Journal of Research in Environmental Health
Year:2017 | Volume:3 | Issue:1 (9)|Papers Count:8

Background and Objectives: Tetracycline is known as the second high consumed groups of antibiotics throughout the world, which their entrance into the domestic wastewater will lead to pollute the water resources. The aim of this study was to determine the performance of combined Ultrasonic/UV process in removal of tetracycline antibiotic from aqueous environments.Materials and methods: This experimental study was performed by the ultrasonic bath associated with ultraviolet radiation. To determine the effects of independent variables including contact time (5-60 min), initial antibiotic concentration (5-25 mg/l), pH (3-10) and the input power (100- 300 W) on response variable (tetracycline removal), the samples were taken from reactor in different time intervals and the residual concentrations of tetracycline were measured by spectrophotometer in 261 nm wavelength. Results: The results of this study showed that the removal efficiency of UV and Ultrasonic processes was16% and 32% in optimum conditions, respectively. While in Ultrasonic /UV process, removal efficiency increased. The best removal efficiency (72%) was observed in pH of 4.5, antibiotic concentrationof10 mg/I, input power of 240 W and contact time of 50 min.Conclusion: According to the obtained results, Ultrasonic/UV process can be used as an effective process to remove the tetracycline antibiotic from aqueous solutions.

Background and Objectives: Nitrate contamination of surface and groundwater is considered as one of the more serious problems in throughout the world. High nitrate concentration in water (higher than standards) is very dangerous, consuming such polluted water can lead to Methemoglobinemia disease in children and the formation of the carcinogenic nitrosamines in adults. The aim of this study was to investigate the possibility using of Modified clinoptilolite Zeolite by Cationic Surfactants adsorbent in nitrate removal from aqueous solutions.Materials and Methods: In this empirical study, the effects of different independent variables including adsorbent dose (1-3 g/l), initial concentration of nitrate (50-150 mg/l), pH (4-10) and contacttime (15-120 min) on elimination of nitrate was investigated. Also, adsorption kinetic along with Langmuir and Freundlich isotherms was studied.Results: The obtained results showed that the maximum removal efficiency of NO3 was in the initial nitrate concentration of 50 mg/L, pH of 4, adsorbent dose of 3 g/l, and contacttime of 90 min. Also, the results indicate that the nitrate adsorption by modified Clinoptilolite zeolite was fitted well with Freundlich isotherm (R2=0.9951), and second- order kinetics (R2=0.9998).Conclusion: According to the attained results, the Clinoptilolite zeolite can be considered as an appropriate and economical adsorbent for elimination of nitrate from aqueous solutions. Concerning its simple modification method and low cost, it can be applied as an adsorbent for other anionic pollutions.

Background & objective: The heavy metals are considered as the pollutants which create too much problems in aquatic ecosystems for aquatics, and consequently, humans. This study aims to demystify risk assessment of some heavy metals concentrations such as Nickle, Cadmium, Lead and Zinc in the muscles of Otolithes ruber, Parastromateus niger, Scomberomorus commerson and Sphyraena jellofishes in 2013.Material & Methods: 96 samples from the aforementioned fishes were taken from both coastal and marine areas of Chabahar port (Oman sea). Wet Digestion method is applied to extract the considered metals from thetissues, and the concentrations of the heavy metals were measured by Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometer Younglin AAS8020. All statistical analyses were performed by SPSS (V.17) using ANOVA along with Duncan test.Results: The results showed the highest and lowest concentrations of Cd were in Sphyraena jello and Otolithes ruber, respectively. The lowest Concentration of Pb was in Sphyraena jello. The highest and lowest concentrations of Ni and Zn were observed in Sphyraena jello and Scomberomorus commerson, correspondingly. The highest concentration of adsorbed Cd, Ni and Zn metals were measured in Sphyraena jello in the coastal area samples in children.Conclusion: Concentrations of Cd, Pb and Zn were lower than the determined proportions of FAO, WHO, UKMAFF, NHMRC and FDA. Ni concentration was higher than the Global Standards in Sphyraena jello.

Background & objective: Cement manufacturing is the most important and influential industry in the economic prosperity of the country. However, this can be an entrance source for heavy metals to environment. The main objectives of the present study were to identify the spatial variability and main sources of heavy metals including Cr, Mn, Ni, Co, Cu, Cd, As and Zn in surface soils of the closed Kurdistan cement factory zone by conducting multivariate geostatistical analysis assisted with ArcGIS 10.2 tool. Multivariate geostatistics was used to survey the spatial distribution of studied heavy metals and their reasons in the studied area.Materials & Methods: In the present study, 88 samples of surface soils were collected in radiuses of 500, 1000, 2000 and 3000 m from the center of the cement factory from two depths of 0–15 and 15-30 cm.Results: According to the gained results, three principal factors were appeared with more than 90% of the total variance through multivariate statistical analysis for heavy metals. For mapping the distribution of the heavy metals amounts, four different models including circular, spherical, exponential and Gaussian with methods of simple Kriging, ordinary Kriging, universal and simple Co-Kriging were identified as the optimum models using ArcGIS 10.2.. The accoracy of the methods were evaluated using coefficient determination, mean absolute error, mean bias error and root mean square error.Conclusion: Heavy metals mapping confirmed that the levels of Cd, As, Pb and Cu in surface soils closed to the factory are higher than global average amount. Also, it can be mentioned that geological structure of the area plays most important role in soil pollution. However, anthropogenic activities, particularly cement plant are considered as another effective factor on soil pollution in the studied area.

Background & objective: Nowadays, increasing the urban population, followed increasing in waste production has attracted the attention of environmental researchers towards the sanitary waste disposal. It is estimated that in Khorramabad city with a population of over than 348, 216 people, about 458 tones of urban waste are daily produced which are dumped in open lands. Therefore, finding a suitable site for waste disposal is necessary. The purpose of this study is to identify and introduce suitable locations for the sanitary waste disposal across the city using Electre as a Multi Criteria Decision Analysis.Materials & Methods: For this purpose, 14 criteria including soil erosion, geology, land use, distance to roads, distance to rivers, springs and kanats, distance to faults, distance to cities and villages, slope, elevation, groundwater depth, distance to protected areas and climate were used. Three common methods including Boolean, Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) and Linear Combination Weighted (WLC) were used to combine the criteria maps. Considering the minimum area required for landfill sitting for a period of 20 years, five candidate sites were ultimately extracted from the final resulting map of WLC in order to introduce the best site for urban landfill. Then, these five candidates were ranked using Electre model.Results: Results of weighting process showed that the groundwater depth, distance to faults and cities had the highest weights whereas elevation and slope criteria had the lowest weights. The consistency ratio for the weighting process was 0.08, which was less than 0.1, presenting the consistency and credibility of the weighting process. According to the WLC method, major parts of northwest, west and north of the area under study were identified as optimal sites. According to the results of Electre model, a site with an area of 694 hectares located in the west of city was identified as the best alternative.Conclusion: The results showed that the Electre method along with multi-criteria evaluation methods can have high performance in locating sanitary municipal solid waste disposal.

Background & objective: Vermicompost application plays an important role in agriculture. Crop plants can be sensitive to negative effects of vermicompost at early stages of development. The aim of the present study was to test the effects of different vermicomposts on seed germination of lepidiumsativum species.Materials & Methods: In the current work, the effects of different vermicomposts’ extracts, which were produced from cow manure, fruit waste, paper, sawdust and leaves, on s germination and early development of lepidiumsativum were investigated in various volumetric percentages (0%, 15%, 30% and 45%). For data analysis, Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) program and ANOVA test were used.Results: The results showed that different volumetric percentages were effective on lepidiumsativum growth. Average growth in volumetric percentage of 30% was less than 15 and 45%. In the way that presence differences was significant. Volumetric percentage of 15% was in appropriate level for plant growth and seed germination.Conclusion: It can be concluded that the use of vermicompost extracts can have an effective role in production efficiency increase of lepidiumsativum.

Background & objective: With increasing the number of motor vehicles that causes increasing the fuel production and sale, the ambient air quality has been worse. BTEX is one group of the important pollutants that release from gasoline and its burning. The aim of this study is evaluation of BTEX level in refueling station ambient air.Materials & Methods: In this cross-sectional study, the air samples were taken from 24 workers’ breathing zones in 12 gasoline and CNG refueling stations. Samples were analyzed according to NIOSH1501 method and using GC-FID technique. SPSS-v.16 is used to analyze data with t-test and Linear Regression (p<0.05).Results: The mean concentration of benzene, toluene, ethyl-benzene and xylene in gasoline stations was 1787±327, 914±141, 973.4±183 mg/m3 and 476.1±123 respectively, and about CNG stations, there were 1142.9±863, 507.6±458, 694.9±514 and 296±245.6 mg/m3, in that order. The CNG station’s workers, who exposed to benzene, have cancer risk about 15.8×10-6 and the highest HQ index was related to xylene (i.e.8.656). The cancer risk of gasoline station workers and HQ index were 21.6×10-6 and 16.19 respectively.Conclusion: Gasoline stations had the highest concentration of benzene that exceeded the OEL-TWA. Cancer and non-cancer risk is in high levels that require decisions to control the condition. Improvement of fuel quality, implementation of vapor recovery systems, smarting the refuel instruments, utilization of plants for purification of BTEX and using of personal protective equipment are our recommendation for improvement of condition.

Background & objective: Cement production process produces million tons of by products such as dust, toxic gases and heavy metals associated with health (respiratory) risks and environmental pollution. The aim of the current paper is to assess the environmental impact of Zaveh Cement plant by using Iranian Leopold Matrix.Materials & Methods: The current descriptive analytical study examined the current status of the region’s environment; then reviewing the technical sources of the project was performed in order to identify the most important activities of operation and construction phases. Finally, Iranian matrix method was selected to assess the environmental impact of cement plant.Results: Based on the obtained results, the major negative environmental impacts on the physical part include soil pollution and erosion, air pollution, and noise pollution, respectively. The major negative biological impacts are the impacts on plant and animal species density, and the quality of the habitat, respectively. According to the results of the evaluation conducted using Iranian matrix method on Zaveh-Torbat cement plant, with the separation of construction and operation, there is no column with values less than -3.1, and the number of rows with values less than -3.1 constitutes less than 50 %.Conclusion: According to the Iranian matrix, the project of Zaveh-Torbat cement plant is acceptable with the implementation of integrated environmental management strategies.