the experiments were conducted in a batch system. The effect of operating parameters such as pH, BPA concentration, electrolyte concentration, distance between electrodes, current intensity, and reaction time were evaluated. Experiments were carried out at laboratory temperature (25oC), potential difference 30 V.Results: According to the results, the optimal condition were follows: BPA concentration 10 mg/L, current intensity 1500 mA, pH=7, and distance between electrodes 0.5 cm. The removal efficiency was ranged 60 to 90 percent.Conclusion: It can be concluded that the electrocoagulation process using iron electrodes in the optimal condition can acceptably remove BPA from aqueous solutions.

Background & Objectives: Groundwater is exposed to environmental pollution. The leachate produced by wastes in transfer station or municipal solid waste landfill is one of the sources of pollution. In this view, present study was carried out to evaluate the groundwater quality around of municipal solid waste transfer station in Ardabil at 2017.Materials and methods: In this cross sectional study, 6 wells (one control well in the upstream and 5 wells in the downstream) around the ardabil municipal solid waste transfer station were selected according to the existing criteria, and the quality parameters of the samples (Turbidity, pH, EC, TDS, BOD5, COD, Nitrate, Heavy Metals, Coliform and Fecal Coliform and...) were analyzed according to the standard methods. Also, particle-size analysis of soil was carried out in sampling area and data analysis was performed using Excel software and compared with existing standards, guidelines and standards.Results: In all samples, except for lead (0.07-1 mg/l), Coliform (0-28 MPN/100ml) and Fecal Coliform (0-4 MPN/100ml), other parameters were lower than recommended limit by the criteria and available standards. Also, the amount of sulfate (593.6 mg/l) in well 4 and total Hardness (530 mg/l) in well 3 were higher than the standards recommended for drinking and agricultural purposes.Conclusion: The results of the study showed that the Municipal Solid Waste Transfer Station in Ardabil had no significant effect on the groundwater quality in the surrounding area.

Background and Objective: In recent years, the management and disposal of municipal waste has become a global problem and the most important environmental concern. Landfill generates a large amount of leachate. Biologically process is considered a potential and cost-effective solution for the treatment of municipal landfill leachate. The aim of research was the biological treatment of landfill leachate using a two-stage anaerobic bioreactor in pilot scale.Materials and Methods: Experiments were performed in two anaerobic completely stirred tank reactors (CSTR) with effective volumes of 10 and 30 L at a constant flow rate of 2 L/day and hydraulic retention times of 5 and 15 days under mesophilic conditions. After the start-up period, loading rate was increased from 0.07 to 2.65 kgCOD/m3.day. The effluent of the first anaerobic reactor was used as the influent of the second reactor. Physical and chemical analysis were performed based on standard methods for the examination of water and wastewater, USA.Results: The results of experiments showed that the most suitable loading is 2.05 kgCOD/m3.day, which COD removal efficiency of reactors one, two and the system (total two steps CSTR) were 80, 65.1 and 93 %. In the whole system, BOD removal efficiency was obtained 92%. However, the NH4-N and alkalinity in the two anaerobic reactors were increased to 39 and 14.9%. The maximum methane percentage of the first and second reactors were 76 and 80%.Conclusion: Two-stage anaerobic process can be used as the effective process to improve degradability and remove the organic pollutants.

Background: Sewage sludge management is one of the most challenging parts of sewage treatment in terms of economic, design and environmental issues. One of the common ways of disposing of sludge is its use in agricultural land. Due to the presence of various contaminants in sludge Sewage, its safe and effective use in agricultural land requires the development of a special Guidance.Methods: This study was carried out to survey the guidelines of different countries regarding the application of sewage sludge on the ground and prioritize them according to the native conditions of Iran using multivariate analysis and expert opinion and using the AHP method.Resultss: The United States, Australia, Canada, China, Japan, the European Union, Russia, Turkey, and South Africa have the highest rating by applying the scores of indexes and taking into account the weight of the criteria in accordance with the standards of the US Environmental Protection Agency, respectively.Conclusion: The analysis of the results of this study showed that among the various guidelines examined, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has the most executive capacity in terms of executive capacity, comprehensiveness, transparency and precision.