Environmental Health Engineering and Management Journal
Volume:9 Issue: 1, Winter 2022

Extremely low-frequency electromagnetic fields (ELF-EMFs) are generated from indoor electrical appliances and wiring. In 2002, the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) classified ELF magnetic fields as possibly carcinogenic to humans (Group 2B). Therefore, the aim of this study as the first ever study conducted in Tehran was to survey the public exposure to ELF magnetic fields in dwellings, in 2018.

In this study, 102 houses were selected using convenience sampling method. The magnetic field was measured based on the IEEE std 644-1994 standard using TES-1393 EMF tester. Spot measurements were done in three different rooms including kitchen, living room, and bedroom of each residential.

The average value of measurements taken in dwellings was 0.1 μT. There was a significant difference between total value of magnetic flux density and background level of magnetic flux density among 102 dwellings. There was also a non-significant difference among magnetic fields collected from kitchen, living room, and bedroom. The ELF magnetic fields collected from television and computer in different distances present that MFs decrease rapidly with increasing distance from the source.

According to the statistical analysis, the average value of ELF magnetic field in Tehran, Iran, is the same as the recommended value provided by the International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP).

Nanocomposites have received remarkable attention as effective adsorbents for removal of coexisting pollutants over the last decades. The presence of heavy metals (HMs) in wastewater has caused a global health concern. Therefore, the aim of this study was to review the most relevant publications reporting the use of nanostructures to simultaneous adsorption of HMs in mixed aqueous systems.

In this systematic review, 9 studies were included through a systematic search in the three databases (ISI, Scopus, and PubMed) during 1990-2021. The optimal value of simultaneous adsorption parameters such as initial concentration, contact time, adsorbent dosage, and pH was discussed.

Findings indicate that the Langmuir and Freundlich models and the pseudo-second-order kinetic model have been widely used and the most popular models to describe the equilibrium of HMs by nanoadsorbents. This study confirmed that the simultaneous removal rate of HMs decreased with an increase in pH value. It was found that the major mechanisms of HMs adsorption onto nanostructures were electrostatic interactions and precipitation.

Nanocomposites have remarkable adsorption performance for HMs with the highest adsorption capacity (qe(mg/g)).

Disasters occur unexpectedly each year, killing thousands around the world. Millions are directly under the influence of the outcomes of these events and their survival depends on the immediate state and international aid. This supports should be obtained in early hours after disasters. The main important need after disasters is safe water supply, which along with providing shelter, medicine, and nutrition, is vital to prevent diseases. So, immediate actions are needed to replace suitable drinking water resources for affected people.

This study was conducted in 2019 using Web of Science, PupMed, Springer, Scopus, Embase databases (from 2000 to 31 September 2019). The PRISMA guideline was used to compile the study. All articles included in this study were original articles, short communications, letters to editor, editorials, systematic reviews, and articles presented at conferences and international congresses on the main topic of the study. Only English full-text articles were included in this study.

According to the results, water resources supply in disasters and emergencies criteria were classified into 4 main and 30 sub-criteria. The main criteria include environmental, economic, technology performance, quantitative and qualitative characteristics of water resources, which have 4, 2, 12, and 12 sub-criteria, respectively.

This study intends to assist disaster service officials and decision makers and supervisors to plan for drinking water supply from area water resources, before the disaster and based on the history and geographical characteristics of the area, to take actions and meet the drinking water needs of the region.

Fuel stations are one of the major sources of air pollution with volatile organic compounds, especially the four main petrol compounds benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, and xylene (BTEX). BTEX in gasoline enters the air of gas stations due to high evaporation of gasoline. Therefore, determining the concentration of these compounds in gas stations in crowded and busy cities is one of the important priorities of environmental health, which is doubly important in terms of its negative effects on health.

In this descriptive cross-sectional study, a total of 39 samples were collected from 13 gas stations. Sampling was performed in autumn 2018 in three working shifts (morning, noon, and night). The method NIOSH-1501 (i.e., using charcoal sorbent tubes and SKC pump with a flow rate of 0.2 L/min) was used for sampling the BTEX compounds. The mean difference and correlation of BTEX compounds based on meteorological parameters and the number of nozzles in gas stations were assessed using one-way ANOVA and correlation tests.

The mean and standard deviation of benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, and xylene concentrations in the air of fuel stations were 2.784 ± 1.461, 3.495 ± 1.390, 2.091 ± 0.811, and 1.140 ± 0.419 mg/m3, respectively. The relationship between BTEX compounds and meteorological parameters such as humidity and exposure time is very important. There is a strong correlation between the concentrations of BTEX compounds. The highest correlation was observed between benzene and toluene and the lowest one was observed between benzene and xylene. In this study, no significant relationship was
observed between air temperature and concentration of BTEX compounds, but there was a relationship between relative humidity and the concentration of BTEX compounds.

The average benzene concentration in the air at the fuel stations was about 5.5 times the standard limit. Authorities should improve fuel quality and reduce its evaporation through engineering measures to overcome the issue.

Accumulation of heavy metals like copper, nickel, arsenic, cobalt, and cadmium are increasing day by day. Accumulation of these heavy metals poses serious threats to human health. Elemental toxicity percentage has been found to be increased day-by-day and creating different minor to major problems from tissue to the gene level. Different important gene expressions are altered due to the contamination of such heavy metals. The present study aimed to identify a common target gene that is involved in the toxicity of major heavy metals and to study the major impact of the gene on the concerned biological system.

In the progression of the work, major genes involved in copper, nickel, arsenic, cobalt, and cadmium toxicity were listed through intense data curation, and a pathway showing the correlation and physical interaction of all the genes that were constructed using in-silico tools STRING and Gene Mania database. Further, functional and expression analysis of the discovered gene was done using in-silico tools like genome-wide association study (GWAS), genotype-tissue expression (GTEx), and RegulomeDB.

According to the network analysis, NFE2L2 was recognized as a common target involved in the above-mentioned heavy metals toxicity. Expression analysis revealed that the highest expression of NFE2L2 was observed in tissues of oesophagus, ovary, bladder, vagina, thyroid, and skin. Detailed investigation at the pathway level revealed that the involvement was importantly observed in immunodeficiency and developmental delay.

The study opened a wide vision that the major target of such toxicants is various pathways of neurobiological distress and biological processes, and hence, it can be considered as a susceptible target for heavy metals-induced toxicity.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, hospitals have been the most important centers for the virus spread. Therefore, this study aimed to evaluate the management of infection control in central corona hospitals in Kashan using the quantitative strategic planning matrix (QSPM) matrix.

The existing documents studied the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of the organization identified by environmental health experts. The internal and external factors were identified as internal factor evaluation (IFE) and external factor evaluation (EFE) matrices, respectively, then, prioritized and weighted. In the next step, the SWOT matrix was formed and the type of used strategy by the organization was determined, and solutions to improve the current situation were presented by experts. Finally, the attractiveness table was compiled and weighted using the QSPM method to prioritize the proposed strategies.

After identifying 25 strengths, 28 weaknesses, 15 opportunities, and 13 threats, weighting was performed, the final score for internal and external factors was 2.6475 and 2.3825, respectively. The final strategy for implementing COVID-19 disease control in the studied hospitals was the Conservative Strategy (WO). Based on this, six control strategies were presented. The priority and attractiveness of each strategy were evaluated using the QSPM matrix. Finally, the strategy of “structuring the system and providing and upgrading the equipment and infrastructure facilities” was implemented as a priority.

According to the results, the combination of SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) and QSPM methods can play an efficient role in identifying and evaluating the factors affecting the management of the COVID-19 pandemic in hospitals and further developing and prioritizing control strategies for this infectious disease.

This study aimed to develop and practically use a questionnaire to evaluate knowledge, attitude, and practice (KAP) of women regarding the use of sanitizers at home against coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).

An online cross-sectional study was conducted among Iranian women (aged ≥18 years). The KAP items were selected based on the experts’ opinions, and the scale underwent a series of validation processes, including the face, content, and construct validity, and internal consistency for reliability.

The internal consistency coefficient exceeded 0.7 for KAP subunits. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) suggested a three-factor construct for each subunit, and the results of the confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) indicated acceptable fit indices for the proposed models. Overall, 330 women (mean age: 36.78 ± 10.12 years, married: 74.2%, and bachelor’s degree: 46.7%) completed the questionnaire. The level of adequate knowledge on sanitizer use, positive attitude, and good practice achieved were 87.0%, 58.5%, and 66.1%, respectively. Among demographic variables, education level and occupation showed a significant relationship (P < 0.05) against KAP and attitude, individually.

Despite the high percentage of knowledge, the participants did not get a high attitude and practice score.

Removal of heavy metals by bioadsorbents is one of the effective and inexpensive methods for water and wastewater treatment. The aim of this study was to investigate the ability of tea pulp in order to remove Cu2+ and Pb2+ metals in two states of adsorption (single element and two elements) from aqueous solutions.

Experiments were performed on synthetic and real samples at ambient temperature. The effect of solution pH, adsorbent dose, contact time, and initial concentration on single and competitive removal of copper metals and lead was studied. Adsorption kinetics and adsorption isotherms were analyzed by pseudo-second-order kinetic equations, Elovich model and intraparticle diffusion, Freundlich and Langmuir equations, respectively.

The maximum adsorption capacity for copper and lead was observed at pH = 5-8 and pH = 4-8, respectively. Maximum adsorption capacity for copper and lead by tea pulp in single-element solution (single) was 37.17 and 48.54 mg/g and in two-element solution (competitive), was 28.41 and 43.47 mg/g, respectively. The adsorption reaction of heavy metals by tea pulp followed the Longmuir isotherm and pseudo-second-order kinetic models.

Tea pulp as an inexpensive bioadsorbent is able to remove about one-third of the copper, and approximately, half of lead from aqueous solutions, so its use in the treatment of aqueous solutions will be beneficial.

Since there are various factors with different importance that determine environmental health status of hospitals, judging and prioritizing the required corrective actions using the current qualitative checklists is problematic and, in some cases, deceptive. This study explored a decision support model for hospital environmental health status to establish a quantitative method based on the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) using the Iranian National Hospital Evaluation checklist.

The research was done in two separate phases; first, score weighting of the criteria and subcriteria (questions) in the existing checklist using the AHP, and second, a field study of the environmental health status of the hospitals using a weighted checklist. In the field study, the environmental health status of the studied hospitals was sored using checklist questions, and finally, the final scores of each criterion were calculated and aggregated to determine the environmental health status of the studied hospitals.

Among the main criteria, the infection control criteria with a final weight coefficient of 0.5371, was the most important factor, and the building criteria with a final weight coefficient of 0.0341 had the lowest weight in determining the environmental health status of the hospitals. On average, the environmental health status of the studied hospitals was about 76%, which are in a moderate status.

The environmental health status of Iran’s hospitals has typically been evaluated only qualitatively and without considering their weight importance. The present study provides a flexible method for quantitative assessment of the environmental health status of hospitals.