فصلنامه پژوهش در بهداشت محیط
سال ششم شماره 4 (زمستان 1399)

The supervision of food preparation, distribution, and supply centers to maintain the health of users is the responsibility of inspectors and environmental health experts of medical universities across the country. Proper inspection and control of these centers play an important role in preventing the occurrence and prevalence of infectious diseases and protect the health of people in the community. Therefore, to prevent the spread of COVID-19 and the increasing number of patients with this disease, stricter control measures should be applied to food preparation, distribution, and supply centers, and health protocols should be inspected in these centers. Due to the shortage of environmental health forces, as well as the expansion of food preparation, distribution, and supply centers, the inspection of these centers and training of people in all centers regarding the observance of coronavirus prevention protocols are not possible. Therefore, the authors in this article suggest health volunteers as participants in overseeing food preparation, distribution, and supply centers. The active involvement and participation of health volunteers increase the sense of social responsibility and eliminate the sense of authority and dominance of formal organizations. After receiving face-to-face and virtual training on coronavirus prevention health protocols in food preparation, distribution, and supply centers, and visiting and monitoring several food centers alongside environmental health experts, health volunteers can carry out their activities for disease prevention and control. In this way, there will be a comprehensive determination to control the coronavirus in centers for the preparation, distribution, and supply of food. The results of these activities will have a positive effect on the health of people and society and ultimately the control of the disease.

Today, air pollution, with an impact on a global scale, is an important concern of the modern world. It has many adverse effects on human health and the environment. Therefore, it is necessary to find sustainable and environment-friendly solutions that prevent the increase of pollution levels and help eliminate them. One of the newest ways to reduce air pollution and absorb particulate matter, as well as improve air quality, is to use green walls in urban spaces. The present study investigated the potential of green walls in reducing air pollutants.  

In this research, two green walls were installed at the Khayyam intersection in Mashhad for three months. Finally, the Air Pollution Tolerance Index was determined for all the plants by measuring chlorophyll, ascorbic acid, leaf-related water content, and pH.

Results:

 All of the plant species planted on the walls were classified as intermediate in the tolerance. Among all the plants, Carpobrotus edulis and Rosmarinus officinalis had higher APTI, which makes them more resistant and suitable for planting in polluted areas. Considering the statistical analysis, the APTI of the plants was correlated with ascorbic acid and leaf-related water content.

Our findings suggest the suitability of the above-mentioned plants for plantation in areas with high levels of pollutants.

The interior of airport lounges is often exposed to a lot of noise, which can increase the risk to human health. Due to the dangers of high noise pollution for airport users, the present study was conducted to reduce noise pollution in the transit lounges of Ahvaz International Airport.

This study is considered interdisciplinary and applied research and its method is a combination of experimental, simulation and case study methods. firstly, the acoustic status of Ahwaz International Airport was obtained experimentally by measuring the amount of noise pollution during the test period (8 AM to 2 PM) by the Brüel & Kjær sound level meter model 2260 B&K in twelve places. Then the sound absorbing plates were tested with different geometric models. After proving the validity and reliability of the research, the experiments were performed by simulation using EASE 4.4 software.

In this study, the noise level of the airport lounge is considered as a dependent variable and four sound indices including, reverberation time (RT) (main index), indirect sound index (STI), total sound pressure level (SPL) and auditory error coefficient (〖AL〗_CONSE ) were evaluated according to the international standards ISO3382 and ISO 3382-1.

After the simulation, it was found that the use of raster pattern sound-absorbing plates (Model A in research) in walls and ceilings with different frequencies has the lowest sound pressure and the above-studied indices are at a desirable level. As a result, Model A has the greatest effect on reducing noise in the tested space.

Environmental noise pollution can cause physical and mental disorders, especially in cities. This study aimed to investigate the effects of Low-Frequency (LF) and High-Frequency (HF) noise on anxiety and sleep disorder in male rats.

Fifteen male Wistar rats were randomly divided into three groups: 1) control group (no exposure to noise), 2) group exposed to low-frequency traffic noise (LF group), and 3) group exposed to high-frequency traffic noise (HF group). Sleep duration was monitored by CCTV. Anxiety-like behaviors were measured using the Elevated Plus Maze (EPM).

The results of the EPM test showed that time spent in the open arm was significantly lower in the HF group than in the control (P <0.05). Sleep duration was significantly lower in rats exposed to LF and HF noise (P <0.01). There was no significant difference in sleep duration between the HF and LF groups.

Exposure to high and low-frequency noise can reduce sleep duration and high-frequency noise can increase anxiety-like behavior in rats.

Air pollution is one of the most significant environmental problems that has a remarkable impact on the incidence of cardiovascular disease and associated mortality. It is essential to comprehend air pollution effects and the ways of emission and predict the number of patients with acute respiratory problems to eliminate and reduce air pollutants and associated mortality. This study aimed to investigate the relationship between different air pollutants and the number of cardiovascular disease patients in Mashhad.

This study applied a neural network to model and analyze the relationship between CO, NO2, SO2, PM2.5, and PM10 and the number of patients with acute respiratory problems. The inputs were average temperature, humidity, wind direction, and wind speed and the output was the number of people referred per day by gender and age. The data set used included meteorological data from the Iran Meteorological Organization, air pollution data from the Mashhad Meteorological Organization, and the number of daily referrals of heart disease patients to the emergency department of Mashhad.

According to this study, the most effective air pollutants in Mashhad were PM2.5 and PM10, followed by NO2, CO, and SO2, respectively.

Neural networks can be applied in the modeling of the relationship between environmental parameters and cardiovascular disease patients because they have a high ability to model nonlinear phenomena. These models show that the more airborne particles, the more rate of cardiovascular diseases in Mashhad

Increasing levels of toxic heavy metals in the environment have led to risks to the health of humans and living organisms.

First, some characteristics of rock wool including pH, EC, pHZPC, chemical composition, structure, and morphology were determined using XRD, XRF, and Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM). Adsorbing tests were then conducted in a non-continuous reactor using synthetic solutions containing nickel. Optimum adsorption conditions were determined concerning pH, metal initial concentration, contact time, and adsorbent dose. The data were analyzed in a completely randomized block design.

The highest adsorption was seen at pH = 5 and the lowest at pH = 3, with a significant difference. The absorption rate was significantly higher in the 5 mg/l solutions than in other concentrations and the lowest was observed at 100 mg/l concentration. The lowest nickel adsorption rate was observed in 5 min and the highest adsorption efficiency was observed in 90 min, with a significant difference. The adsorption percentage of rock wool waste at the 10 g/l doses was significantly higher than that in other adsorbent doses and the lowest adsorption percentage was observed at the 1 g/l dose. The isotherm studies showed that the adsorption of nickel by rock wool waste was consistent with the Freundlich model.

It can be concluded that rock wool waste could remove nickel from industrial effluents.

One of the major global concerns about the environment is the pollution of aquatic ecosystems by heavy metals. These elements contaminate aquatic environments and accumulate and concentrate through bioaccumulation in the tissues of living organisms at higher levels of the food chain consumed by humans. In this study, the concentrations of three heavy metals, lead, nickel and cadmium, in the muscle tissue of two species of fish Otolithes ruber and Sphyraena forsteri in the fishing ports of Konarak and Pozm were investigated.

36 fish samples were collected from Konarak and Pazm ports. After preparation of the samples by acid digestion, the concentrations of heavy elements lead, nickel and cadmium were measured by Contr-AA-700 atomic absorption spectrometer. Data were analyzed using SPSS software (version 20) and ANCOVA and Pearson correlation tests at a significance level of 0.05%.

According to the results of the study, there was no significant difference between the amounts of lead, nickel and cadmium in the muscle tissue of Otolithes ruber and Sphyraena forsteri (P> 0.05). The average concentrations of heavy metals lead, cadmium, and nickel in the muscle of fish caught from Konarak port were higher than the samples of Pozm Bay. Also, the concentrations of heavy metals lead, nickel and cadmium in Sphyraena forsteri fish were lower than those of Otolithes ruber samples.

The results of the present study showed that the levels of lead and cadmium in the muscle tissue of the studied fish were lower than the standards of the US Food and Drug Administration, the UK Department of Fisheries and Agriculture, the World Food and Agriculture Organization and the US Environmental Protection Agency. The concentration of nickel in the muscle of the studied fish was higher than the permissible limit of the World Health Organization.

Today, despite advances in science and technology to save patients, it causes nosocomial infections that it is not possible to completely eliminate these infections anywhere in the world at present, but Undoubtedly, the most effective, least expensive, and most desirable way to fight infection at any time and place is to prevent it. In this study, due to the importance of the issue and the lack of studies in this regard, we have investigated the prevalence of nosocomial infections in Damghan hospital.

This is a descriptive cross-sectional study that was conducted in Damghan province hospital between 2011 to2015 after referring to the provincial hospital and reviewing the records of all patients, people with nosocomial infections were identified and the data were extracted and after collecting the required data, this data was analyzed by SPSS statistical software.

In the present study, out of 34663 hospitalized patients, 116 cases of nosocomial infections were identified. Among these, the most common variables in terms of the year of diagnosis, the year 2014 (27.6%); Diagnosis season, autumn (27.27%); surgical ward (32.8%); Type of infection, respiratory (39.7%).

A simple review of the documents studied in this study shows that the prevalence of nosocomial infections in Iran is relatively high. Therefore, the development of appropriate control and training programs based on evidence to reduce the prevalence of nosocomial infections in Iran should be considered by policymakers. Document Type: Research article Keywords: Nosocomial Infection, Hospital, Safety