Iranian Journal of health, Safety and environment
Volume:5 Issue: 1, Winter 2018

The main goal of this article is to study a bipolar electro-Fenton process using stainless steel mesh for removal of methylene blue (MB) as a model of textile dye from aqueous solution. The effect of operating parameters such as the applied current, supporting electrolyte, the type of electrode, H2O2 concentrations (1-10 mmol/L) and hydraulic retention time (5-60min) on the proposed electro-Fenton efficacy was evaluated. The optimum condition was obtained as follows: initial pH 3, the current density 1.4 mA/cm2, H2O2 10 mmol/L, Na2SO4 concentration 0.4 g/L as supporting electrolyte. The results show that the MB removal and COD reduction could be achieved 92% and 70%, respectively. The experimental results indicate that the bipolar electro-Fenton process using stainless steel mesh electrode is a promising wastewater treatment technique for removal of dye from aqueous solutions.

Drinking water quality monitoring is a prerequisite for macro planning of development programs in metropolitans, improvement in health, and water resources management. Since WQIs (Water Quality Index) are known as comprehensive tools for interpretation of water quality, this study benefitted from this tool to determine the drinking water quality trends in Shiraz, Iran in a five year period from 2011 to 2015 and figure out the factors affecting its changes in this city. For this aim, annual data of 9 water quality parameters including DO, Fecal Coliforms, pH, BOD5, NO3, PO4, temperature deviation, turbidity, and TS were collected for 45 drinking water wells located in 4 zones (Dokuhak, Derak, Sabzpushan, and Chamran) to calculate the WQI. Pairwise comparison of years in terms of WQI values was analyzed statically using post-HOC analysis in Univariable repeated measure test. The results showed that the highest and the lowest water quality level both for annual and long term evaluations belonged to Derak and Chamran zones, respectively. All the studied wells in the five years were classified in "good" quality group. According to statistically analyze the highest significant change in water quality (p-value

Epidemiological studies conducted in the past two decades indicate that air pollution causes increase in cardiovascular, breathing and chronic bronchitis disorders and even causes cardiovascular mortality. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between meteorological parameters, air pollution and cardiovascular mortality in the city of Mashhad in 2014 by a time series model. Data on mortality from cardiovascular disease, meteorological parameters and air pollution in 2014 were gathered from Paradises organization, meteorology organization and pollutant monitoring center, respectively. Then the relationship between these parameters was analyzed using correlation coefficient, generalized linear regression, time series models and comparison of means. The results of the study showed that the highest rate of cardiovascular mortality related to Sulfur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide and then PM2.5. So that each unit increase in SO2, NO2 and PM2.5 pollutants adds to the rate of cardiovascular mortality by 22.5, 2.9 and 0.69, respectively. Pressure, wind speed and rainfall have a significant association with mortality. So that each unit decrease in pressure and wind speed, increases the rate of cardiovascular mortality by 2.79 and 15.77, respectively. It was also found that in the case of one-unit increase in rainfall, the possibility of mortality from the mentioned disease goes up by 3.8 units. It was also found that one-year increase of the age increases the mortality caused by these diseases up to 0.57 percent. Furthermore, the highest rate of cardiovascular mortality related to cold periods of the year. Therefore, considering the growing trend of air pollution and its health effects on human health, performing actions and effective solutions is important in the field of controlling and reducing air pollution in Iranian metropolis including Mashhad.

Increased combustion of fossil fuel owing to the energy requirement is a main cause of air pollution throughout the world. Atmospheric precipitation is considered as a major water resource for indoor, municipal, industrial and agricultural uses. This study was aimed to evaluate the effect of air pollution on chemical quality of rain and snow in Urmia, a city in northwest of Iran.
Sampling was performed during the wet seasons from October to March at six sampling stations in different locations of the city. Acidity, alkalinity, NO3- , SO42-, Cl- and pH contents of the collected samples were analyzed.
All samples showed a pH value of more than 6.8, and lower acidity than alkalinity, therefore, the precipitations were not acidic. Maximum concentrations of SO42- and NO3- in the samples were 5 and 8.8mg/L, respectively. Chloride was varied from 1 to 11.5 mg/L with the highest measures observing in autumn.
According to the results, concentrations of the analyzed parameters in wet precipitations in Urmia were within the natural ranges except chloride ions, which was higher than its common level in the atmosphere. This phenomenon may be the result of desert dusts which transfers by wind from the west border to Iran.

Phlebotomine sand flies are biological vectors of leishmaniasis in Iran and many other countries. In order to determine fauna and seasonal activity of sand flies, an investigation was carried out in Paveh County, Kermanshah Province, west of Iran. Using sticky traps sand flies collected in 5 sites of Paveh County from May to October of 2015. Activity of sand flies started in late April and ended in early October. Totally 2110 (71.1% male and 28.9% female) phlebotominae were collected from outdoors (64.6%) and indoors (35.4%) respectively. Twelve species in two genera were identified including: Phlebotomus alexandri, Ph. Sergenti, Ph. papatasi, Ph. major, Ph. tobbi, Ph. brevis, Sergentomyia sintoni, S. dentata, S. antennata, S. palestinensis, S. pawlowskyi and S. tiberiadis. Phlebotomus alexandri was predominant species in the region with 50% all of collected sand flies and Ph. brevis comprised only 0.04% of specimens. Due to documented report of seropositive cases of visceral leishmaniasis in Paveh County and presence of proven vectors in this area, further studies on epidemiological and entomological aspects of disease are recommended.

Oral and dentistry (O&D) services processes may lead to exposing of personnel and patients with several microorganisms and arising of health problems. This cross-sectional study was investigated the bacteriological quality of dental unit waterlines (DUWLs) in one of the O&D center in Tehran, Iran. One hundred ninety two samples were collected and examined based on standard microbiological procedures for determining and enumeration of heterotrophic plate count (HPC), Staphylococcus aureus and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Data were analyzed by t-test, analysis of variance (ANOVA), Kruskal-Wallis and LSD tests with SPSS software (Ver.16). The results revealed that 70% of water samples (126 samples) had a high density of contaminations that higher than recommended values for DUWLs quality. The mean of bacterial density on Saturday was more than Wednesday and was 1838 CFU/ml, 739 CFU/ml and 11 CFU/ml for HPC, P. aeruginosa, and S.aureuse respectively. The LSD test implied that the mean of bacterial density of inlet and outlet waters had significant statistical difference in various wards of the O&D center (p

In Iran, cheese is one of the dairy products that widely consumed as a main diet for breakfast. Moreover, trace metals in dairy products have recently gained considerable attention.
Iranian cheese samples were collected from Tehran, Iran (February to May 2013). Trace metals including Pb, Cd, Ni, Fe, Sn, Zn, Cr, and Cu were analyzed using inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES) after dry ashing.
All the tested metals were detected in the cheese samples. The mean concentration of metals in cheese showed the following decreasing order Zn > Fe > Cu > Ni > Sn > Cr > Pb > Cd, with values of 12.98, 7.95, 1.96, 0.83, 0.46, 0.37, 0.34, and 0.01 mg/kg, respectively.
There were no significant differences between types of cheese samples in terms of content of trace metals (p>0.05). All the samples had Pb contents of greater than Codex limit (0.02 mg/kg). According to the measured values of the metals in this study, the intake of all the studied elements through the common consumption of cheese in Iran was below the dangerous level according to permissible intake value for each metal. Also, levels of correlations between the element pairs were analyzed.

Contamination of some agricultural products by mycotoxins has exposed the human and animal health to serious concerns. Aflatoxin B1 is the most toxic type of aflatoxins, which is of the highest amount in different foods, including rice, among various types of aflatoxins. The present study was aimed to evaluate the amount of this toxicant in the consuming rice in Yazd city and investigate the effect of rice washing and soaking process on reduction of the mean concentration of aflatoxin B1.
The present study was a descriptive-analytical one, in which 36 rice samples (18 domestic types and 18 foreign types of rice) were randomly selected from the rice distribution centers in Yazd city. The Standard No.6872 of the Institute of Standards & Industrial Research of Iran (ISIRI) was used for measuring the amount of aflatoxin B and G toxicants using HPLC (high pressure or performance liquid chromatography) method and purifying by immune affinity column. Analysis of the collected data was performed using SPSS-22 statistical software as well as the statistical methods of one-way ANOVA and Tukey HSD.
The mean concentration of aflatoxin B1 in domestic and imported rice was measured equal to 1.461 and 0.508ng/g, respectively. The contamination rate in the imported rice was lower than that in the domestic one, while there was no significant relationship between them (p≥0.166); furthermore, the effect of soaking process on reduction of the toxicant amount in one and ten hours of soaking was statistically insignificant. There was no significant relationship between the effect of a single time of washing and reduction of the amount of toxicant; however, in case of three and five times of washing, the amount of toxicant exhibited a reduction of 68.2% and 98.7%, respectively, which was statistically significant (p