Journal of Advances in Environmental Health Research
Volume:2 Issue: 1, Winter 2014

Visual display terminals (VDTs) as one of the most important and useful equipment are used in offices and workplaces that may be created some health hazards, including work-related musculoskeletal disorders (WMSDs). The aims of this study were to (i) investigate the prevalence of WMSDs among Iranian bank tellers and (ii) to examine the demographic and work-related characteristics associated with that prevalence rate. In this cross-sectional study, 382 bank tellers who regularly working at VDTs stations were interviewed. The demographic, work characteristics and MSDs data were collected using specific questionnaire and standardized Nordic self-reporting Musculoskeletal Questionnaire. Hence, data analyses were carried out using IBM SPSS for Windows 20.0. As a result, 70.2% of participants reported the musculoskeletal problems within 12 past months in at least one of the body regions. The most prevalence was reported in the neck (37.4%) and low back (36.6%) regions, and the elbows (8.3%), and thighs (12.3%) were regions that reported with the least prevalence rate. Mean duration of daily VDT (DVDT) work in 268 subjects with musculoskeletal symptoms was 6.2 h (SD = ±2.2) and in other 114 subjects without symptoms, it was 5.5 h (SD = ±2.3). There was a positive significant relationship between DVDT work hours with reported musculoskeletal problems (P = 0.005). In conclusion, WMSDs in bank tellers happened in high rate (70.2%) and the most complain reported in neck and low back regions. The most consistently identified risk factor was a duration of DVDT use and inadequate break times.

Arsenic, one of the most toxic and dangerous elements in the environment affecting millions of people around the world, is associated with several diseases. In this pilot study, we investigated removal of arsenate from aqueous solutions using chitosan under the influences of initial arsenic ion concentrations, pH, contact time, and adsorbent dosages of chitosan. In order to assess the sorption mechanism and the potential rate of controlling steps, the pseudo-first and pseudo-second order kinetic models and the Langmuir and Freundlich isotherm models were used. The obtained results showed that the removal of As (V) by chitosan was found to be pH dependent, with optimum sorption occurring at pH = 4. The kinetics of arsenate adsorption on chitosan is well described by the pseudo-second order model. Furthermore, As (V) sorption isotherm was developed at optimal conditions and sorption equilibrium data were fitted to the Freundlich isotherm model.

Sanitary landfill is the common strategy for municipal solid waste management in developing countries. Anaerobic decomposition of disposed wastes in landfill under favorable conditions will lead to the landfill gas (LFG) emissions, considering as emerging air pollutants. The emission of greenhouse gases, including methane, resulting from municipal solid waste disposal and treatment processes are considered as the major source of anthropogenic global emissions. Assessment and prediction of the emission rate are important for planning, proper application of methane as an energy source and determining the contribution of various greenhouse gas emissions to global warming. The purpose of this study was to estimate the amount of gas emissions from Sanandaj sanitary landfill. The data about the quantity and quality of the landfill and waste production were collected based on existing standard methods. Using LandGEM software the landfill emissions were estimated with considering the 50% content of methane, the methane production rate constant of 0.045/year and gas production potential constant of 200 m3/ton. The results of this study showed that the maximum mass of emitted gas is at the next year after the site closure (2021). It was estimated that total mass of LFG, methane, carbon dioxide and non-methane organic compounds were 23,150, 6184, 16,970, and 266 tons/year, respectively. Effective management in controlling LFGs not only results in air pollution reduction, green energy application for sustainable development, but also can use the financial benefits of the clean development mechanism to Kyoto protocol achievement for developing countries.

Groundwater aquifers as one of the main sources of water supplies are faced with different risks such as level dropping due to lack of precipitation, and natural and non-natural pollutants. Thus, it is extremely necessary to monitor ground water quality. In the present study, the concentration of cations, anions, and some toxic metals was evaluated in 21 rural water supplies in Qorveh plain in two stages. Data were analyzed with Rockwork and Arc GIS software. Results from Hydro chemical analysis showed that all the studied parameters had lower concentrations than the permitted limits, except for arsenic (As) and selenium (Se) in some of water resources. As concentration in 20% of studied resources were higher than recommended standards. There was a significant difference between nitrate (NO3−) concentrations in the two low- and high-water seasons (P

Identification of cancer clusters may have an important value to the study of disease etiology in cancer surveillance. We aimed to determine the spatial pattern of childhood cancer cases (CCCs) from 2007 to 2009 in Tehran, Iran. Records of 176 childhood cancer counts (children younger than 15 years old) for 2007-2009 were obtained from Iran’s Ministry of Health and Medical Education. Thereafter, they were successfully geo-coded within a geographic information system based on their residence phone number or postal code. We used two distinct techniques, namely average nearest neighbor index (ANNI) and Quadrat analyses, to measure the spatial pattern of CCCs in Tehran. The count of childhood cancers for 2007-2009 in Tehran was 117.3 per 1,000,000 children. The ANNI analysis suggested that there was a clustered pattern for the CCCs in 2007-2009. There was less than 1% likelihood that this pattern could be the result of random chance (nearest neighbor ratio = 0.73; Z-score = –6.8 standard deviations; P

Pollution resulted from the leachate of the Sanandaj City landfill into Gheshlagh River is an important environmental and health issue, which has endangered the river. Having a population of more than 400,000 and four municipality districts, the solid waste generation rate is approximately more than 300 tons/day in Sanandaj City. The wastes generated are disposed of at the Sanandaj City landfill with an area of approximately 35 hectares located on the off-road at the Sanandaj-Kamyaran highway. The leachate formed is discharged into the Gheshlagh River through seasonal Kilak River during the succulence (winter and spring) seasons due to the un-sanitary conditions of the landfill. In this study, we investigated the effects of the heavy metals (mercury [Hg], lead [Pb], zinc [Zn], and copper [Cu]) existing in the leachate on the Gheshlagh River and its autopurification capacity. For this purpose, we selected five stations and performed random sampling during two above-mentioned seasons and analyzed the samples. The data were analyzed using one-way analysis of variance and t-test. In general, our results showed that the concentration of the measured elements was more at the leachate confluence station compared with the control station. The mean concentration of the heavy metals in different sampling times and stations was observed in the order of Cu > Zn > Pb > Hg. However, the autopurification of the river resulted in statistical insignificancy of the data, except for Hg.

Parachlorophenol has an extended usage in refineries, petrochemical industries, insecticide, and herbicide manufacturing industries. Tire a solid waste, which is disposed in large amounts each year, a large number of them in landfills can cause irreparable environmental impacts. Consequently lots of efforts were done to produce activated carbon from used tires. Activated carbon was made in laboratory conditions by using pyrolysis furnace. Scanning electron microscopy was used for determining structural characteristics of the activated carbon produced from recycled used tires and Brunauer, Emmett, and Teller isotherm was used to find out its special surface. The structure of produced activated carbon in this study has a special surface of 111.702 m2/g. The internal diameter of holes was 1.54 nm, and the total volume of them was 0.124 ml/g. The removal efficiency was reduced from 88.59% to 69.25% by changing the pH from 3 to 9. In addition, the efficiency was reduced from 88.59% to 75.95% when the primary concentration of parachlorophenol increased from 10 to 60 mg/L. On the other hand, changing the temperature from 10° C to 30° C increased it from 65.86% to 74.53%. Moreover, contact time had direct impacts on the removal efficiency. The results conform Freundlich isotherm (R2 = 0.9958). The efficiency of parachlorophenol removal would be decreased by increasing pH and concentration of the pollutant, and would be increased by adding temperature and contact time. As a conclusion, since the recycled tires are cheap, the produced activated carbon from them can be used as an effective and low-cost method for parachlorophenol removal from aqueous solutions.

Air pollution is a major environmental issue in all regions of the world. We aimed to assess the health impacts of particulate matter with an aerodynamic diameter 10 µm (PM10) in Sanandaj, Kurdistan, Iran. The air pollution data were obtained from Sanandaj Department of Environment Protection. The annual mortality and morbidity, including cardiovascular and respiratory diseases attributable to PM10 exposure were estimated using AirQ model, which is the proposed method for health impact assessment of air pollution by World Health Organization. The annual, winter, and summer averages of PM10 in 2013 were 81.5, 64.7, and 98.3 μg/m3, respectively. The total mortality, cardiovascular mortality, respiratory mortality, hospital admissions due to cardiovascular diseases, and hospital admissions due to respiratory diseases, respectively, were estimated 228, 120, 23, 118, and 305 cases. Approximately 11.7% of total mortality was associated with concentrations more than 20 μg/m3. This study was the first attempt to assess the health impacts of air pollution in Sanandaj, Kurdistan, Iran. In summary, we found increased mortality and morbidity attributable to PM10 exposure.