Journal of Advances in Environmental Health Research
Volume:10 Issue: 4, Autumn 2022

Recently, macrocyclic and supramolecular chemistry has reached a hopeful area of research in the mutual interaction between chemistry, physics and biology. Charles J. Pedersen, at du Pont figure out a compound in the early 1960s famous for dibenzo-18-crown-6 (DB18C6) later on. The detection of the complex formation in solution, the designation of the stability of the consequence complex or complexes and the determination of the thermodynamic or the kinetic parameters of the complex formation can be attained by a manifold of physicochemical measurements. Conformational rigidity or flexibility of macrocycles has a considerable penetration on their selective behavior. The number, type, and arrangement of donor atoms in the macrocyclic rings play a main role in macrocycle selectivity. Based on chemistry terminology, this is known as “host-guest” chemistry where the ether plays the role as the host and the ionic species as the guest. In organic solutions, crown ethers take the role of phase-transfer catalysts and agents in order to enhance the solubility of inorganic salts. Macrocycles need to compete with solvent molecules for the cations during the process of complexation. Consequently, variation of the solvent makes a considerable change in the manifest binding characteristics of these ligands.

COVID-19 pandemic has led to lifestyle changes. One of the consequences of these changes is seen in the management of municipal solid waste. Management of single-use plastics and personal protective equipment (PPE) as one of the common solid waste in the period is one of the important challenges in waste management. This research was conducted by studying the articles related to the COVID-19 pandemic, plastic waste and PPE. The articles were selected based on a specific search protocol and selection criteria.:Because of inhabiting regulations for recycling, almost all produced waste was landfilled during early months of the COVID-19 pandemic. During a short while, developed countries started coping with waste-originated issues thank to their appropriate infrastructure. On the other hand, single-use plastics and unsafe disposed PPE has made health and economic problems in developing and low-middle income countries. There is an urgent need to make some corrections in waste management systems as well as public education to minimize the adverse effects of COVID-19 in developing countries.

Microplastics (MPs) and microrubbers (MRs) are a substantial source of pollutants entering the environment and a cause for debate in environmental studies in soils surrounding two landfills and a municipal solid waste transfer station near Ahvaz Metropolis. Since the current information about these particles in Iranian municipal solid waste transfer station and landfill systems is scanty, this study aimed to determine the amounts and abundance of MPs and MRs in soils. Each of the twelve sites that determined using a systematic grid sampling method had approximately 100 g of soil samples from a depth of 0-10 cm with three replications. The method used for extracting MPs from the soil samples was density separation with saturated zinc chloride solution. The particles were investigated by the size, shape, abundance and colour. A total of 1807 MP and 1872.7 MR particles were detected from the samples. The Pearson’s correlation coefficient (r) was used for describing correlations. The highest abundance of MPs was observed at the S5 site (325.9±26.8 items/100 g soil). The particles were categorized into fragments, foams, fibers, films and spheres. Five ranges of particle size were identified (between 1 mm ≤L and L≤100 μm) in nine color categories. The 1 mm ≤L size class was dominant in MPs (54%) and MRs (52%). The majority of the MPs (41.8%) were white/transparent, whereas MRs were identified as black/gray (99.1%). Contamination by MPs and MRs exceeded allowable standards, compared to other transfer stations across the globe.

Wheat as one of the agricultural products cultivated in many parts of the world is an essential component of our diet in the world. This study aimed to evaluate heavy metals in wheat farms in the north of Ahvaz. This research was conducted in two areas of Weiss and Arab Assad located in the north of Ahvaz City. Twelve samples of wheat plants in each area were randomly selected from all the farms during harvesting. Chemical digestion was performed by a wet method, and heavy metals were measured by ICP model Varian 710-ES. The highest volume of heavy metals in Weiss and Arab Assad regions were 58.17 and 58.42 mg/Kg, respectively. Among the heavy metals, the lowest concentration was related to chromium which was equal to 1.07 and 1.14 mg/Kg in Weiss and Arab Assad farms, respectively. The highest hazard quotient (HQ) of heavy metals in children was related to manganese metal (13.51). The lowest value of heavy metal’s HQ in the people was obtained in cobalt (0.21). According to the results, because of the manganese metal, it seems that wheat consumption is dangerous for health in different age groups. In general, the results of health risk assessment of heavy metal in wheat showed that the consumption of this product can have an acute adverse impact on human health.

Nowadays, the context of social life requires accurate planning and promotion of organizational performance using appropriate methods. There are different models to measure various factors affecting organizational performance. The aim of this study was to determine optimal urban waste management strategies in Meshgin Shahr, Iran. The present descriptive-analytical survey research utilized the SWOT analysis to identify and formulate optimal urban waste management strategies. After determination of strengths (S), weaknesses (W), opportunities (O) and threats (T) by the SWOT analysis, the TOWS matrix was used to extract all possible SO, WO, ST and WT strategies, which were then prioritized by QSPM approach based on their attractiveness scores (AS). Fifteen items were identified in each internal strengths and weaknesses as well as external opportunities and threats factors. Based on the results, the municipal waste management has been relatively strong towards internal factors. However, it has not been able to seize opportunities and deal with threats. The first and second priorities were WT1 and WO1 strategies, respectively. In WT1, AS was equal to12.15 and a plan was developed to establish a sanitary landfill management system at the landfill. In WO1, AS was equal to10.86 and a plan was defined to establish a plant fertilizer of high volume of perishable materials to reduce the waste volume. Our results highlighted the need for using defined strategies to reduce internal weaknesses and external threats to take advantage of opportunities. Therefore, the results revealed that the SWOT matrix as well as the QSPM approach can be utilized simultaneously as an integrated method for formulating, evaluating and prioritizing strategies.

Medical wastes are one of the health and environmental challenges across the globe. Also, hospitals are one of the most important medical waste generators.

In this study, the quantity and composition of solid wastes generated in 10 public hospitals in the city of Tehran were investigated. Medical wastes were classified into four groups and the one-year average was considered.

The results showed that the range of waste generation in public hospitals was from 107.5 to 2508 kg/day. Considering account hospital beds, the production of medical wastes in public hospitals was 3.53 kg/bed/day. Moreover, 67.45% of medical wastes in the hospitals studied included common wastes, but infectious and sharp wastes accounted for 31.65% of the medical wastes. Besides, chemical and pharmacy wastes accounted for an average of 0.8% of the medical wastes.

Due to the importance of medical waste management, it is necessary to pay more attention to segregation and reduce the proportion of infectious wastes in the hospital studied.

The main purpose of this study is to evaluate the energy consumption quality of the hot water production system with weather conditions of Ahvaz. The related simulation is carried out using Aspen HYSYS software, version 10. Then Aspen HYSYS and Matlab software were used for exergy and environmental exergy and environmental exergy analyzes. According to the study results, the exergy analysis showed that the highest exergy efficiency of the rotating components is related to the K100 compressor with 87.63%. Also, the lowest exergy destruction rate of the rotating components is related to the pump P100 with 0.52 kW. Also, an analysis of the effects of equipment on the environment from the perspective of life cycle assessment (LCA) and the effect of exergy destruction on the environment was conducted on the equipment so that the fb solar collector had the highest value among other equipment, indicating the greatest environmental effect of the inefficiency of this equipment. Compressor K101 should also be reviewed for LCA due to the high percentage of environmental factors. The results show that the environmental exergy analysis of the hot water production system can identify inefficient equipments and their impact rate on the environment.

The cocoa crisis in the 1970s decade in Côte d’Ivoire was manifested by the proliferation of crops pests, reduced production and decreased rainfall. To cope with all these constraints, the producers adopted various strategies, including the use of agricultural inputs to improve the production. Thus, this study aimed to characterize the effects of these inputs on water-soil couple. First, 12 soil and surface water samples were taken for analysis. Second, determination of trace metal content was done using an atomic absorption spectrophotometer (AAS). Also chemical elements were analyzed using a HACH DR 6000 spectrophotometer. Soil concentrations of exchangeable base Ca2+, K+ and Mg2+ are low with average values of 5.71 cmol/kg, 0.35 and 1.66 cmol/kg, respectively. The soils of cocoa orchards are quite rich in assimilable phosphorus (P). The average phosphorus content is 24.31 cmol/kg with a minimum of 3.92 cmol/kg and a maximum of 78.4 cmol/kg. The study of surface water quality showed that the average values of biochemical oxygen demand for 5 days (BOD5) (18.64 mg/L) and chemical oxygen demand (COD) (15.49 mg/L) are lower than the respective standards of 25 and 125 mg/L of the world health organization (WHO) standard. These surface waters have average concentrations of 0.015 mg/L for cadmium (Cd), 0.042 mg/L for zinc (Zn) and 0.062 mg/L for manganese (Mn), below the respective standards of 0.003, 3 and 0.4 mg/L. This study shows that surface waters are not yet very polluted by these inputs.